'76 Music Man Stingray I Guitar Electronics

Hey all, hope this is the right place to post this question. I'm wondering if the pickups on the old Music Man guitars are active, or if it's just the tone controls that are active and the pickups themselves are passive. In other words, could you swap out the pickups for regular passve pickups and still maintain the preamp and active treble and bass controls?
Thanks!

Hey all, hope this is the right place to post this question. I'm wondering if the pickups on the old Music Man guitars are active, or if it's just the tone controls that are active and the pickups themselves are passive. In other words, could you swap out the pickups for regular passve pickups and still maintain the preamp and active treble and bass controls?
Thanks!

Hey Jblue,

Strictly speaking pickups are always passive; they are just a bunch of wires wrapped around some magnetic field(s) to pick up the minute changes in electromotive force due to pieces of metal vibrating in these fields. This is certainly true for the MM pups, just as they are for e.g. MFD pickups on the F-100E. The wiring harness contains a small preamp which makes the whole 'active', i.e. something that needs a battery to operate and usually provides a lo-Z output option. So yes, you would be able to swap out the pickups. But as per usual in electronics, some care needs to be applied. The preamp has a certain input impedance and the pickups themselves have a certain DC-R value and usually these 2 are somewhat attuned to each other to not such volume and/or tone. For things to sound good, you should look for pups with a DC-R in the same ballpark as the originals.

Hope this helps,

- Jos

Hey, Thanks so much! That is indeed helpful. So what would be the DC-R of the originals? I've always been reluctant to tamper with this vintage beast of a guitar, but, the thought has always been that I'd prefer three single coils in this guitar, something along the lines of Fender Custom Shop 69 pups, or David Allen 69 Voodoo. I'm guessing these would have a much lower DC-R?
Thanks again!
j.

Hey, Thanks so much! That is indeed helpful. So what would be the DC-R of the originals? I've always been reluctant to tamper with this vintage beast of a guitar, but, the thought has always been that I'd prefer three single coils in this guitar, something along the lines of Fender Custom Shop 69 pups, or David Allen 69 Voodoo. I'm guessing these would have a much lower DC-R?
Thanks again!
j.

See these past posts: New member seeking MusicMan Sabre I info,
Help - info on Leo Fender Stingray 1 please. and ‘76 Music Man Stingray Guitar.

Hope this helps.

Hello out there,
I love my Stingray! Nothing feels so good in my hands, and I love being able to boost the treble and actually use the volume know without tone loss. But I’ve always wished it had single coils in the neck and a middle position. Has anyone changed the pickups in one of these guitars AND been able to preserve the rest of the active circuitry? I’ve got two single coils I want to use for neck and what will be a newly routed middle position. I don’t know if I’d need to change out the pickup selector as I don’t ever use the bridge+middle position on a strat. Can you wire three pups to the stingray’s original pickup selector like that? I’m also wondering if anyone knows how to wire the circuit so that the active can be switched on and off, if that’s electronically possible. Any guidance or drawings anyone can provide are very much appreciated! Oh ya, anyone know if there is a ‘blank’ Stingray guitar pickguard out there somewhere to be had, or would I need to fabricate a new one?
Thanks again everybody!