passive pickups

Passive pickups are guitar or bass pickups that do not require an onboard battery to run¹. Guitars equipped with passive pickups typically have a high-impedance output¹. Many pedals and interfaces are designed or switchable to accommodate them, often alongside active pickups²³⁴. Some circuits, such as fuzz stages placed before any buffers, are built to interact well with the dynamics of passive pickups⁵, and certain effects are described as sounding best when driven directly by them⁶⁷.