DiMarzio D Activator Neck Humbucker Pickup - Black The tone and power of active pickups wider dynamics, better response, and without the battery hassle Active humbuckers have a distinctive sound - powerful, clean, open sounding, with excellent harmonic overtones and very tight lows The down side for many players is that they also sound cold, have limited dynamics and run out of headroom when played hard And of course, they need batteries In 2006 DiMarzio took a close look at the most popular active neck and bridge humbuckers to see if they could capture all of the good qualities and eliminate the disadvantages