[Charvelman]

I certainly prefer passive pickups to actives but unfortunately, many of the guitars I like seem to come with EMG pickups fitted as standard. If I were to change the stock pickups to passives, I realise that I would have to change all of the electronics. I've done this before when changing passive pickups to alternative passive pickups and changed pots and caps at the same time, but is it just the same when going active to passive or is there something else involved that makes it more difficult?

The other option is to try to switch to active pickups that are more like passives. I have heard good things about the 57/66 set so perhaps that might be an option. If so, which passive pickups would be closest to the tone of the 57/66 set? I generally like a Super Distortion or JB in the bridge and a PAF in the neck, like a PAF Pro or AII Pro.

[shred4Him]

You could look into the EMG Retroactives. You wouldn't have to change anything and they seem to have gotten good reviews for being very passive-like. No experience with them, so I can't confirm that.

[darkbluemurder]

I certainly prefer passive pickups to actives but unfortunately, many of the guitars I like seem to come with EMG pickups fitted as standard. If I were to change the stock pickups to passives, I realise that I would have to change all of the electronics. I've done this before when changing passive pickups to alternative passive pickups and changed pots and caps at the same time, but is it just the same when going active to passive or is there something else involved that makes it more difficult?

As most active pickups use 25k pots these would load passive pickups way too much so yes, changing them to 250k or 500k is the right approach.

One other thing to consider is that if you have EMGs right now, chances are that your strings are not grounded so you may get some buzz, especially when using uncovered pickups and the conductor wires are not shielded (with humbuckers they mostly are). If the guitar comes factory stock with EMGs it may not have a wire channel for the wire that connects the bridge to the ground. If that is the case and the buzz annoys you, the only thing is to route for this channel.

Obviously this is not a problem with guitars that have been retrofitted from passive to EMGs - in that case the wire channel will be there as the string ground was used before.

Good luck,
Stephan