L-series--active sounds passive--good

[pbass2]

OK, what I mean is, I'm a pretty staunch passive guy---even my Sadowsky I run passive most of the time. But on my L2500, as much as I would be inclined to run passive all the time(which sounds great btw), lately I've been running active, and--hold the phone---active with treble boost! I have my pickups lowered all the way down, and I run nickel Lo-Riders. It seems to me that "active" on these basses is more like a "gain" boost with a little bite, but not at all the hokey active sound I personally can't stand from other axes. Is there something different going on with these? (I'm an electronics idiot so I have no idea.)

[Nedmundo]

Yeah, the difference is that G&L's don't have active EQ apart from the treble boost, so active mode is largely just a boost of the passive signal. The G&L tone controls are passive, cut only. My impression is the same as yours -- even in active mode, G&L's don't have that "synthetic" sound of some fully active basses. The exception might be the L-1500/1505, because active mode has such an over-the-top treble boost.

I'm an old-school passive guy too, but I also love the "bite" from G&L's preamps.

[metron]

Originally Posted by pbass2

OK, what I mean is, I'm a pretty staunch passive guy---even my Sadowsky I run passive most of the time. But on my L2500, as much as I would be inclined to run passive all the time(which sounds great btw), lately I've been running active, and--hold the phone---active with treble boost! I have my pickups lowered all the way down, and I run nickel Lo-Riders. It seems to me that "active" on these basses is more like a "gain" boost with a little bite, but not at all the hokey active sound I personally can't stand from other axes. Is there something different going on with these? (I'm an electronics idiot so I have no idea.)

Thats exactly what active means, a powered circuit that provides gain. A good active circuit should provide no tonal change to a passive pickup. However most do and add EQ as well. Thats probably what you dont like.

G&Ls have a good active circuit IMO. Passive sounds just like active. The setting with added eq for the treble boost obviously sounds different but I dont think it takes anything away from the tone.

I dont think there is any reason to be dedicated to passive instruments. But if you are you should try raising our pickups. You will get a lot more output.

[pbass2]

I have had the PUS higher and for me, lowering them down (I took the springs out to facilitate going even lower,) enables me to use the active and treble boost settings whereas before, it was too intense for my taste.
So now in passive, I can sound downright retro/mellow, which I need for some things, and then with active on there's just enough extra "oooomf".
Before I couldn't even use the active/treble boost for any of my particular work, but now it's a great rock tone for pickstyle for me, and gets used more and more!
And the bass is still hotter passive than even some of my other active basses

[sunbeast]

Active does change the tone, just not in a "shaped" manner, if that makes since. It converts the high impedance passive signal to a low impedance buffered signal ( which will counter the frequency roll-off that you experience when using a passive bass through long instrument cables), so you aren't "adding" highs so much as stopping them from getting rolled off. There is also a roll-off of low end in a passive system, so active should sound a little deeper as well. The G&L preamp is not exceptionally high quality, but I think it does what it was intended to do pretty well. The center position on an Audere z-mode preamp does the same thing (low impedance signal without a built in EQ curve), but has a much higher quality tone to my ears (wider frequency response, less noise, and significantly more clarity). That said, I've opted to keep the pre as it is in my old L-2000, because I really like that vintagey active tone with that bass vs. the crystal clarity of the Audere ( which I'm guessing would just make the bass sound less like a G&L!) .

Karl