Old amps like passive basses

[rojo412]

I was at practice last night, playing at our drummer's place (air conditioned!). He has an OLD solid state head and a single 15" cab. The thing kinda sounds... old and crusty, would be the right vibe, I guess.

So I plug in my Am Dlx J with East preamp and start whacking away at what I usually do. Had to mess with all sorts of settings on the bass...
still sounded blech!

Flipped the Active/Passive switch to passive, both pickups on, little tone roll-off and guess what? It sounded a WHOLE LOT BETTER!!!

So I guess ancient amps do best with primitive technology being pumped into them. At least in this case

[JimmyM]

i've never liked active inputs on amps. all they do is turn it down and make it muddy sounding.

old, eh? considering i never saw an active input till the mid 80's...

oh yeah, i keep forgetting that was 25 years ago...you're right...that IS ancient.

[nutso42]

I have an amp from the early 80's or so (solid state, not tube), and any passive bass I plug it into sounds terrific (even a Squier Affinity I still keep around for some reason).

Plug in my active Traben Chaos 5...... I get crap.


Not sure if mid 80's fits your description of "old amp", but I think the principle still applies.

[Jim C]

I think the OP is referring to the active switch on his bass not the amp
FWIW, I have never had a good experience with an active jack or switch on an amp; maybe it's because either the Steinberger (long gone) or the Stingray don't have enough output to warrant its' use

[NecroticImbecil]

There are more variables at play than you could count. To my ears, some amps sound better with certain basses than with others. Some basses sound better in passive mode than in active. I don't doubt the "old" amp in the original post sounded better with that particular bass in passive mode. The oldest solid state amps I've owned (Acoustic 3..something, not 360, had 2 channels, graphic EQ, 3 effects loops IIRC and 70's Peavey) sounded just as good with my active or passive basses.

FWIW on amps with active inputs or pad switches, I have always ignored this feature and used the passive input. If the gain is too high, the bass itself has a wonderful device called a "volume knob."

[KJung]

Originally Posted by NecroticImbecil

There are more variables at play than you could count. To my ears, some amps sound better with certain basses than with others. Some basses sound better in passive mode than in active. I don't doubt the "old" amp in the original post sounded better with that particular bass in passive mode. The oldest solid state amps I've owned (Acoustic 3..something, not 360, had 2 channels, graphic EQ, 3 effects loops IIRC and 70's Peavey) sounded just as good with my active or passive basses.

+1 My feeling on his particular situation is that the East pre, which has a pretty strong voice 'built in' even when the tone controls are set to neutral, is putting out deep lows and sizzly highs that the rig he describes isn't even able to reproduce. In passive mode, the removal of the buffering, the removal or that 'baked in' tone with extended highs and lows, and the general mid warmth and compression you get from passive pickup loading, etc., just sounds better with an amp and one way 15 cab that is mainly amplifying mids anyway.