| Those emg are one of the very few active pups. They have a preamp built into them but no user tone controls. Some bassist like to use them like you got them with no active eq. Just the supplied tone control. Others will add the emg 2 or 3 band active eq to them which works very well imo. The new top of the line BC Rich warlocks come with those minus the active eq as one example of bass uquipted with them in same style as most guitar players use the active emg guitar pups. With no active eq, just regular tone pot type. The main advantage over std passive pups with the emgs active pups is the signal is LowZ rather then HiZ. Which in my experience give a little bit of extension to bass and treble along with a more articulate low bass. Also good for longer cable runs.
So in short version, those pups have a boost only preamp built in that also converts signal to LowZ.
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life for its own carnal pleasure. Bass: Jackson JS3. Bass strings: Rotosound swing66. Guitars: BC Rich. Guitar strings: Daddario XL nickel. Zoom club#2. BC Rich club#26.
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