Is it possible/advisable to have both active and passive pickups in a bass?

malicous · #1 07-12-2007, 06:59 PM

Would it be possible to have a bass with, say, a passive Nordstrand J pickup in the bridge possition and an active Basslines P pickup in the neck possition? What type of pots would one use for blend, if this was possible? Could you use an active pre, such as the Basslines 3-band system? Is this possible? Has anyone tried this?
Thanks.

ehque · #2 07-12-2007, 09:24 PM

i... cant see how you can make it work. Maybe with an active blend circuit, with seperate gain stage for the passive pickup. Cant' think off hand of a preamp like that.

MuzikMan · #3 07-12-2007, 09:27 PM

The easy way to do this is to get an active buffer like the EMG PA-2 and connect it in line with the passive pickup. Then you follow the rules of active circuitry (25k pots etc).

malicous · #4 07-12-2007, 10:47 PM

So, it sounds possible. Now I won't feel like a complete idiot when asking my local repair shop about trying something like this.
Thanks.

A9X · #5 07-13-2007, 12:10 AM

It will work fine with a standard passive V/V/T harness.

Shoewreck · #6 07-13-2007, 01:54 AM

With a standard V/V/T harness active PU will suck out the tone of passive one when both maxed out.

A9X · #7 07-13-2007, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shoewreck

With a standard V/V/T harness active PU will suck out the tone of passive one when both maxed out.

Worked fine with an EMG.

Shoewreck · #8 07-13-2007, 03:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A9X

Worked fine with an EMG.

Was EMG the active one? I'm almost shure that most highs were coming from the EMG, when the passive PU worked for lows and mids only. Passive PUs are not supposed to be connected to a 10K load that EMGs are.

A9X · #9 07-13-2007, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shoewreck

Was EMG the active one? I'm almost shure that most highs were coming from the EMG, when the passive PU worked for lows and mids only. Passive PUs are not supposed to be connected to a 10K load that EMGs are.

Yes it was active. Most bass pickups have under 10k R and only a couple of henries inductance, so they're not much higher impedance through most of the range. My preference is to use a preamp, but it'll work as I said.

Shoewreck · #10 07-13-2007, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A9X

Yes it was active. Most bass pickups have under 10k R and only a couple of henries inductance, so they're not much higher impedance through most of the range. My preference is to use a preamp, but it'll work as I said.

Several MOhms @ resonant peak. That's enough. "A couple of henries" means about 1KHz roll-off frequency. Having a buffer is MUCH better.

A9X · #11 07-13-2007, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shoewreck

Several MOhms @ resonant peak. That's enough. "A couple of henries" means about 1KHz roll-off frequency. Having a buffer is MUCH better.

I based what I said on what I measured on my LCR bridge and no pickup I've measured has gone remotely close to 'several MR' at any frequency.
I agree a pre would be better (and have said so) but there are VERY few that use individual buffers for each pickup. Most use a typical passive harness before a single input, so in the 'conventional' topology aren't much help anyway.
I'm bored with this.

Jazz Ad · #12 07-13-2007, 05:23 PM

Discussions always tend to get boring when you're wrong.