Is it possible to stay passive?

[graysunlight]

Hey guys,
I've been doing a lot of research as of late on various upgrades I plan to put on my bass (Squier Vintage Modified '70s Jazz Bass). Here are the mods that I've been thinking of:

Pickups: DiMarzio Model J's or Nordstrand NJ4
Bridge: Leo Quan Badass II (I've seen it sold in slotted and unslotted versions, but am not quite sure what to make of this)
Strings: GHS 3060 Nylon Tapewounds
Knobs: Traditional black Jazz bass knobs (I know it seems silly but knurled steel knobs don't give me an obvious enough reference point)

So my big question is, should I bother upgrading my EQ? I'd like to remain with a 3 knob setup and remain passive because I've only had trouble when it comes to active basses (I don't have the time/money/patience to be switching batteries all of the time, even though it is a rather mundane task ). Anywho, any ideas, comments, or suggestions about this or the above configuration (especially about the pickups or bridge) would be of much help.

cheers and many thanks,
John

[John Wentzien]

I put one of these on my Highway 1 jazz and just LOVE it!
very good quality. (and much cheaper)
bolts right up with no drilling..
http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/bridge_gotoh.htm

[badboy1984]

Don't buy or think about active stuff if you want passive. The above setup is good enough for the mod already, other stuff is down to the amp , cab and technique to get the sound you want.

[greenboy]

IF you think your bridge is pot metal but want enhanced Fender-style, look at Hipshot's plate bridges instead, which actually seem to get the Fender sonic vibe better.

Also look at Delano J pickups. And stay passive unless you find a real good reason not to.

[Melvin7822]

As with anything, the cleanest sound is generally the one with the least amount of variables in the equation.

[kraigo]

I don't like the BadAss myself. I like the Gotoh 201. It's relatively cheap at warmoth.com. If you get the BadAss, get the slotted version. There's not reason you have to slot it yourself - you aren't going to do a better job than the slotted version but you could definitely potentially do worse. It's just not a fun job.

I'd go with the Norstrand pickups, but I've had decent luck with Seymour Duncan's stuff. I don't really prefer the performance of one over the other, I've never had an apples-to-apples comparison, but the Duncans are a lot cheaper. A plain pair of SJB-1's should do it.

I prefer passive. My fretless sound great passive and promptly sucks when I engage the preamp - it loses the mids that make it sound like a nice fretless. In my experience most preamps suck mids. Bass manufacturers like them because that's a pleasing tone, at least until you add the rest of the band and can't hear yourself without turning up to the point of getting complaints. It's a tone that will get a bass off the wall at Guitar Center and into the user's hands.

That being said, there are a lot of preamps I haven't tried because I'm not motivated to anymore. I am probably going to get one of David Raven Moon's pre's just for impedence matching. The bass I'm planning on putting it in, my Skyline 55-01, already has a battery compartment, so I might as well give it a shot.

Good luck. Your plans sound like they're well done, they're achievable and moderately inexpensive and should give you a good usable instrument to use and decide if you want to move on from there or not.

KO

[Madcity Fats]

My two cents: Keep it passive, especially if that's the way you're leaning. You can always drop a preamp in as a future mod if you feel you're missing something.

I've played some great sounding active basses and I have nothing against players who prefer them, but they just aren't for me. I'm the same way, I don't want a battery and a circuit board in my bass, partly because they're just two more things that can go wrong (and the notion of a potential acid leak in my control cavity--rare though it may be--freaks me out).

I find it a little amusing when I hear people talk about on-board preamps as if they're a necessary component of the modern bass. Well, I don't know about you, but the classic stuff I love to listen to was all done before the battery driven bass. If it worked for Jamerson, it should more than work for what I do.

That said, I do play through a preamp, just an external one. I find that having a SansAmp sitting between my bass and amp gives me the benefit of an active signal going in (nice even response/compression), but it can run on AC and if it dies on me, I can work around it. (Not to mention that it's a great tool for the studio, plus, if a sound guy wants a direct signal, I actually have some control over the EQ.)

So if you're inclined to stay passive but want some of the benefits of an active signal, check out something like this. It costs about the same as an on-board pre, I imagine, and will work with the next bass that falls into your lap as well.

Just a thought. Good luck with the project.

[pasta4lnch]

I'm a passive guy too. If for no other reason I have NO luck, and the battery will die at the WORST moment! But furthermore I don;t feel the need to constantly switch up EQ and am happy w/ most of the amp EQ's I play. Plus the sound!

as for your pup choices. I went w/ 1/4 lb's on my jazz V. I really dig them and the price was right, but the Nordstrand and Fralin's were the runner ups. I wish I could have tried all of them . . . .

[sevenyearsdown]

I'm a passive guy for all the reasons listed above. Someone has probably already said this but, consider some of the great players whether it's Jamerson, Dunn, etc. Most of the time these guys were probably just playing a good ol' stock Fender through a good amp. They got by ok with it.

[alexclaber]

Two really nice passive pickups, a passive tone knob, and either blend/dual volume/4-way switch is such a simple yet versatile solution. I started out on passive basses, went through 2-band and 3-band EQ (the latter an OBP-3 which is a nice preamp) and ended up back at passive.

Alex

[9mmMike]

Originally Posted by graysunlight

Hey guys,
I've been doing a lot of research as of late on various upgrades I plan to put on my bass (Squier Vintage Modified '70s Jazz Bass). Here are the mods that I've been thinking of:

Pickups: DiMarzio Model J's or Nordstrand NJ4
Bridge: Leo Quan Badass II (I've seen it sold in slotted and unslotted versions, but am not quite sure what to make of this)
Strings: GHS 3060 Nylon Tapewounds
Knobs: Traditional black Jazz bass knobs (I know it seems silly but knurled steel knobs don't give me an obvious enough reference point)

So my big question is, should I bother upgrading my EQ? I'd like to remain with a 3 knob setup and remain passive because I've only had trouble when it comes to active basses (I don't have the time/money/patience to be switching batteries all of the time, even though it is a rather mundane task ). Anywho, any ideas, comments, or suggestions about this or the above configuration (especially about the pickups or bridge) would be of much help.

cheers and many thanks,
John

I am doing this to my own Standard Jazz Squier in Antique Sunburst, including the classic black jazz knobs. I think I am going with the same Nordstrand NJ4SE's that I used in my Audere-equipped bass. Those Nordy's are pricey though.
I will also use the Gotoh 201 that I used on my active bass. It is quite nice.
I think that having a passive and an active bass is the way to go. At least for me.

[greenboy]

Just snagged a Q-Tuner BL-5 bridge and am ordering a Q-Tuner BS to go at the neck of my fretless Five. I'll be going passive like Alex, with possibly a Varitone later going in to augment the tone pot.

I sure don't use my onboard preamps much even with my current pickups, and my V-Bass allows me to pull off any tonal changes I might want via foot controls. When playing a standard rig I just set and forget at the beginning of the night, with a little channel switching for when I want to go between clean and dirty tones.