Volume on Pickup

[El Bajo]

Does anybody know how to boost the volume on my bass. I had a situation where I shared an amp at a gig with the supporting band and his bass was infinatley more louder than mine. Both are active basses

Mine has a Seymour Duncan Custom. I have no electronics expereince and I wouldnt do this myself if wasnt a simple operation but I just need to know if it can be done rather than taking it into a shop and having to pay x amount labour cost just to be told no

Cheers

[62bass]

Some preamps have an internal control to set the output level of the bass. Take a look and see if yours does. I don't know which particular one you have. My experience is that it doesn't matter much at all if one bass sounds louder at the same settings on the amplifier. You adjust for that by turning up the input on the amplifier if you need it. And there's no doubt the two basses used would have a different sound which can make more of a difference. Then there's the difference in playing technique.

I've got passive and active basses. They all vary in volume. But they all sound good through my amp and all I have to do is change settings on the amplifier to get the sound I want.

So, unless there's something seriously wrong with your bass and it has significantly lower output than even a modest output passive bass, I wouldn't be at all concerned.

[El Bajo]

Originally Posted by 62bass

I've got passive and active basses. They all vary in volume. But they all sound good through my amp and all I have to do is change settings on the amplifier to get the sound I want.

So, unless there's something seriously wrong with your bass and it has significantly lower output than even a modest output passive bass, I wouldn't be at all concerned.

Oh yeah I agree, i'm in no great hurry to get it sorted and I may never do, just wanted to know if it was possible. (I admit the main reason for asking is this other guys bass was much cheaper )

[luknfur]

Originally Posted by El Bajo

...(I admit the main reason for asking is this other guys bass was much cheaper )

The market for cheap basses is geared toward inexperienced players where loudest is best so what sells. You see it all the time in this forum, hottest pickups/whatever.

There's no debate that volume affects what the ear hears, that it can be a cheap way to get some extra watts, and that hi-output has it's applications, but sometimes you'd swear tone is irrelevant and that there are amps out there with no gain/volume controls on them.

Some active basses are low enough output where you can run them into the passive amp input (or switch the pad off), yours may be one of them. And as menitoned, some pre's (Barts commonly) have an internal gain control. As far as I know you can buy such trim pots seperate (with varying gains) and install them in any pre.