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Originally Posted by bassike  I've been confused on this subject as well.
If we adjust the gain knob all the time; does it matter if the bass output is to loud or to quiet?
Are there any advantages on hot electronics? |
It does matter. A "hot" pickup is one that puts out a higher than "standard" voltage when you play normally. Of course in basses "standard" is rather vague so a lot of this is relative.
But the signs of a "hot" pickup are that you will have your input gain knobs turned down rather low compared to "normal" basses.
To a point this is desirable. What you'd like is to get as much signal as you can into the amp WITHOUT clipping or distorting. This maximizes your signal over hum and noise such as the hiss inherent in the preamp. BUT the more voltage your pickup puts out and the closer you run to clipping, the less headroom you have left for dynamics.
In fact, you eventually can reach a point where the preamp will be distorting even though you've turned down the gain. This is bad. And is also why most bass amps have two inputs where one is labeled "active" and the other "passive". The active input just has a couple of resistors in there to attenuate the input signal down to a level that the preamp active circuits can handle better. It doesn't mean the bass must be "active". You can plug a "hot" passive bass into the "active" input as well to tame the higher voltages.
So basically the differences between "HOT" pickups and normal ones have to do with the tradeoff between Headroom and signal to noise (or hum) ratio. In most cases the volume control on your bass will adjust the output level without resulting in distortion. But some people just like to run the volume wide open because of the tone it gives. In that case you'll need to either use the "active" input or an external attenuator to keep your voltages from overloading the input stage if your pickups are "hot".
