What's the point of electronics anyways?

[Colonel_Claypoo]

hey fellow TB members,

one question has been in my brain for quite a while now.

what's the point of having sound shaping electronics in your bass guitar?
let's say you boost 400hz with x amount of db with your active electronic. wouldn't it be the same as if you did the exact same thing with your amp/preamp?

so what's the point?
are there any tonal differences between boosting freqs in your bass rather than i your amp?

thanks

[bassteban]

I can't say anything about tonal differences or advantages, but I like having a quickly-accessible EQ- particularly mids, if active- on the bass. Much easier to reach on the fly. If the EQ points are slightly different for the bass & amp then you have a bit more variety available.

[Techmonkey]

yeah, I guess it adds a bit of variety and that. say if you have solid state preamp in your bass and all-tube head or whatever, you can control how much weight is behind either part of the circuit.

they're also really useful for pissing off your sound tech when you're running through the DI box.

[J.Stone]

Colonel Claypoo. How amusing running out of user name space is.

Anyway, the main reason of an on board pre-amp is to be able to do quick tone changes with out having to fumble around with your amp. I understand the reasoning behind people liking it, but I personally don't like it.

[seanm]

Some of these have been mentioned:

• It is easier to make a quick EQ tweak.
• If you gig a lot using other back lines, it is nice to have controls you understand.
• Active electronics can have less loading problems.
• I like to turn down between sets and sometimes between songs.
• Some people just like to tweak the controls.

[mjolnir]

+1 on quick EQ-ing.

It's the only reason I have it on one of my basses.

Well, that and if there's an active/passive switch you can flip that sucker and get almost yer own solo channel.

[Philbiker]

Great points above, particularly about dealing with different backlines. That is common for some players.

Originally Posted by Colonel_Claypoo

hey fellow TB members,

one question has been in my brain for quite a while now.

what's the point of having sound shaping electronics in your bass guitar?
let's say you boost 400hz with x amount of db with your active electronic. wouldn't it be the same as if you did the exact same thing with your amp/preamp?

so what's the point?
are there any tonal differences between boosting freqs in your bass rather than i your amp?

The differences are that (1) you can tone shape 'on-the-fly' on the bass if you want to make certain changes during a set. (2) You may have different frequencies boosted and cut on the bass which may lead to different sounds your amp can't create. (however, you may have wierd interactions between tone shaping on the bass and on the preamp which may be difficult to deal with. (3) on an acoustic bass, some tone shaping options may help tame feedback in certain situations.

Personally I pretty much leave my active basses flat and theoretically prefer passive for less circuitry between my fingers and the speakers.

My reason for liking it is playing different styles, some of our original songs have some pop & slap and other don't. A quick tweak is all I need to get the tone I want. Some songs have a vicious metal tone and some are more mellow, I like being able to make changes without messing with the amp. I don't use pedals so this is a good option.

[kaputsport]

I like them because you can Eq on the fly...

Honestly, it is one of the only good reasons. I like active basses because I can get more volume out of my head, without overdriving the preamp....

But that is just me.

[thumpbass1]

It's all about user preference. I've had both passive and active basses and being the
stubborn old goat I am I'm back to my passive Fender basses and doing all my e.q.
tweaking outboard. There really is no right or wrong answer to this you just have to
decide what you like best.

[ibz]

When you plug direct into a PA w/o backline amp the onboard's all you got for tone controls if you don't want to mess w/ pedals and external pre's.

[daveze]

Z-mode for individual pickups (because some preamps have the ability to vary input impedance but not for each pickup)

Massive Audere fanboy here.