Active? Passive? Please Help

[Jon Lucas]

Hey guys, I have an Ibanez SR506M and I know it has active electronics, but passive pickups. So is it considered an active bass? Or a passive? This raises several other questions for me. Like should I plug it into the active or passive input on my amp? And I want to get a volume pedal, but do I get one that is labeled passive or active? And is the toggle switch an active/passive switch, or some kind of mid-shift toggle? Any help with any of these questions is GREATLY appreciated.

[Webtroll]

If it has batteries it's considered active whether the pickups are passive and the EQ is active, the pickups are active and there is no EQ, or both the pickups and the EQ are active. If there is no battery then it is passive with the very rare exception of external power.

[Immigrant]

Active it is. Padded input you must plug into. Midrange selector, most likely is switch. Website that is Ibanez.com chock full of info. Enough Yoda speak.

I have a Morley Little Aligator and it's the best volume pedal I've ever used. The Ernie Ball Co makes two that look the same, one for passive the other active, and if you go that route make sure you get the active one. I had the non-active pedal and my Ibby SR535 always bled through with the pedal down all the way.

[Got2SadowskyNYC]

Ignore this input setting. All my basses are "active" and my Sadowskys are both active and passive depending on a switch.

The "Active" input is padded for really high output basses. Usually this is -10 to -15 db depending on the amp. I don't like useing this input because of the change in sound so I never have.

The "passive" input signal is sent directly to the preamp without any pad.

If you have an amp witha "gain" knob plug into the passive and turn it up till the "clip light" flashes (if there is one) or you hear unwanted distortion. Adjusting the listen level will be done at the "master" knob.

If your amp doesn't have gain knob you'll use the master volume only. Listen for distortion as you play and normal levels. If it's there regardless of the volume setting switch to the active input but you will have to adjust your EQ.

Again, use your ears and ignore this labeling.

[TigerInATrance]

Your bass is active, but I really hate amps that label the pad or padded input "active". Unless the inputs are designed for low versus high impedance it is complete and utter nonsense.

Most of the "active" inputs on bass amps are just loaded so they reduce the gain of the signal from your bass. usually by 10dB. This is helpful when you have a very hot signal and can't raise the gain knob without clipping.

On your Ibanez, the output of the stock electronics is not very hot and you don't need to use the pad.

For volume pedals, you need to get the active version so that the impedance matches fairly closely and it works correctly.

The switch on that bass should be a frequency shift between 250hz and 600hz, but, unless you bought it new, there is no way to know for sure without just flipping it and seeing what it does.

[Jon Lucas]

Wow that was incredibly fast, thank you guys for all your insight! This was incredibly helpful