Active Pickups in Birdsong Cortobass

[Art Araya]

I'm considering swapping out the Lace pickups in my Cortobass with Passive/Active ones. I'm generally happy with the sound of the passive Lace bridge pickup (don't use the neck on at all) but sometimes I want the sound of an active pup. And ideally I'd like to be able to change from active to passive as I want or as a low battery necessitates.

Anybody done this yet? Any recommendations on what sounds good? Any sound samples???

Put this in the Birdsong Club thread already but don't know how many regularly check that thread.

Thanks

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Originally Posted by Art Araya

I'm considering swapping out the Lace pickups in my Cortobass with Passive/Active ones.

Passive/active pickups? Do you mean a passive/active preamp?

[Art Araya]

Forgive my ignorance Bryan. Don't know how the technology works or what parts play into it... I just know that some basses with active pickups can also be run in passive mode. I assumed this was on the pickup end of things.

Please educate me as to what I need to do to convert a passive bass to one that can be either active or passive...

Thanks

[Bryan R. Tyler]

What you're talking about is an active/passive preamp. Pickups are rarely active- not many types of basses use active pickups, and I haven't heard of an active pickup being able to be switched to passive. When people talk about "active basses" and active/passive switches, they're talking about the preamp in their basses, which when active lets them adjust different EQ parameters. When passive, the preamp gets bypassed and the EQ is defeated. You'd have to add a preamp with an active/passive option to the control cavity of your bass in order to get what you're looking for; you wouldn't need to change the pickups.

[Art Araya]

Thanks for the information Bryan. Don't know how I misunderstood this all these years.

So pickups like EMGs and Bartolinis that I consider to be "active" pickups can be run passive as well?

And the Lace pickups in my Cortobass can be made "active" by adding a preamp? If this is so, then does it need to be an onboard preamp? Couldn't I achieve the same thing with a preamp in a pedal?

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Originally Posted by Art Araya

Thanks for the information Bryan. Don't know how I misunderstood this all these years.

So pickups like EMGs and Bartolinis that I consider to be "active" pickups can be run passive as well?

And the Lace pickups in my Cortobass can be made "active" by adding a preamp? If this is so, then does it need to be an onboard preamp? Couldn't I achieve the same thing with a preamp in a pedal?

Adding a preamp won't make the pickups active or passive- it just takes the output of the pickups and puts a preamp after it so you can alter the EQ right on your bass. An active pickups has an internal preamp. Most Bartolinis are passive pickups- EMG is one of the few pickup makers that makes a lot of active pickups, but they still make a lot of passive pickups as well, so most if not all of the basses you've played with Barts had passive pickups and the basses you've played with EMG pickups could have been either passive or active. You can indeed use a pedal preamp instead of adding one to your bass itself.