Damn Active Basses ... always so noisy !

[Makatak]

Ive been a big fan of Active Basses for the last 25 years , especially for great slap tone . Recently Ive had my Jazz Bass fully sheilded and now its quiet as a mouse , even under dimmed lights and with an HF Horn in my cabs , which has made the " hiss " of my Actives stand out like dogs bollocks , Ive bought and sold about 10 Active Basses over the last year or so and they ALL have a certain amount of preamp noise , some less than others , the G&L and Ibanez BTB were reasonably quiet ....no point to this thread really apart from possibly getting a few replies for recommendations of dead quiet actives , or dont they exist ? . Thanks

P.S I thought the worst offenders were my Warwick Corvette , Yamaha BB and Status 1000 ,

[Epitaph04]

Really? Both my active ibanezes and my bongo are pretty quiet.

[SMaubass]

Just don't turn the amp on

[rockstarbassist]

Mine are whisper quiet... Get a better cable if you have noise.

[Bryan R. Tyler]

It has nothing to do with an active preamp itself. The amount of gain the preamp uses will determine how much excess noise it can add. Many are adjustable- I keep the gain on my preamps fairly low, and unless I boost the hell out of my EQ, it's not noticeable at all. The 60 cycle hum you can get when soloing the bridge pickup on a passive jazz is usually far more loud/noisy than even a high gain preamp.

And it's all pretty negligible- in a band mix, you're not going to hear any of it.

[bassgod0dmw]

Mine are dead quiet as well...

How are your controls set on these noisy basses? Are you boosting the highs?

[mmbongo]

Every active bass I've ever had has been dead quiet...in fact that's one of the advantages of an active bass. You've got other issues.

[TNCreature]

mine have always been quiet, a major selling point of using them.
Since they all seem noisy to you, try looking at other constant variables in your chain.
good luck.

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by bassgod0dmw

Mine are dead quiet as well...

How are your controls set on these noisy basses? Are you boosting the highs?

Boosting highs is usually the problem. You turn up the treble control and it really starts to bring up the hiss. Add to that a cab with a hot tweeter and you've got the hiss thing. Typically amp EQ circuits are about as quiet as you can get. Because active basses run on batteries and have to be low current draw they usually hiss more. Hence it's best if you boost highs on your amp rather than so much on the bass.

Some active basses have circuits that boost highs even when set flat. My Conklin is like that and it's what gives it the unique tone. It's really pretty quiet, but that is not to say there is no hiss there! Hiss is sort of a fact of life of the universe. Going passive doesn't eliminate hiss because your amp is active. If you boost daylights out of highs there is going to be hiss. Trying to fight mother nature is a battle you'll lose. Of course, if you roll off highs then you roll off hiss as well! And you roll off your tone. It's all about compromise.

[countrybass007]

My Fender Marcus Miller is hiss free, whether I'm using my Orange rig or my PJB rig. Maybe the horns are what cause the hiss? If the horns have a control maybe backing off the highs just on the horns will solve your problem.

[SLaPiNFuNK]

Are you using an "Instrument" cable or a "Speaker" cable?

[bongomania]

I have owned over a dozen different active basses, and they all had different amounts of noise (including "none"). It would be absolutely WRONG to say that active basses are all one way or the other, noisy or noiseless.

It's also not so simple as just "how much gain" or "too much treble". I have owned some high-gain preamps that are noiseless, even when goosing the treble; and I have had the opposite, low-gain preamps that were abominably noisy even with no boost of any EQ band.

Sometimes the problem is a cheap opamp. In order to make batteries last longer, opamps are chosen that draw very little current, and those tend to be noisy--while also generally the cheapest components are used (in large-scale productions).

Sometimes the problem is grounding. Certain preamps are very particular about how they are grounded inside the bass, and if you are plugged into an amp or pedal with a conflicting ground plane scheme, you get noise.

Finally they are of course amplifying what feeds into them from the pickups, and it may be that some "noisy" active basses just need better noise-rejection from the design and/or shielding of the pickups.

While I can say that I've owned some active basses with little or no noise from the preamp, I can also say that the only times I have 100% killed/prevented any noise was by removing the preamp. My passive basses are well-shielded and dead silent.

It is important to note that many people who hear "no noise" are playing through cabs with no tweeters, or with the tweeters attenuated, or with not much fidelity in the highs.

[countrybass007]

bongomania is right, I use tweeterless rigs. He may have hit the nail on the head when it comes to the hiss. I get great highs without them, so I've ended up with rigs that don't use them. I do remember the tweeters being a bit noisy in some of my old rigs.

[Danni Moe]

Originally Posted by rockstarbassist

Mine are whisper quiet... Get a better cable if you have noise.

+1

I put all active electronics in my Ibby (even runs 18V) and its silent when the signal is clean.

[Makatak]

Originally Posted by SLaPiNFuNK

Are you using an "Instrument" cable or a "Speaker" cable?

Cant fit my Speakon into the Jack input on my Bass

[Makatak]

Originally Posted by bongomania

I have owned over a dozen different active basses, and they all had different amounts of noise (including "none"). It would be absolutely WRONG to say that active basses are all one way or the other, noisy or noiseless.

It's also not so simple as just "how much gain" or "too much treble". I have owned some high-gain preamps that are noiseless, even when goosing the treble; and I have had the opposite, low-gain preamps that were abominably noisy even with no boost of any EQ band.

Sometimes the problem is a cheap opamp. In order to make batteries last longer, opamps are chosen that draw very little current, and those tend to be noisy--while also generally the cheapest components are used (in large-scale productions).

Sometimes the problem is grounding. Certain preamps are very particular about how they are grounded inside the bass, and if you are plugged into an amp or pedal with a conflicting ground plane scheme, you get noise.

Finally they are of course amplifying what feeds into them from the pickups, and it may be that some "noisy" active basses just need better noise-rejection from the design and/or shielding of the pickups.

While I can say that I've owned some active basses with little or no noise from the preamp, I can also say that the only times I have 100% killed/prevented any noise was by removing the preamp. My passive basses are well-shielded and dead silent.

It is important to note that many people who hear "no noise" are playing through cabs with no tweeters, or with the tweeters attenuated, or with not much fidelity in the highs.

Great reply , thanks . Forums are all speculative , its good to get an unbiased/informed opinion , Good point about the tweeter , I struggled for years to get a defined sound until HF`s started becoming standard on most bins .... it was like night and day , the buy-off being of course , noise !

[Marley's Ghost]

Every active bass I have owned is/was dead quiet. Cut your highs and problem will most likely be solved. If not, then it is probably power, electronics or cable related.

[SLaPiNFuNK]

Originally Posted by Makatak

Cant fit my Speakon into the Jack input on my Bass

Yes, thank you I understand that...

1/4" cables can be specifically Speaker or Instrument...

This was the source of electrical buzzing on a few of my basses until I realized the cable had in tiny writing on it "speaker"

[grendle]

All my basses are active and dead silent live and recorded. You have other issues , its not your basses.

[mcnach]

Originally Posted by Makatak

Ive been a big fan of Active Basses for the last 25 years , especially for great slap tone . Recently Ive had my Jazz Bass fully sheilded and now its quiet as a mouse , even under dimmed lights and with an HF Horn in my cabs , which has made the " hiss " of my Actives stand out like dogs bollocks , Ive bought and sold about 10 Active Basses over the last year or so and they ALL have a certain amount of preamp noise , some less than others , the G&L and Ibanez BTB were reasonably quiet ....no point to this thread really apart from possibly getting a few replies for recommendations of dead quiet actives , or dont they exist ? . Thanks

P.S I thought the worst offenders were my Warwick Corvette , Yamaha BB and Status 1000 ,

Do you boost the treble like crazy? I have a bunch of active basses and owned an even larger bunch, and I would not associate active with noise. I had two Warwick Corvettes too, both fine...(?)