Active bass…but never tweak?

[Turnaround]

It's pretty well covered in the posts in this thread. The answer is - it depends.

It depends on:

- the preamp
- the pickups
- the length of you lead cord
- the loading of the controls on the pickups in the passive system
- the loading of the pickups in the active version
- whether you are using a blend between pickups or V/V
- the blend circuitry if blend is controlled in the active circuit

and potentially a bunch more things. All of these things can make a difference. That doesn't mean they'll make a difference that is significant or that it will be discernible - to you, or to your audience.

 

[wazzel]

I play all active basses. Most of the time my bass eq setting are flat and the volume is at 100%. My normal eq preference is set on my amps. It is nice to be able to tweak the eq for one song on the bass if needed.

 

[clickclack]

I even made my FET overdrive and optic compressor on-board.

You have to know the EQ curves of your preamp. As mentioned earlier, most preamps are the shelving type and that's the worst type for boosting bass as it boosts all the way down to mud city. Better for cutting treble.

Also, don't use the volume control as similar to one on a passive bass. You can boost bass and treble all the way up and cut the volume down for some mid scoop for example.

Having said all that, I have simulated many preamp circuits while trying to find the best approach and EQ plots on most of them makes no sense to use with a bass guitar. Unfortunate. Get the ones designed by people who actually played a bass in their lives for once. Boosting below 20Hz and over 6-7kHz, no basic HPF and LPF. Terrible stuff out there and some by big names. They probably think " the amp will fix all that" but it all comes up when connected direct to a PA or sound card. Boo!

 

[HolmeBass]

I EQ my amp so that my bass sounds good with its EQ “flat” when I play finger style , then use the onboard EQ for stylistic adjustments - for slap or reggae or country thump. But most of the time it is flat.

I do like a single volume knob and pickup blend, and that works better with an active circuit.

 

[GreyBeard]

If it sounds good, it is good. Don't over think it.

 

[BassFalcon]

I'm with the OP. Though, I've played active basses about equally as passive, I 99% of the time just keep the controls on the active basses at neutral, occasionally cutting treble if the controls don't have a tone control (i.e. Lakland 55-02). I feel that most of the time the EQ points are just not set at a good spot for most preamp circuits. Bass at 50Hz? No thanks. Mids set at 1.1kHz? Definitely no thanks.

Now if there was an onboard preamp available out there that could be fully parametric? THEN I would definitely be tweaking that.

Sounds like you might enjoy the filter based preamps like Wal and Alembic use. You can get that design from ACG I believe and I recently heard about someone named Boogieman that makes those as well, no idea of the legitimacy though.

 

[Lit311]

If it sounds good, it is good. Don't over think it.

Story of my life, lol.

 

[mtdkingstonheir]

It's pretty well covered in the posts in this thread. The answer is - it depends.

It depends on:

- the preamp
- the pickups
- the length of you lead cord
- the loading of the controls on the pickups in the passive system
- the loading of the pickups in the active version
- whether you are using a blend between pickups or V/V
- the blend circuitry if blend is controlled in the active circuit

and potentially a bunch more things. All of these things can make a difference. That doesn't mean they'll make a difference that is significant or that it will be discernible - to you, or to your audience.

All good points - I agree.