I've never owned one. Will an active bass in passive mode work without a battery? Seems logical but logic may not apply.
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Active bass with passive mode question
- Thread starter Sbassman Scratch
- Start date
works that way on my Lull M4V with the Bartolini NTBT preamp. I pretty much always use it passive, but sometimes the push/pull knob (doubles as the "tone" knob) gets pushed in and if my battery is dead/low you can immediately tell.
may be different with many different preamp packages that are available for basses these days
may be different with many different preamp packages that are available for basses these days
Yes. I have two active/passive basses, neither of which has a battery in it as I play them in passive all the time.
EDIT: With no battery in the bass, the active-passive switch simply turns into a mute switch. Active = Mute.
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I’m sure there’s exceptions but most basses will work in passive mode without a battery.
They will usually work but will lose the tonal options. An exception to this is something like a G&L L2000. The tonal controls are passive, before the signal is introduced to the preamp so they always work. Another cool setup is the original Jaguar bass. It has active bass and teble boost but also a passive tone control that still works w/o battery.
Depends on the bass. None of the active basses I've ever owned would work in passive mode without a battery.
An active bass with a passive bypass will work without a battery.
Like a lot of technical terms, 'active electronics' gets batted around in marketing-speak that's not quite correct.
Traditional, conventional 'passive' pickups have enough wire and magnet to generate a signal of sufficient strength to drive the input of any bass or guitar amp with no battery.
Low-impedance pickups like a lot of the EMGs and Alembic pickups lack enough turns of wire on the magnets to drive an amp, so in the pickup shell or in the electronics cavity on the instrument, preamps and a battery (or phantom power for some Alembics) are required to raise the output signal to drive those same guitar or bass amps. No battery, no sound, dead.
Either one of these methodologies can be hooked up inside the instrument with active tone (cut/boost bass, mids, highs), and in some cases accessory tone shapers like EMGs EXB or EXG circuits.
The difference is that passive pickups can be hooked up to active tone with a bypass (remember they don't need batteries to work in this case, the battery only powers the active tone), but active pickups, requiring batteries can't have a bypass ( no power in the system) without going dead.
Personally I prefer full active, but the passive/active tone improves survivability, and can even be used to 'preset' two very different tone profiles. And lots of guys don't want to deal with batteries.
Can be confusing, right, when things aren't described properly.
Traditional, conventional 'passive' pickups have enough wire and magnet to generate a signal of sufficient strength to drive the input of any bass or guitar amp with no battery.
Low-impedance pickups like a lot of the EMGs and Alembic pickups lack enough turns of wire on the magnets to drive an amp, so in the pickup shell or in the electronics cavity on the instrument, preamps and a battery (or phantom power for some Alembics) are required to raise the output signal to drive those same guitar or bass amps. No battery, no sound, dead.
Either one of these methodologies can be hooked up inside the instrument with active tone (cut/boost bass, mids, highs), and in some cases accessory tone shapers like EMGs EXB or EXG circuits.
The difference is that passive pickups can be hooked up to active tone with a bypass (remember they don't need batteries to work in this case, the battery only powers the active tone), but active pickups, requiring batteries can't have a bypass ( no power in the system) without going dead.
Personally I prefer full active, but the passive/active tone improves survivability, and can even be used to 'preset' two very different tone profiles. And lots of guys don't want to deal with batteries.
Can be confusing, right, when things aren't described properly.
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Some do, some don’t. My Warwick won’t work without a battery period, active or passive mode.
I did the same with my 604. Also felt that the passive tone knob was more useful than the 3 band EQ!
