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Active Basses Question

#21
Darkstrike said:
That I'll agree on! ;)

Definitely a bonus. Especially if you have a passive tone to use, or as in the case of some Glockenklang preamps(and I believe possible to do with Delano and some MEC preamps) where you get the passive bypass, and the treble dial works as a passive tone.
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This is something that I wish more preamp manufacturers would adopt. Having a treble control that boosts like a regular active treble control and cuts like a traditional passive tone makes so much sense to me. Unfortunately, I'm not too big a fan of Glockenklang or MEC preamps.
 
#24
Here is another consideration. You see plenty of 50 year old Fender basses on Ebay for crazy money. They are all completely passive. They still work as well as they did 50 years ago. 50 years from now they will still work. Passive bass equals rock-solid reliability. All active basses will fail eventually. I just had to yank the electronics out of a 20 year old active bass. After patching and resoldering the preamp and battery clip a half dozen times I encountered a failure that I could not figure out. Luckily the pickups were passive, so the bass still works, but any resale value has been lost. So, I say active is great, but if want a guitar that you can leave to your grandkids, passive is the way to go.
 
#25
hhenry said:
All active basses will fail eventually.
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By which I am assuming you mean whenever 9V batteries are obsolete and impossible to find. Of course, by that point, active preamps will run on the power generated by our bellies rubbing on the back of your basses :rolleyes:.

EDIT: There are also plenty of 40 year old active basses still running like Usain Bolt. 10 years ain't worth fussin' over :D.
 
#26
My $.02, having both active & passives:
- Battery life isn't an issue if you unplug it when you're not playing it. If you're playing that much, find a model that has dedicated battery door (EBMMs, etc.); many actives don't, as the manufacturer figures you'll only need a batter change once a year, as has been noted.
- Actives allow you to BOOST as well as cut. I leave the 'tone' knob dimed out on my passive P, and shape the tone as necessary on the amp. Actives let you do all sorts of tone shaping on the instrument. I'd say it depends on how much variety there is in your setlist - if you're going straight from some classic R&B tune right into funk, then onto some indie rock or metal, with only a four count or less from the drummer inbetween, you don't have time to swap instruments. You can do some of that with pedals, but it's hard to go from "rolled off highs/scooped mids" to "boosted mids" in less than two beats without an active preamp. All I have to do is roll a knob 1/2 turn or less with my pinky.
- True - if you want a no-maintenance collectable, I'd go with a passive. I still have cameras that use (<Gasp!>) film; there's indoor film, outdoor film, filters to correct for flourescent lighting, etc. Old professional photogs had to carry about 2 or 3 cameras preloaded for different conditions. Or just one digital camera. Same with active v. passives; and granted the preamps might be worthless in 20 years, but to me they're just tools. I don't think I still have any 30 year old power drills.
 
#27
You're buddy might be using a rechargeable battery. Unless shopping online, most stores don't carry a rechargeable 9 volt for that purpose. There are some okay ones for other uses, such as powering pedals for a night, but unless you get a Low Rate Discharge type, it's really not suited for a bass, as far as I'm concerned.

Just stick with a Duracell or Enegizer, or better yet, a Lithium if the bass sits unplayed for a long (LONG) time, and you can't go wrong.

X8
 
#28
Kwesi said:
This is something that I wish more preamp manufacturers would adopt. Having a treble control that boosts like a regular active treble control and cuts like a traditional passive tone makes so much sense to me. Unfortunately, I'm not too big a fan of Glockenklang or MEC preamps.
Click to expand...
It's a brilliant idea, active treble, passive tone, no extra knobs.
I'm fairly lucky then in the fact that I really dig Glockenklang pre's, in fact, I'm thinking of replacing the John East MMSR preamp in my Gadow with a 2 band Glock.

I'd imagine, it'd be none too hard to wire into other basses with separate treble controls, Delano sell the knob(MEC probably too, but it'll cost you 7000&#8364;+), and show you how to wire it into their preamp, sure it could be done to others just the same.
pcake said:
dunno about that, but he played a lot.
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Does he play 750-1000 hours every few weeks?
 
#29
Kwesi said:
By which I am assuming you mean whenever 9V batteries are obsolete and impossible to find. Of course, by that point, active preamps will run on the power generated by our bellies rubbing on the back of your basses :rolleyes:.

EDIT: There are also plenty of 40 year old active basses still running like Usain Bolt. 10 years ain't worth fussin' over :D.
Click to expand...

And there's enough passive basses in the same amount of time or less that have had pickups or pots fail. Plenty of business for pickup makers rewinding old passive pickups.
 
#30
Ok guys thanks for your answers so far :)

So here's what I have to say about this:

- I don't worry about the battery at all. As someone assumed well, this is just my first real bass and I won't be playing it as much as any pro. I don't even have a band or anything. For now, it's still home practicing. (I'll use a good rechargeable one :) )

- Regarding the durability of active circuits... I'm not looking for a bass for my grandchildren either :) so I guess it'll last long enough until I realize that bass is not good enough for me and I'll have to try many many more :)

- Being it my second (first real) bass I guess I could use that wide range of tones the active circuit can provide. Given I don't own any pedal effects and I'm still discovering my tone, this could be a really good idea ;)

- Finally, since many of you started debating by-passing, modded circuits, etc, maybe I should tell you the particular bass I've considering lately is the Cort CH4. If you want to talk about its pickups-cicrcuits, that'll be nice :)

Thanks
 
#32
Darkstrike said:
It's a brilliant idea, active treble, passive tone, no extra knobs.
I'm fairly lucky then in the fact that I really dig Glockenklang pre's, in fact, I'm thinking of replacing the John East MMSR preamp in my Gadow with a 2 band Glock.

I'd imagine, it'd be none too hard to wire into other basses with separate treble controls, Delano sell the knob(MEC probably too, but it'll cost you 7000€+), and show you how to wire it into their preamp, sure it could be done to others just the same.
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The Sdaowsky Pre with VTC basically does that. The VTC works as an passive tone when the preamp is bypassed. It's pretty cool.
 
#33
The Cort C4H is IMHO, a very nice bass, great neck, and sounds sweet when set flat, the preamp is fine, bass and treble boost/cut at decent standard frequencies. The volume pot is an active/passive bypass switch with a push/pull so you're good there. It's a proper bypass to, it'll work in passive even if you pull out the battery.
 
#37
J.Nuno said:
Oh, so it's the other way around: the active circuit has 2 ou 3 band controls but the passive control might miss the tone knob. Well that is bad :)

I don't think the pedal think would be an issue for me :)

By the way Sartori, why wouldn't someone want a preamp in their bass? (that's what I want to know).
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Think of it this way. Most passive basses have (depending on the number of pickups) a volume control (or a vol/blend or two volumes) and a passive tone control, which allows you to soften the upper frequency response (like on a classic J or P bass).

The 'best' active preamps have 'all of the above' PLUS active EQ controls (bass and treble, or sometimes bass, mid, and treble).

What the posters above are saying is that if you get an active onboard preamp with both a bypass switch AND a passive tone control, along with the EQ that comes with the active preamp, then you have it all, and there is absolutely NO downside to having the active preamp in the bass.

Preamps like the Sadowsky, the Nordstrand, the Alleva-Coppolo and many others are set up exactly that way.
 
#38
Kwesi said:
We're talking active treble and passive tone all one one knob. The Sadowsky pre has separate treble and passive tone controls.
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Oh. I gotcha.

That would be pretty cool. I wouldn't mind having one for a P bass...standard volume, then a stacked bass/treble pot with the treble being a passive tone as well. I guess you'd need a switch to change between active/passive modes since a concentric push pull probably doesn't exist (but maybe it does, I'm not sure).

Darkstrike said:
Isn't that just a standard passive tone, weather the bass is in active mode or passive?

EDIT: Kwesi beat me to the punch! :D
Click to expand...

Sort of. I believe it's supposed to function that way at least. I don't know the particulars on it. I just know that I use it and it works well.

But it's not what you're looking for anyways.
 
#40
To the OP, here is a clip that kind of demonstrates what we are talking about. The preamp used is the Sadowsky preamp on my Sadowsky Vintage 5 string. If you have a good playback system (nice headphones), the sound quality is quite good.

This preamp is a great example of what we are talking about.... volume, blend and passive tone control that work in active or passive mode, push/pull bypass of the active circuit on the passive tone knob, and active bass and treble boost EQ controls.

When I compare the active and passive modes around mid point in the clip, you can hear the extended low end and top end that Kwesi describes, even with the active tone controls set flat (due to a bit of voicing baked into the pre, and also the general impact of an active circuit buffering/impacting the signal). When I bypass the preamp, you can hear the more organic, mid warm passive tone of the passive pickups without any buffering.

Some preamps have an internal volume pot that allows you to match the active and passive volume (the Sadowsky does not have this feature, so you hear a bit of volume bump due to the bit of gain increase with this particular active circuit).

Sadowsky On-Board Preamp Demonstration - YouTube
 

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