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Active Basses: Yay or Nay?

#82
SteveHeissner said:
I prefer passive due to simplicity and the fact that I had a battery die in the middle of a set once. However, I'd consider one that runs in active or passive mode. If the battery dies just switch to passive and keep playing. Bada bing! This has kept me from buying a Music Man Stingray for years.
Click to expand...

Considering a battery in A Stingray will typically last you well over 6 months with regular use, and maybe a year or more... buy a Stingray already! :lol:

My Stingray has a bypass switch, all I have to do is pull the volume knob. So it can be done if you really want it :)
 
#84
I only have one active bass and that's my Warwick. It has a decent preamp in it, which is a good start. I have it all set at 12 oclock and do EQing with a pedal. But, if I'm live and realise I need to quickly change my tone for a song, it's good to have that flexibility. Set flat, it adds a little bit of warmth to the signal when the preamp is active; it seems a little dull sounding when the preamp is bypassed. Gotta make sure your battery is good, though, otherwise the sound slowly begins to deteriorate and it's hard to pick up on to begin with.
 
#85
I have one active bass and one passive bass that are keepers at the moment. I enjoy them both. The passive just has volume controls and the active is a 3-band with coil switching, they are very different basses which is why I think I like them both so much. Being one or the other wouldn't keep me from trying out a new bass.

Discrimination is bad, mmkay?
 
#87
Nay so far, but as others have said it's totally personal. I'm just a big fan of traditional P and J tones, and I prefer the immediate response and "bark" from passive electronics. With only a couple exceptions, active electronics tones sound too "processed" to my ear. The exceptions being the classic Stingray sound in the right context (Bernard Edwards, Louis Johnson), and active/passive basses with transparent preamps and outstanding pickups (Carvin B or SB series). My $0.02.
 
#88
mcnach said:
Is my cooking reliable?
Gotta make sure it is reliable.
But you see, I have to make sure I have a stove, a couple of clean pots, some food in the fridge.
Imagine you run out of food just when you are hungry? Nightmare!

:lol:

Well, we seem to manage lots of more complicated tasks daily. Ensuring I replace batteries every so often, before they die, does not seem like such a big deal to me ;)
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This argument gets made multiple times but it's not an accurate comparison. What you're listing are componants of a whole (being what you need to cook). Just like a bass guitar, strings, amp/cab, cable etc etc are things that you NEED in order to play bass. The battery is an added variable. That's all. If there's a different type of oven out there that requires an additional external power source in order to work then you might be on to something.

I don't think anyone is saying that its a massive hassle but taking out variables IS more streamlined and less complicated (regardless of how small that difference is).

As someone who has used both active and passive basses it is nice to know that if something happens with your sound all of a sudden when you use a passive bass you KNOW its not a battery issue.

In the end, while that is a major plus to me, that's not even the reason I prefer passive now. It's the sound.
 
#89
As usual. A simple matter of preference made overly complicated. o_O

Discuss the tonal qualities of both for the OP's sake and your experiences. You know, relevancy?

But please don't presume that I don't know how to change a battery. I seriously find it easy to do once a year! I know! I'm a savant! ;-)

If you can't handle that, then yes, by all means play passive. But don't forget those complicated strings and amp cables! How would one ever cope with those?
There is always the washtub bass route...
:-P
 
#91
TNCreature said:
As usual. A simple matter of preference made overly complicated. o_O

Discuss the tonal qualities of both for the OP's sake and your experiences. You know, relevancy?

But please don't presume that I don't know how to change a battery. I seriously find it easy to do once a year! I know! I'm a savant! ;-)

If you can't handle that, then yes, by all means play passive. But don't forget those complicated strings and amp cables! How would one ever cope with those?
There is always the washtub bass route...
:-P
Click to expand...

Agreed

For me , my prefrence is for actives . I prefer the attack and the highs. With passive pups sometimes you get that momentary overload type sound or kind of a chirp that works for some people but not myself, actives (emg) don't do that, but give you the articulation of the attack better imo. To me , passives don't really sound like they accurately reproduce what I'm hearing acousticly, especially in the high end and attack. With actives ,I feel you get a more accurate reproduction of what's actually going on with the instrument as a whole, as well as amplification of all the little nuances of your playing. To me , actives tend to sound more like the bass, where passives tend to sound more like the pickups. Actives are generally thinner sounding, which is why a good preamp is always in the bass. Being able to dial in a ton of good useable low end wile staying clean and not losing articulation is where its at. My tone prefrence is a modern, piano like tone. Definatly not a vintage tone. Battery life isn't even a though as they last pretty much forever in my basses. I'll change them every 6 mo to a year.

That's why I like what I like, but play what works for YOU and have fun!
 
#93
I was anti-active for 20 years because of a battery outage during a very important gig on a tour. I didn't have the option of instantly going passive at the time. I never used active again after that. Just last year I realized that I wanted the bass to cut thru the band mix more, so I went back to active. Now I have the option to go passive on the spot if I feel the battery is dying.
I change my strings only every 2-3 months so I change the battery when I change strings. If you
keep a schedule for changing the battery, you should never have a problem. Also, always unplug the bass when you're not playing. Leaving it plugged in eats away at battery life.
 
#95
InLeoWeTrust said:
Nay so far, but as others have said it's totally personal. I'm just a big fan of traditional P and J tones, and I prefer the immediate response and "bark" from passive electronics. With only a couple exceptions, active electronics tones sound too "processed" to my ear. The exceptions being the classic Stingray sound in the right context (Bernard Edwards, Louis Johnson), and active/passive basses with transparent preamps and outstanding pickups (Carvin B or SB series). My $0.02.
Click to expand...

Have to totally agree with you here.

For me, P basses should always be passive, Jazz basses can occasionally benefit from a preamp but I prefer them passive. but to get the Stingray sound you definitely want a preamp.

I'm not a huge fan of the ultra clear and wide modern sound. I prefer fat with a bit of grit so I like passive a lot more. I had a Warwick for years that MEC active pups and preamp and I could never get a tone I liked out of it until I ripped the guts out of it and put passive pickups in. I eventually sold it and bought a P Bass.

If I had to come down off the fence, I'd put my vote in with the passive crowd.
 
#96
A passive bass ends up going through a preamp at some point. Unless you're direct wiring the pickup to the power amp stage, there is some coloration going on. Whether that is significant is up to the individual.

Active systems are all over the map wrt what tones are available. Just because bass X is active and won't get the sound of passive bass Y doesn't mean that active can't do it.

In the end people should play what they like and are comfortable with. I always play active, as I want the ability to have extra tone shaping tools (beyond technique) at my fingertips rather than limited to just the amp or pedals. While I understand the "simple is good" philosophy, for most of my gigs I have a couple of different sounds that I want/need to get. I find it is easier for me to achieve those with an active PJ setup with 3-band eq. Batteries dying is a non-issue as I have an active/passive switch (and in fact had the batteries go down at a gig last weekend - didn't miss a note). ymmv.
 
#100
Active basses are cool but.... I once picked up a Squier at a music store. It had one pickup and about 6 different knobs. I had no idea what I was doing. I just can't figure out active basses! I haven't really had the desire to get an active bass either, since all my favorite basses are passive. MM Stingrays seem like active basses I wouldn't mind trying out though since they have more simple controls. That is the only active bass I'm interested in though. I definitely prefer passive over active. Just more simple for me.
 

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