Active Electronics Advice!

[Chrispy]

I just ordered my first 5 string in 25 years and wanted to pick everyone's brain on what's out there in terms of active electronics.

Little gear background:

New bass is a Fender American 5 String P bass and will be going through an HX Stomp, Cali76 comp, and a Noble DI (might be a Jad Freer Capo sometimes). Mainly using this for R&B and Country.

I was really interested in John East's P Retro but it seems like those are MIA. Don't really want to have to route the cavity just yet but I'm open to options both on board and off. Also smack me if it's something I shouldn't be considering yet.

 

[rogerbmiller]

Why not get an outboard preamp so you don't have to modify a brand new bass? There are plenty of capable units out there.

It's also going to be hard to mount anything to a AP bass given 1) limited knob space and 2) limited battery space. Best case, you can stack a 2 band preamp where the tone knob is.

Or you can buy and Aguilar DB924 pedal which is a boost only outboard 2 band pre.

 

[sunbeast]

One of the original purposes for an onboard preamp was to convert the high-impedance passive pickup signal into a low-impedance signal that could drive guitar cables without signal losses. When you put a preamp on a pedalboard instead of in the bass it basically just becomes an EQ device, and you will have already encountered the typical passive pickup losses before it ever hits the pedalboard (a dulled top end in simple terms). With that in mind, the Stomp and Noble are already capable of EQ'ing the signal in different ways and so an additional preamp might be overkill. The other plus of an onboard preamp is to have EQ control right on the bass itself that can be adjusted on the fly without having to bend over to adjust it.

I'm a fan of East preamps, and the P-Retro is an intriguing design since it retains full passive operation (even retaining the passive tone control in active mode) while also adding alot of powerful tonal options in active mode without needing to drill any extra holes. It might be the only active pre out there that was specifically designed to pair with a P-bass, including the unique way the EQ is designed. There seems to at least be one shop that shows these as in stock, though it seems like the East itself is in a questionable state these days.

These are expensive preamps though 9the one shop that has them is charging $350), so personally I'd wait til you get the bass and play with the stuff you already have before making an investment in something you might well not need.

 

[JonathanPDX]

I'm a bit confused. If you wanted an active bass, why would you buy a brand new passive bass? Especially a P-bass, the polar opposite of the modern active bass with lots of controls.

Is there a specific sound or option you have in mind, which you already know this bass cannot cover as-is, or are you looking to add more knobs to it just for the hell of it?

 

[ctmullins]

Yeah, I'm thinking your pedalboard means you won't get much benefit from an onboard preamp.

But if you still want one, I recommend the John East BTB-01 two-band. I love those little things!!

 

[Geri O]

I'd definitely wait until you had that bass in your hands and run it through your pedal system before considering adding active electronics to it.

Of all the basses I've had, I leave the Precisions stock, although the last one I had (an AM Pro II P5) got the Lindy Fralin 5-string Precision pups in regular wind. Gosh, those things sound great. Lots of body and bite to the tone. That through my tube DI is all I ever want from a Precision.