active or pasive

All things being equal I prefer passive. I just like simplicity. Also, take a good passive bass with a good tone, add an outboard pre-amp and there's your active bass; Mr. Battery craps out and you can still play.

Mike J.

 

I prefer passive over active anyday.

 

Depends on the sound, and depends on the bass. Active, passive, whatever. Does it SOUND good?

 

one of each, at least...

 

I picked active simply because thats what I use now. However... it really depends. I DOES matter... Some passive basses rock the house down... some don't. Same thing with Active basses. It really depends on the bass and the person

 

i like passive p/ups... but i like active eq. that is what i play. the eq is the weak link for the tone in my opinion as long as you have decent p/ups.

 

Whatever. I don't really care as long as the bass sounds good. I have actives and passives, and I like them all, except for the Soundgear.

 

I have both but get more versatility out of my active. Thus, I picked active.

 

It's all personal. People like what they hear. So go out there and try them! Don't take other's words because it is all personal.

DM

 

Agreed.

All the best,

 

Whatever does it for you!!!

I have two permanently active basses, two switchable pacssive/active basses and a completely passive bass. I'm actually looking at adding a pssive bass to my collection right now. It's all about sounds - if they get the sound you want doesn't matter if they're active or passive.

Generally though, I play the active ones - and where I play the ones with the option, they're on active mode!

 

I'm with Mike J on this one. I prefer simplicity. If I want to adjust for tone, I'll do that through an outboard, effects, or my amp. Too many knobs and switches and I get all confused.

 

Both for sure! My spector american active because of the awsome power i get from it! Great for slap and funk! But i love my 92 warwick corvette pass because she is so sweet sounding! Great for jazz. But i love my 67 fender pass because she has her own sound all together!

 

Exactly, I had a custom passive 6 with barts (passive soapbars) and it was gorgeous. Also my old Fenders sound great. However, I voted for active because almost all of my basses are active .

 

Hey guys and gals,

When is the juice being sucked out of the battery, when it's plugged in and the amp is on OR just when a cord is plugged into the guitar? Just curious...

 

With most basses, the batery drains when the cord is in the bass's output jack.

I voted actice, because its great to be able to have a frequency curve in one direction without taking away from the tone. For example: Id rather dial in some boost on my bass knobs, than cut the treble from a passive bass. I feel like Im not losing anything from the sound as I would when cutting the trebble on a passive bass, and on a good pre-amp, it sounds organic and full.

On the other hand, it really stinks to depend on a batery, and be screwed when it cuts out in the middle of a gig. Thats why I love my G&L. Its got an active/passive switch, and separate bass and trebble knobs for passive mode, unlike some preamps which dont even feature a passive trebble cut on their passive circuits.

The G&L is a great bass for those who like the sounds of both active and passive basses, especially if you are unsure about reliability.

Peace
Nick

 

I need the actives to satisfy my need to tweak. I hate dead or dying batteries though and wish I could have an on-off switch put in. My Cirrus drains batteries quickly. I would be satisfied with a Roscoe Beck 5 if I was forced to go passive.