Active/Passive

[airportsadness]

Hello,
This is a stupid question that will be answered within 2 seconds..
If a bass with active pick ups runs out of power, can it still produce a signal to send to an amp (even if it's comprised when compared to the active..)? Never had to worry about it until now because I've never used active circuitry..

thanks for your time!

 

[bassmodder]

No. If you have a switch, then yes. Most average preamps will simply quit working.

 

[superkicky]

i think we need some clarification here-

airport: are you running active pups, or an active preamp?

 

[JTE]

As superkicky says, it depends on where the pre-amp is. "Active" only means there's a battery powered preamp somewhere in there. EMG pickups are active in that they have the preamp built right into the PUP. If the battery goes dead on those, you're out of business. Most other active instrumenst use passive PUPs feeding an active pre-amp. SOME of those have a by-pass to send the PUPs around the pre.

However, it's not a problem either way as far as I'm concerned. If you replace the batteries regularly, if you use good reliable batteries, and if you unplug the bas when it's not being used you should get enough life out of a battery that the possibiity of it dying on-stage is ludicrious. I've been playing active basses since my first StingRay in 1979 or so. Only once in all that time (and that includes about ten different active instruments) did a battery fail on me. And that's the only time I had used anything other than a DuraCell alkaline.

I change them once a year and I leave my basses plugged in at gigs. BTW, the original StingRay circuit had such a low current draw that Leo didn't put a switch into the output jack.

jte

 

[thetawaves]

If it's entirely active, you'll get a curious distortion and eventually end up with a ray-gun sound as your bass dies! (Mine did at any rate)

Passive pickups with active circuitry? just switch to passive bypass.

job done!

 

[mimaz]

Good info in all of the above posts, but here's the bottom line:

The possibility of having battery failure is just about the last thing you will ever have to worry about with an active bass. Treat it like your smoke detector, put a fresh Duracell in it once a year, and you'll never have a problem.

Every bass that I gig with is active except one, and I've never had a problem, ever.

 

[amimbari]

THE RAY GUN SOUND thetawaves? that's a cool analogy, cause that's EXACTLY what my bass with non-EMG's does when I'm using crappy 9vt generic batteries. even though the crappy batteries last for a few months....however, like the other posters, your not supposed to have a battery get that low. guitars are not going to have l.e.d.'s to show you battery strength, and like anything battery powered, a check every now and then is always recommended.

my other bass with EMG's just gets quieter to the point of nothing, no noise, just "sound gone"

either way, a year or so with no battery replacement is fantastic. some of the batteries I have taken out of mine still have enough life to power my portable radio for a while before it is totally dead.