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Active pickups + effects = fail? But why?

#22
This whole thing might be going back to the issue of finding the right pedal for the right bass.

I bought a Way Huge Pork Loin here on TB and it arrived a little while ago so I've been playing with it. This is my second stint with a PL, so I already knew how to set it up and everything. So far, it really does what I hoped the SFT would do..give me a nice fat tubby sound like you get from an Ampeg. What a great little pedal. I'm starting to think the SFT just does not get along with active pickups, which I've read in the past.
 
#24
Mmbongo I am a Warwick Spector freak and use both regularly. I have had the same exact issue you have had and it seems to get worse the longer I was playing for as well. I find I do not have those issues with my Warwicks with active pickups or my 4 string Spector with a P/J set up. I have only found those issues with my Spectors with DC40’s.

I tried a million things and changing gains and everything you can imagine. You might think I’m nuts but try it for a week. Loose the EBS Multicomp. I had a pedal board full of EBS pedals I now own zero they sound amazing with some basses but they overdrive the front end of every amp I own. I have a MarkBass compressore coming any day but I found once I got rid of that Multicomp 99% of my problems went away it was the one causing most of the issues. I recently had a good friend of mine who used one as well with similar issues stopped using his and he is an endorsed Spector artist all his noise distortion and problems go away. He was using the same Multicomp. Just a suggestion..
 
#28
Means2nEnd said:
Funny stuff:smug: I have several amps and no I don't need better ones they are fine. I was just trying to be helpful maybe. If you don't agree or for you it doesn't apply that's cool no harm right? Good luck mmbongo.
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Yeah I was thinking the same thing. He asked the question and then dismisses some answers to a solution.

Since I'm on the subject...

mmbongo said:
To me, the only place to put a compressor is at the end of the chain. You don't want your dirt, octave, delay, or anything to get a compressed signal. To me that's like going from a 2" water line into a 4" water line...what's the point? That negates the advantage of having a larger line.
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At the end of the chain would be going from a 4" to a 2" then wouldn't it? Either way, it's all running through a compressor at some point. The difference is, all of the signals are being compressed at the end of the chain. With it at the beginning only the instrument itself is with everything else left to be on its own. That's probably why your delay is being "neutered" and mine isn't...
 
#30
Waterpilot said:
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. He asked the question and then dismisses some answers to a solution.

Since I'm on the subject...
Click to expand...

I didn't dismiss anything. I tried to help him with his problem of his amp input clipping.

Waterpilot said:
At the end of the chain would be going from a 4" to a 2" then wouldn't it?
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Ummm...no. If you compress the signal at the beginning of the chain, you can't magically uncompress it later down the chain. Once it's compressed, it's compressed.

Here's how it related to the garden hose analogy:
If you start with a 2" line, you're going to get a set amount of water flow, right? Now if you connect that 2" line to a 4" line, will you now get MORE flow because of the larger line? Nope. You'll only get out of it what you put into it no matter how big the second line is. What comes after the small line is a waste.

That's why I run my compressor at the end.
 
#31
Just from my point of view:

Its more like you take a 4" line under heavy pressure and try to fit it through a 2" line that gets stressed out and cant handle the pressure, just so you can lower the pressure before it flows out of your garden hose.
 
#32
Hellb00m said:
Just from my point of view:

Its more like you take a 4" line under heavy pressure and try to fit it through a 2" line that gets stressed out and cant handle the pressure, just so you can lower the pressure before it flows out of your garden hose.
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That's not how I understand a compressor to work though.

For me personally, I don't want to limit the signal going into my modulation effects. For example, my envelope filter relies heavily on a strong mid/high signal to operate. If I send it a compressed signal with no dynamcs, it won't work.

Same with my Octave pedal. If I give it a compressed signal, it has nothing to work with.
 
#33
mmbongo said:
That's not how I understand a compressor to work though.

For me personally, I don't want to limit the signal going into my modulation effects. For example, my envelope filter relies heavily on a strong mid/high signal to operate. If I send it a compressed signal with no dynamcs, it won't work.

Same with my Octave pedal. If I give it a compressed signal, it has nothing to work with.
Click to expand...
Depends if you're using the compressor to squash everything or just to limit peaks.

If between 1-10 you only want the compressor to kick in when you get over 8, you still have 1 to 8 to use with your dynamics. That said, I don't like using compressors with envelope filters, but when I do use a compressor it's always first thing in my chain for the peak limiting factor.

I may play with it at the end of the chain in a "squash everything and anything" setting and see how that works as well, but it can't hurt to try your active pickups with each pedal by itself and seeing how that works right?
 
#34
tylerwylie said:
it can't hurt to try your active pickups with each pedal by itself and seeing how that works right?
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Definitely. In fact that's how I determined that my compressor does best at the end of the chain many a moon ago :)

But I think we're getting off the subject here.

Let's start over.

I only have a few dirt pedals. No compressor or anything else. Just dirt pedals.

Why do active pickups (actual active pickups) interact differently with dirt pedals than passive pickups?
 
#36
Marton said:
I may be wrong, but I think the Audere preamp have a different impedance than most preamps. Could explain why some of your basses works with pedal, and some not.
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Could be. Would it be different from an Aguilar preamp? My basses with Audere preamps do seem to sound more organic through overdrive. Then again, they both have passive pickups.
 
#37
I don't know if my post will help you but I use active basses (mostly) and I don't have problems with my effect pedals. I once read an interview with a famous bass player, I think it was Phil Lesh, who was saying that with an active bass, it makes more sense to cut unwanted frequencies with the onboard preamp and to boost the frequencies you want on your amp or outboard EQ.

Try that. It will reduce the overall output of your bass and prevent it from overdriving your pedals, which is the main reason, from my experience, that some pedals don't sound all that good with active basses.

For example, as weird as it might sound, I actually cut some bass from one of my basses and leave the highs and mids flat in order to get the sound I want out of it... then boost the lows and my amp a little more (different low freq on the amp and the bass, I prefer the one on the amp)... Result : great sound with my effect pedals, even with a fuzz.
 
#38
scotch said:
I was fortunate to get one of these before Barge went awol:
Link Removed (GLZ-1)

It helps with active electronics, but probably not 100%. Still, it made a lot of fuzzes and pedals sensitive to low impedance work a lot better!

The first pedal in my chain is the GLZ-1. It not only gives me impedance control, but also allows me to "normailize" the volumes of my various basses (everything from an active Fender 5 w/ Aguilar pre to old passive 60's pickups in my Yamaha hollowbody).
Click to expand...

Thanks Scotch, I've got one of these on the way. I need it anyway to normalize different basses just like you, so hopefully the Z control will be a huge bonus :)
 
#39
mmbongo said:
This whole thing might be going back to the issue of finding the right pedal for the right bass.
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Think this is what I was trying to point out at the start of this thread when I gave examples of overdrives that work with EMG's and Aguilar preamps. Some pedals have been designed from the ground up only being tested with Passives, particularly those being made by guitar companies who just 'happen' to have a Bass there.
Pedals with a higher 'headroom' e.g. 18v also seem to cope better.

Suppose you gotta think of it like a designer pair of shoes not always matching the rest of your clothes. ;)

If the Multicomp works for you stick with it! I'm a firm believer in not using blenders, impedance converters etc. to put a band aid over your problems and make a pedal setup unnecessarily complicated. A pedal should be there to do a job as designed otherwise find something that does work. Rant over.....

Now the toughest one for me has been finding a great wah that handles Actives, but that's a whole other conversation! Haha!
 
#40
Andy Will said:
Now the toughest one for me has been finding a great wah that handles Actives, but that's a whole other conversation! Haha!
Click to expand...

I have had good luck with a Xerograph Dlx and an expression pedal. There are clips on my soundcloud page of me using it with an active bass.

I have an 18v active P Bass that has a very high output and have gotten rid of several awesome pedals because they didn't like my bass' impedance. I recently added a passive option to my bass and have seen much better results when using distortion.
 

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