Active vs. passive bass: does it dictate your amp choice

[arbitrary]

I don’t like playing active basses w tube amps or with dirt.

 

[oren]

I choose my amp based on what sounds good with my upright. If it can handle that it will sound fine for my bass guitars, whether active or passive.

 

[pbassnut]

I was watching a video in which the bass player said he preferred playing his passive Fenders through his Tone Hammer while playing his active Fedora and Warwick through the AG. I’ve never owned both an active and a passive bass at the same time, so it made me wonder: does whether your bass is passive or active dictate your amp choice?

All my basses are passive Ps and Js and I have a buncha preamp pedals, amps, and cabs. I find that my different basses sound best with certain amp/cab combinations of mine so I just use the combinations that sound best with each other with no hard and fast rules of why or why not to pair up a particular combination.

 

[JohnnyChatter]

So that’s an interesting question. I honestly have never thought about it but I do cycle through gear and at times have paired basses with specific amps because the way they sound together. I never really considered if it was because the bass was active or not. I will say my Traynor DB800H takes passive basses better than active.

 

[Passinwind]

Input impedance is what I thought of, reading the OP, though I play mostly passive instruments.

I am mindful of the effects that too low (at least for my taste) an impedance can have with some passive setups (and especially piezo pickups), but haven't given much thought to the benefits a lower impedance might have for active instruments. I always thought of it as something you could "get away with," but perhaps there are benefits of which I'm unaware. Care to clue me in?

IME the potentially positive aspects are a lower noise floor and then maybe lower distortion. That's far from a slam dunk though IME, I find it takes careful integration to get there. But that's what I hear in my own builds, and what I want.

 

[pepj]

Nope, I set all my amps up to literally be plug and play and not have to touch the eq.
All my basses are active/passive and passive is more than useable because the active pre is a mild tweak not at all fundamentally different.

You start a fight with EQ and it never ends well, imo.

 

[MarkA]

I own a Radial JDI, which is essentially a J48 with a different feature set to include user selectable input impedances: 220K, 1Meg, 10Meg. I tried all three with my #1 active bass and preferred 1Meg. However, the difference was barely discernable, and I could see why someone might choose a different impedance. IMHO it depends on your tone goals. In a live mix I doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference.

I recently picked up a Grace Designs Alix (with the idea of using it with bowed strings, which I haven't yet, but that's another story). It allows you to select between input impedances of 330KΩ, 1MEGΩ, or 10MEGΩ. With a passive electric bass, I found an easily noticeable sonic difference going from 330 KOhm to 1 MegOhm -- less, but still some, going from 1 MegOhm to 10 MegOhm. Generally, the higher the input impedance, the more extended the highs and (to a lesser extent) the tighter the lows sounded to me. There was also a subtle difference in feel -- I recall the 10 MegOhm setting feeling somehow a little stiff -- but I should go back and re-check that. I think that I preferred the 1 MegOhm setting overall, but I could see using either of the others.

With a piezo-equipped instrument (without a buffer in-between the pickup and the Alix), the difference was more marked -- the 10 Meg Ohm setting really livened up the sound overall and helped snap it into focus. I could also hear the HPF effect of increasing impedance (which I've since seen discussed on the DB side).

I haven't tried it with an active bass -- I suspect that, like you, I'd hear less of an effect switching input impedances with it -- but it might be worth trying, just to see.

Awhile back, I got to test a prototype preamp/DI that @JGR built, with a continuously variable input impedance. I don't know what the range was, of available impedances, and don't recall where I liked it set (somewhere toward the higher end of the dial, I think, but not all the way up), but I do recall spending a good chunk of time playing with it and the subtle effects it had on tone and feel (this with a passive electric bass, again).

IME the potentially positive aspects are a lower noise floor and then maybe lower distortion. That's far from a slam dunk though IME, I find it takes careful integration to get there. But that's what I hear in my own builds, and what I want.

Thanks, Charlie -- I wasn't aware, but figured there had to be a reason that the "active" inputs on amps weren't just (usually) padded back but, often, featured a lower input impedance, as well.

"Careful integration" matters in a lot of things, I think. As far as amps go, while there are certain things I like and look for, I find that I'm less hung up on a particular design than on how well that design is executed.

At any rate, the little I've heard of your builds has always sounded pretty good to me!

 

[chris_b]

I find that some amps sound better on some stages, and I'll use my P bass instead of the Jazz with particular bands, but all decisions are made during the sound check.