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All basses should have a passive tone control. Period.

tb-player

tb-player

Why so serious?
Mar 6, 2019
6,714
29,998
East Coast, USA
#1
The title pretty-much says it all.

I love active basses. But I believe all of them should have an overall tone knob in addition to fancy EQs. Setting a 3-band, boost/cut EQ with mid-sweep can require a bit of skill. But sometimes, you just need a quick way to cut the overall sizzle without having to completely readjust everything. Sadowsky’s Vintage Tone Control has always been great for this. I just wish other preamp manufacturers would see the benefit.

Anyone else play active and rely on a passive tone knob?
 
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#4
i'm not sure that i've ever had a passive tone control on any of the active axes i've owned/played...or maybe i did and i didn't realize it. (?) i think all of the EMG active systems i've used had active tone controls. (?)
 
#5
JRA said:
i'm not sure that i've ever had a passive tone control on any of the active axes i've owned/played...or maybe i did and i didn't realize it. (?) i think all of the EMG active systems i've used had active tone controls. (?)
Click to expand...
Unless you had EMG active preamps with active bass and treble boost and cut, then likely the only tone control you had was passive (the tone control that comes with a set of active EMG pickups is a passive tone control, though feeding it with the active pickups makes it behave in a more subtle way than a typical passive tone control).
 
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#6
thanks, @sunbeast. IIRC all of them were of the EMG "active systems" variety --- i think they all had active EQ/boost/cut (BTS on most of them). but i had no clue about the passive tone control --- just didn't pay attention i guess. :)
 
#7
I can limp by without it, but it's awkward; active treble cut just isn't the same thing.
I have thought about investing in a LPF pedal or tacking up my own little box with a 25K passive tone circuit.
But it only comes up with two of my basses now and I tend to use them for zingier applications.
Also, technique helps. I have yet to encounter a bass that won't thump when you pluck with the thumb.
 
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#10
tb-player said:
Anyone else play active and rely on a passive tone knob?
Click to expand...

Nope, but I've built a fair amount of preamps for other people with a passive control always in-circuit as part of the feature set. Usually Bass/Mids/Passive Tone, but sometimes BMT-PT.

Can't recall ever wanting to cut treble spontaneously on a gig, but I've needed to boost a little for solos many many times. I was always a fretless only player for gigging though, FWIW.
 
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#11
I agree. And I'll go one further: I don't like active treble at all. So for me, having mid and bass controls with passive tone is ideal. @Passinwind sent me a 2B preamp with mid and bass, I installed it with PTC and bypass and the results are great. @timendous knows what I'm talking about!

(all that said, I have 3B preamps in basses with PTC because it's easier to keep them like that than to "bypass" treble wiring)
 
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#12
rojo412 said:
I agree. And I'll go one further: I don't like active treble at all. So for me, having mid and bass controls with passive tone is ideal. @Passinwind sent me a 2B preamp with mid and bass, I installed it with PTC and bypass and the results are great. @timendous knows what I'm talking about!

(all that said, I have 3B preamps in basses with PTC because it's easier to keep them like that than to "bypass" treble wiring)
Click to expand...

The Noll 50K/250K dual pots work pretty well in the latter scenario, IME. In my experience it can be especially hard to make an active treble control that sounds good in both boost and cut modes, as for me at least I want those things to happen at very different frequencies.

I know you didn't bond with the variable LPF thing in my original open source format, but recently new parts have become available that let the cut mode work much more effectively. Even more so on the boost side, but I reckon that's not your bag, like many others. All good, I'd get really bored if everyone wanted what I like for my own playing situations! ;)
 
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#13
IIRC Dingwall did a thing with active treble boost (which I do like sometimes for slap) and passive tone in one knob. I'm not sure exactly how that's done electronically speaking, but I would sure love to try it sometime!
Also on my bucket list is the Glockenklang onboard pre w/ a similar idea - the treble knob becomes a tone knob in passive mode.
I'm not absolutely set against having the separate knob for passive tone, but I always like less clutter!
 
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#15
tb-player said:
The title pretty-much says it all.

I love active basses. But I believe all of them should have an overall tone knob in addition to fancy EQs. Setting a 3-band, boost/cut EQ with mid-sweep can require a bit of skill. But sometimes, you just need a quick way to cut the overall sizzle without having to completely readjust everything. Sadowsky’s Vintage Tone Control has always been great for this. I just wish other preamp manufacturers would see the benefit.

Anyone else play active and rely on a passive tone knob?
Click to expand...

For me, a "must have" feature would be a mute switch on all V-V-T basses.
 
#19
It would be nice for you and everyone who likes it to have that option when buying basses/pickups/preamps, but it's absurd to think it should be a requirement.

On my bass with active electronics i have wished it had passive tone exactly 0 times. I can push/pull the Bart pre between active/passive, and push/pull the midrange pot for passive tone. I could honestly do without passive mode or passive tone. And if that bass had an extra pot dedicated solely to passive tone, i'd be pissed off i had extra knobs on there.

In fact, i considered deleting my tone control knob on my other bass too. I opted to replace it with a pushbutton: 100% open/100% rolloff.
 
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#20
Jefenator said:
IIRC Dingwall did a thing with active treble boost (which I do like sometimes for slap) and passive tone in one knob. I'm not sure exactly how that's done electronically speaking, but I would sure love to try it sometime!
Also on my bucket list is the Glockenklang onboard pre w/ a similar idea - the treble knob becomes a tone knob in passive mode.
I'm not absolutely set against having the separate knob for passive tone, but I always like less clutter!
Click to expand...

The Noll dual pot will do any and all of that for you, it's really a pretty slick piece as long as your active treble circuit wants a 50k pot.
 
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