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Are Active basses reliable?

#61
Sometimes bad an weird things happen with either passive or active basses and guitars. My band was practicing before a gig and my guitar player stepped on his guitar cord and twisted all in one big unfortunate move. Guitar stopped working. Changed the cable, still no good.
I trouble shot it to the jack on the guitar. A stereo jack for active pickups of course. I had a new one so i changed it out. And we played the gig. Recently his guitar has been intermittent. It was the connection with the jack. A crimp connector.This has been my 2nd time dealing with Emg pickups since they went to solder free, the first was Gezzer PJ pickups for my roadstar 2. Im not a fan. Why would you add in the possibility of failure with a non bonded connection. Pickups are sweet, keep them soldered!
End rant.
 
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#63
I had a guitar with a preamp in it. The thing became a perfect AM radio one day - turns out the battery had a bad cell, which was the detector that made it a radio. Yes, adding a preamp adds complication, which makes an instrument somewhat less reliable, but most of the time, you'll be OK. What matters most is that the person that designed the preamp knows what they're doing - some of that is stuff like using filter caps that have some margin in terms of voltage ratings, etc.

But, the most important thing in a battery driven design is reverse polarity protection. While people claim you can do this mechanically, I work for a company where we've looked at this 7 ways to Sunday, and mechanically, you really can't do it (for 9 volt batteries) - it needs to be done electrically. That costs some money, and I'd bet most preamps in basses aren't done that way.
 
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#66
magic8161 said:
I just bought my first Active bass a Musicman sub Sterling. I don't take a back up with due to flying etc etc. Are they pretty reliable? Not talking about the battery now just in general? Or am I better off taking my passive bass ?
Click to expand...
I've had three active basses throughout my 20 years of playing. All of them had electronics issues after a couple years. Short, bad battery terminal, fried board. I’ve had 4 passive basses, ive never had any problems with them.
 
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#69
The only bass failure that's happened for me at a gig was a pair of tuning machines that pooped out. No idea what specifically made it happen, but the posts on two of the tuners sheared away from their gears. At first I thought I could get away with only three strings until I realized that two were out of action. Now I prefer to bring a pair of basses when I have a full night of playing ahead of me.

I've never had the electronics in a bass go kerflooey on me at a gig. I played a passive Jazz for many years, but now my two primary players have active preamps and they can be switched to passive. They both actually sound rather nice in passive mode.
 
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#70
There is very little current running through an on board preamp, so you don't need to worry about burning out the preamp or components wearing out. The only issue that I've ever heard of with a preamp is a certain Fender preamp that would die if you inserted the battery backwards. That was a poor design. It does require you to keep track of the battery life, but that's not overly difficult. Don't put an active bass in long term storage without removing the battery. Keep a spare battery in your gig bag / case and a screw driver if your bass requires one to access the battery compartment.

The benefits of an onboard preamp generally outweigh the possible sources of failures.
 
#71
I'd say so. Of course like with anything you need to take care of it and do some routine maintenance and preventive/ regular care on it is never a bad idea either. Keeping up on the batteries in active basses.
 
#73
IME, yes. 20+ years playing, dozens of basses, various makes.. The vast majority not passive, or at least not solely passive. Never had one issue with any. Have never drained my wallet on batteries, either. I reckon I change a battery in any given active bass once or twice per year, and that's with very frequent practice/rehearsal/gig/recording time. Just keep it unplugged when not in use, don't go overboard on the EQ for extended periods. Has worked well for me.
 
#76
I only play actives and never once had a single problem due to electronics. I always carry a spare, but I have yet to use it. I service all my basses (including batterie) after the family drama during christmas is over. Once broke a string, and my cables love to fail at the rehearsal before a gig (luckily not at it), but that is not due to the electronics.
 
#77
magic8161 said:
I just bought my first Active bass a Musicman sub Sterling. I don't take a back up with due to flying etc etc. Are they pretty reliable? Not talking about the battery now just in general? Or am I better off taking my passive bass ?
Click to expand...
Just a guess but I'd have to say they're as reliable as passive basses, or almost as reliable.
You're talking about playing it, not slaying it, right?
 
#78
The only issues I've had with my basses are from years of wear and tear generally. Tuners, poor solder joints, worn out output jacks, nut slots worn too deep, battery box contacts failing, and bridge saddles failing to intonate due to oxidation are the issues I've encountered. Almost everyone of these issues can be avoided if you maintain proper maintenance on your basses.
 
#79
Emg’s are some of most reliable consistent pickups out there.current setups have solderless wiring with a very simple setup.stay up to date on the battery and you’ll have no issues.when you start getting into onboard preAmps and all that it gets complicated. Less is more.emgs are the only way to go for active pickups.most “ active” basses out there are actually passive with an active preAmp.emgs are truly active.they have awesome tone and are simple as it comes.
 
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#80
I only have one bass that is semi-active - an L2K right now (the one in the sig). I've had several bass failures (hardware related) in the past with passive basses that would now be labeled vintage or collectible (they weren't then). This was very serious as it happened during performances.

Modern stuff is really very good. I have had some different sort of problems with the L2K that required attention, are related to motion, and may be appropriate for other active basses, but I don't have enough experience traveling with anyone of them but the L2K. They were also one's off and easily fixed. Afterwards, the bass was very reliable, at least if I remember to change the battery every year. I always keep a spare in the case though.

The problems that I had with the L2K, related to the electronics were the following:
  1. There was a resonance in the battery compartment. When I hit an E2 (at least that's what I remember it to be), I got an extra undesired resonance, like a buzz, very audible through the amp. Turns out the battery was vibrating in the compartment; the newer battery was just small enough to not be securely damped. I wrapped a rubber band around it and the resonance disappeared.
  2. I'm not a dancer, but I move around enough while playing that the preamp started to contact the shielding on the back of the access panel. This caused some really unpleasant pops. I imagine that this was made worse by air time this bass saw. I just insulated the access panel with some transparent packing tape and problem was solved.
 

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