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Audere major hiss

#42
Well, I was finding it odd, then I googled and found a thread right here on TalkBass where the poster had the same issue. I never raised that question to Lakland because I thought there was a reason for the wiring to be this way. Then again, I have very little experience with other brands. Well, it doesn't hurt to ask, I will do that. How's the Audere going?
 
#43
I have a Warmoth Fretless with the Audere pre and 2 Delano SBC5 pups that hisses badly when all controls are set flat..It sounds like you are at the beach.. If you turn on the treble boost or boost the high end eq it is like an approaching tsunami.... The output level from this bass is the lowest of any of my basses. Passive jazz and P basses are a fair bit louder.. I have no idea what to do.. I guess I have to see wire the pups directly to the output jack and bypass the pre for a test.. I am a long way from any guitar tech that can look at it.. I will reiterate that it is a hiss and not a hum. Maybe it is a pre/pup compatabilty issue..
 
#44
I've noticed the same issue with my Audere preamp, using a variety of pickups. I have wired it up correctly (according to the instructions) and the cavity is completely shielded.

I noticed the hiss was much more noticeable when the pre-amp was in "high Z" mode. I'm going to try it in "medium Z" mode to see if I can get it under control. The output level is quite low as well.

Bass_69, the Delano SBC pickups sound really nice in all-passive mode. I've got one Warmoth Gecko fretless 5-string bass with these in it (at the moment) and they sound incredible. You should probably give this a try before you think about replacing the pickups.
 
#45
joeyl said:
Regarding them, I just wanted to mention a conversation I had with Larry Pollack back in 2003 when I bought a set of J Type I's direct. I told him I was going to use them with a J-Retro and he actually discouraged me from doing it. He told me that they were designed to sound best as passive pickups, no preamp and he was quite clear in his description of added impedances, no true bypass etc.
Well, I went ahead and used them with the pre anyway and they sounded....okay. I never really got behind the way they came across. So I took out the pre and never looked back. Those pickups just blossomed into what they were obviously meant to be and i wouldn't have them any other way.
Click to expand...

You know in a way you are fooling yourself. There is no such thing as a "passive" bass! What I'm saying is that your amp is FULL of active electronics. The fact that there is no preamp in your bass does not mean there is not still one in the amp that your bass is going through.

What I'm getting at is that there is no reason that a preamp in your bass cannot sound the same as the one in your amp...IF EVERYTHING IS WIRED RIGHT.

And that is the rub. Lots of active basses do not have the pickups wired the same as passive ones do. On the other hand, some basses start with the passive wiring and then add a preamp afterwards so the sound of the bass doesn't change from active to passive (except for the difference in cable loss due to the line driver).

However all active components do add noise. It's a kind of hiss that is the nature of the parts. (Passive components do also but it is too low to ever hear). But that brings up another problem. Since many bass players are not familiar with electronics they have a hard time describing the noises they are hearing. They confuse a high frequency "hum", meaning higher harmonics of 60 Hz hum, which is really a kind of treble "buzz" from true "hiss" which is the noise you hear between stations on an FM radio. The fixes for these two noises are quite different!

Normal for active circuits (even in your amp) would be to hear little hiss when EQ is set flat but to hear some but not an objectionably loud hiss when the treble control is turned up.

Thus the OP in post #5 is pretty much describing normal expected active operation:

"Seems I fixed my own problems. removed and checked all shielding and grounds reinstalled and the hiss is practically gone. Only there now when Highz is engaged and treble is cranked."
 
#47
I have a '95 Quantum 6 with M5- sized quad coils Barts; replaced the stock pre (an early TCT) with the Audere 4-band. My bass had very low output until I put the caps back on (thought Bart pups were passive?). Anyway, the pre is working but same hiss issue here. I'm thinking about replacing the Audere with a Bart 5.2 now.
 
#48
I've got some of the same problems. I wired up an Audere 3ZB to a pair of Nordstrand Big Splits in my MTD KZ-5. The installation went smoothly but the sound is not what I expected. In High-z mode there is a bunch of hiss. In mid z-mode not as much and in low z-mode a bunch of hiss.

The output of my bass has almost dropped in half. In the band I play in, we use direct boxes straight to the board. The sound guy has to almost max out the gain to get me loud enough.

Not sure what to do. Anyone want to buy a used Audere 3ZB?
 

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