Clean boost or passive volume attenuator

[guroove]

In my efforts to match the levels of my basses, I figured it would make more sense just to put some kind of volume control as the first item in my effects chain. So my question is would you prefer a clean boost, or passive volume attenuation to accomplish this?

It might or might not be notable that certain effects like my envelope filter and overdrive do not sound good with my P bass, which is louder than my jazz. For this reason, my first inclination is leaning towards a passive cut on the P bass. I understand my thinking might be completely off on this, so please set me straight if this is the case.

 

[BagelBruin]

Clean boost! I just think they sound like my tone, just louder!

Volume cuts, at least in my journey, create compression.

 

[Jay2U]

The humbuckers of my Ibby are quite loud. In fact too loud for some effects. Apart from the volume controls, I installed an extra switch with three positions. Position 1 leaves the output as it is. Position 2 reduces the signal with a resisror of about 20 kOhms in parallel with the pickups. Position 3 shortcuts the output, making the bass completely silent. I use this switch a lot, I couldn't live without it I guess...

 

[mmbongo]

Volume attenuator, for the reasons mentioned above. Some effects can't handle high output basses. I run a volume attenuator at the front (Barge Concepts) and a Boost at the end to boost it back up (Lizard Legs Blue Tail...amazing boost pedal.) Cheap pedals might give you some compression as mentioned above, but these two don't.

The Lizard Legs Blue Tail can do both, as unity gain on mine is straight up noon. I cannot recommend this pedal strongly enough. It's just a simple booster/attenuator, but it sounds GOOOOOD.
Link Removed