Confession: I Never Turn The Knobs On My Active Bass

[groooooove]

i very rarely use the active EQ. but all of my basses i play regularly are active.

i'll sometimes know how i like a certain sound... for bridge pickup punch i boost the low and cut the mid, but only slightly. i'll use the treble control if i don't have a passive tone.

but 90% of the time it's flat and i'm using a VT bass or something, that's where i make changes.

 

[yodedude2]

also, some active preamp are better than others. But again, it’s just a tool. If you don’t need it, just don’t use it.

but if you do need it, it's really nice to have it.

 

[David Vector]

Never really use on-board EQ on active basses. I have track templates in the DAW for each bass that are already dialed in to get each bass sitting in the mix well. But they only work if what's coming off the bass itself is consistent every time I go to record something with the bass in question. So having the sound partly defined by EQ adjustments on the bass itself, which can be messed up if the knobs get jostled and can then never be set exactly the same again, is a no-go. A good parametric EQ in the DAW is a much more precision tool than a 2 or 3-band EQ built into a bass preamp anyway. (Sometimes the template EQ might have to be adjusted if I swap out the kick drum for something dramatically different but, most of the time, the templates work as-is.)

 

[rgptalkbass]

In this world generally active bass mean passive pickups with active preamp. In that case you can use that preamp for eq or a pedal preamp. Obviously the bass preamp colour the signal, generally the treble is in freqs related with the bright (8 khz aprox). But in that kind of active bass maybe is better using passive with a better pre pedal quality. In te case of active bass with active pickups the dynamic of the pickups change. They are more sensitive. Some people prefer that. Is the same as comparing a car without turbo and with turbo. In my case I use a jazz bass passive because is more clean and then you can process.

 

[Nedmundo]

My only active bass is a G&L USA M-2500, and with the EQ set flat there's way too much treble and bass for my tastes, so my standard tone is the treble cut to about 20%, and the bass cut to about 70%. (I usually pan slightly to the neck pickup, which adds some thickness.) It's usually set-and-forget, so I'll only move from that when a song calls for it, like boosting the bass for reggae or to get a club bass sound in a musical.

But I'm usually relying just on my stage amplification and I rarely use pedals, so my EQ changes won't cause problems. When I'm going through the house system, I don't want to mess with the EQ and frustrate the sound folks. In the musical, the tonal changes were addressed in rehearsals, so the sound crew knew what was coming.

 

[Hasty]

I play both active and passive. My primary active bass has an Aguilar OBP-3 and I love playing live with it. The mid knob is set up with a switch to toggle between 400Hz or 800Hz and the knob will add or cut based whichever frequency I have selected. I generally set it for the room at sound check and leave it alone if possible, but sometimes I'll adjust it if needed. It's probably my easiest bass to balance a room/band with... just so consistent. I primarily change my tone with finger position and playing style once the knobs are set.

If I'm using my Envelope Filter, I'll adjust a little when I turn it on because it adds approximately 80,000dB of gain. Plus I can get some great response out of it adjusting my volume knob as an additional effect layer.

For the primary passive bass, it's fretless. Other than the volume knob I can't remember the last time I adjusted anything on it. In all honesty, that one could have been made with trimpots accessed through the back and been about perfect because once I got the tone and pickup balance dialed in I haven't done anything else with it.

 

[Drog]

I do the same as the OP and leave it once I have the sound I want. The nice thing with active is that with the same amp I use with passive, I know have more EQ options and can dial in a different sound than my Pbass, Jbass or Rick.

 

[40Hz]

My general rule: Set your main EQ in one place only.

My rule of thumb: Set your EQ on the amp and fine tune it on your active bass; or set your EQ on the bass and fine tune on your amp. It’s either/or - not both.

Saves a lot of grief.

I’m in the EQ on amp/fine tune on the bass camp myself. But that’s me.

 

[Mili]

#me too
You can get an active signal without Eq or tone coloring. I saw a bass with a buffer circuit, I'm not sure but i think it was an Overwater jazz bass in Scott Devine's hands.

 

[john_g]

The only thing I adjust on my active basses while playing is maybe dial back the treble for more classic rock songs.

 

[Passinwind]

My general rule: Set your main EQ in one place only.

My rule of thumb: Set your EQ on the amp and fine tune it on your active bass; or set your EQ on the bass and fine tune on your amp. It’s either/or - not both.

Saves a lot of grief.

I’m in the EQ on amp/fine tune on the bass camp myself. But that’s me.

My primary use for the onboard controls is tweaking other people's rigs without touching their scarily precise and immutable control settings. Or maybe they're the precious knobs!

 

[tvbop]

P Crowd member here haha...
Played a 77 Stingray from 80 to 89 and spent more time fiddling with the darn knobs than I did playing it...so to speak....sold it and bought a Precision - no more twiddling, lots more satisfaction.....have since owned 5 P basses cause I love the tonal simplicity!

 

[2F/2F]

I have owned a couple of basses with active electronics: an Ibanez SR505 and now my Ibanez BTB745. But here's a confession: I never turn the knobs when I play. I always have the volume maxed out and each of the three EQ knobs at their center detent.

Why? It's because I want the signal going to my board to remain constant. If I start using volumes other than max, or tweaking the bass or mid knobs, the signal going into my compressor is going to swing a lot. Like to the point where it might be compressing too much or even not at all.

I do like to have different EQ settings going into my sound, though. I have often used a mid-forward EQ for finger style and then a more scooped one for the slappy songs. But I always achieved this post comp either on the board with an EQ pedal, or with a switchable graphic EQ on my amp.

Do people who use these knobs just not care about how the signal variance might affect their comps or their filters or even dirt pedals? Or maybe I'm looking at this wrong.

That is why there are knobs. You can do what you need to do with them. The next person can do what he/she needs with them. And those needs will probably be different. So...knobs. If you don't need them, don't use them. If you do...do.

 

[Pilgrim]

Very simple: do what sounds good to you. You are the bass player.

 

[N4860]

I can absolutely see that if you're not using input-sensitive effects like compression or envelope filters or even certain kinds of OD that you would absolutely not care about whether you were hotting up your signal by bumping the bass and treble for a slappy tune. Or maybe cooling down your level by leaving bass and treble where they are and just dialing back a 500hz mid to achieve a similar scoop. But if you are using any of those things... the idea is just madness.

I wouldn't say it's madness. One can easily adjust their onboard eq as well as make adjustments to their compression, envelope filters, OD, etc. I play mostly active basses and I make adjustments as necessary to all of the pedals as well as my bass and I've never had any problems.

 

[OogieWaWa]

I set the amp for the room and leave it. Almost always in passive, I put the volume and bass knobs where I like them (90% and 80%), on the neck pup and in series, and only change the treble based on the song needs. Almost off for blues, full on for classic rock, etc. We cover a lot of genres: no thinking needed, just one thing to do on stage. Well, I do go Active for the occasional solo. Having said that, it's all about digging in or not, and changing where/how I play that really makes the differences.

 

[Geri O]

My primary use for the onboard controls is tweaking other people's rigs without touching their scarily precise and immutable control settings. Or maybe they're the precious knobs!

LOL, I’ve run into that when having to play a headliner’s rig (not having a choice at times…). I pull out the phone and take a pic of their oh-so-holy settings which always calms the owner and we go on. I don’t mean to make light of those owners’ settings, but geez, after manually recalling settings on a console with 600+ knobs, it’s not a Big Deal to put a few controls on a bass amp back in place. However, I do respect the owners’ wishes and deal accordingly….

 

[logdrum]

Some active bass EQs are bass and maybe even treble boost only - Sadowsky is definitely bass boost only, I think one of the Aguilar is too. MusicMan that EQ is not flat on center and to complicate further it is not symmetrical when you cut or boost. I think it is Treble +20dB / -16dB Bass at +14dB / -7dB. And more often than not even if they are truly flat at center, most of them will have a gain boost over the full wide open output of the pickups. which in effect boost everything else if ever so slightly.

I get it why some folks want to set once and forget. The reason I got active preamps installed in the first place is that it helps in performance. Different songs or the band's dynamic may need slight variations in the bass' sound. I'd rather not adjust my amp once the set starts. That's what sound checks are for. For me why walk over to the amp or bend down to reach your EQ pedal when you can adjust it on the bass itself.

Recording is another world. Get a passive bass or bypass your EQ and let the engineer live or post tracking do all the adjustment unless the song depends on pedals. Although some bass tracks expect that baked in sound of the EQ like MusicMan basses.

 

[TOOL460002]

I was taught to never max out, but roll a bit off the volume in case the mix isn't working.

 

[TTA]

I have owned a couple of basses with active electronics: an Ibanez SR505 and now my Ibanez BTB745. But here's a confession: I never turn the knobs when I play. I always have the volume maxed out and each of the three EQ knobs at their center detent.

Why? It's because I want the signal going to my board to remain constant. If I start using volumes other than max, or tweaking the bass or mid knobs, the signal going into my compressor is going to swing a lot. Like to the point where it might be compressing too much or even not at all.

I do like to have different EQ settings going into my sound, though. I have often used a mid-forward EQ for finger style and then a more scooped one for the slappy songs. But I always achieved this post comp either on the board with an EQ pedal, or with a switchable graphic EQ on my amp.

Do people who use these knobs just not care about how the signal variance might affect their comps or their filters or even dirt pedals? Or maybe I'm looking at this wrong.

Those knobs are there just to make some bassist feel like the have the illusion of control.

The sound guy and his mixer board has all the real power.