Dean active or passive

[TKnights]

I was just given a Dean Bass (PJ pickup config) Does anyone know if the pickups are active or just the electronics before I break it down for repair?

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Dean made a lot of different basses. More info needed. However, if there’s a wire, typically red, going from the pickup to a battery positive connection then the pickups are active. Most pickups are passive going into an active preamp.

 

[TKnights]

This is one of the lower end Dean basses. Most guitars and basses of this caliber have passive PUs with an active preamp. I think that the preamp is shot so I want to convert it to a passive bass. I like passive better anyway. But I wanted to make sure that the pickups are passive before I rip the preamp out. The rest of the bass is in pretty good shape.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Active pickups can work without a preamp, you’ll just want different potentiometer values, 25 or 50kohm instead of 250 or 500. I have one bass with EMG’s and a VVT passive treble cut with a capacitor tone control.

Pictures of the control cavity and specifically the pickup wires would help. We’re working blind without more information.

 

[TKnights]

The PUs are passive so, I took the preamp out. It was cooked. One of the pots pulled right out of it. So, Moved the input jack to the top instead of the back and went with a PJ wiring (2 volumes and 1 tone). I have a few more tweaks to deal with but for a free bass it's OK. I may change the pus anyway. I have some Di Marzios lurking about somewhere.

 

[TKnights]

More on that Dean Bass; There is no serial # anywhere on the bass. So I can't identify the model or year or even location of the mfg. Anyone have any ideas?