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Do we really need high-end basses with intricate active electronics?

#201
"Need" and "Want" are two different things.

If you decide that technically you "need" a certain type of bass with onboard electronics to cover certain situations pertinent to your career,style,recordings......I see nothing wrong with that.

If you own a Volkswagen and you decide you need a 4x4 truck instead......well...then you have to buy one.

Onboard electronics (along with more than one PUP selection) can make a bass pretty versatile.........and in most cases you get what you pay for...

Regardless of the price point as far as high-end basses go.......it's like everything else in life...some will be better than others...
 
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#202
I have a somewhat roadworn Alembic Epic 5 that I bought used. It's a low-end high-end bass. :D

As far as active vs. passive, I didn't make my choice in basses on that criterion. My two main basses (the Alembic and a Bongo 5 HHP) are both active, but it was just that both basses I liked enough to buy happened to be active ones.
 
#205
ZenG said:
"Need" and "Want" are two different things.

If you decide that technically you "need" a certain type of bass with onboard electronics to cover certain situations pertinent to your career,style,recordings......I see nothing wrong with that.

If you own a Volkswagen and you decide you need a 4x4 truck instead......well...then you have to buy one.

Onboard electronics (along with more than one PUP selection) can make a bass pretty versatile.........and in most cases you get what you pay for...

Regardless of the price point as far as high-end basses go.......it's like everything else in life...some will be better than others...
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Definitely a want vs need thing.
Do I need active electronics?
No.
Did I want them?
I neither wanted nor didn't want them.
When I bought my first bass in eons--my SR500F--it had active electronics--and others I considered did not--but that was not a deciding factor--the SR500F played & felt great--and the price was right...

If you want active electronics--go for it--if you don't like them, then don't get them.
 
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#206
tonemachine said:
Now, do we really need basses with switches, or 5 strings
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We need basses with switches and 5 strings! :D

DSC00218.jpg




tonemachine said:
Stop, nobody answer that.
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Sorry...
 
#212
I'm glad at least a couple of others 'got' the pragmatic viewpoint I was trying to share with my original post as opposed to laughing off my post in the first place. And yes, I stand by the assertion that some players will over-use the EQ on an active bass to cover up or alter the tone to compensate if they don't have their technique together enough to produce a solid, pleasing tone in the first place, or if they fail to understand that tone starts in the hands and technique first - and you can't polish a turd. I have seen on many occasions someone cranking the knobs around on a bass before they ever play it flat to see if they really need ANY adjustments because 'that's what they have to do to get their sound'. Granted, more experienced players tend to NOT do this and will utilize an active EQ in the manner I described - minimal cuts/boosts except where needed and getting to know the bass flat before adjusting. As WVBass mentioned in his response to my post, this approach tends to keep engineers happy since they aren't chasing your gain around, or slapping a heavy-handed compressor on you to keep your levels in check. However you choose to use your active EQ is your business... just know what you're doing and do it tastefully.

wvbass said:
This probably isn't particularly relevant to the silly topic of this thread, but I really like this statement. It describes fairly accurately what for me is one of the key advantages to an active bass. If you use your pickup blend as your primary midrange control (which, IMO, is what a 2-band EQ is perfectly adequate in many situations), then you can use the bass control to compensate for any change in the low end caused by moving the blend knob. This leaves the treble control to adjust your presence in the mix.

This is by far not the only valid approach to using a bass's active electronics, but it is a very practical and simple approach to getting a variety of tones in a way that won't drive your soundman crazy. IMO.
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#213
I love the way my MTD 435 sounds absolutely love it. I also love the way it feels to hold it and to play on the neck. I love my Roscoe when I had that as well. Very comfortable, great sounding, light. Other basses I've loved Stingrays, Bongo's, Reflex, Fbass, Warwick...etc.

Over the last 17 years of playing, I've had a lot of time to play a lot of instruments. I always go back to active electronics. At one point I owned all passive and found myself dissatisfied and lacking in that tone I wanted. No my amp couldn't achieve, no effects couldn't quite cut it. Only an active bass could. I wanted that super high output, treble making, clangy sound. I wanted that extra growl.

I own a Squier Jazz right now and enjoy it but I'd never give up my MTD because I just love the sound. To each there own. Who cares what other people play? Why is this always a question here? You don't understand it? So what. You don't have to.
 
#214
I have always had active basses. I like having more control over the EQ so that I can more easily find a niche in the mix where I can be heard without being overpoweringly loud. Maybe someone with better chops than I have could do it with a passive bass with the EQ knob broken off. So what?
 
#215
I went from active to passive on my last gig just because the Duncan preamp I had was giving me grief and the sound man didn't care for me changing my sound on the fly. It was funny seeing his expressions when he couldn't figure out why the sound was changing.
 
#217
I like passive basses. Just bass -> cable -> amp. I mainly use active basses though. EQ flat, when I play with the band I try to adjust, sometimes guitar players tend to use a quite bassy guitar sound. So I use the EQ to still sit well in the mix. Since all my basses are double pickup basses, I switch a lot between songs. I mostly use one pickup only.
 
#219
JazznFunk said:
I'm glad at least a couple of others 'got' the pragmatic viewpoint I was trying to share with my original post as opposed to laughing off my post in the first place. And yes, I stand by the assertion that some players will over-use the EQ on an active bass to cover up or alter the tone to compensate if they don't have their technique together enough to produce a solid, pleasing tone in the first place, or if they fail to understand that tone starts in the hands and technique first - and you can't polish a turd.
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Well, I'm glad to hear we've finally established that "it's all in the fingers"!

So I was playing my Alembic, Ken Smith, and Modulus actives and then one day I ordered a passive SX Fender clone from Rondo! It was "just like coming home"! I realized that the tone out of those active basses wasn't adequate because the EQ was covering up my technique! And then I disconnected the passive tone control and volumes on the SX and wired the pickups right to the jack and my playing greatly improved. But then I discovered that there were EQ knobs all over the front of my Bass head! No problem, I dumped that junk in the trash and bought a nice PA power amp with ZERO controls on the front! Now THAT is REAL bass tone! Right from my fingers directly to the audience! And I never looked back.

Come on, admit it. You are really a guitar player, right? :)
 
#220
Yes. You nailed it. Congratulations... here's your trophy. :rollno:

bassbenj said:
Well, I'm glad to hear we've finally established that "it's all in the fingers"!

So I was playing my Alembic, Ken Smith, and Modulus actives and then one day I ordered a passive SX Fender clone from Rondo! It was "just like coming home"! I realized that the tone out of those active basses wasn't adequate because the EQ was covering up my technique! And then I disconnected the passive tone control and volumes on the SX and wired the pickups right to the jack and my playing greatly improved. But then I discovered that there were EQ knobs all over the front of my Bass head! No problem, I dumped that junk in the trash and bought a nice PA power amp with ZERO controls on the front! Now THAT is REAL bass tone! Right from my fingers directly to the audience! And I never looked back.

Come on, admit it. You are really a guitar player, right? :)
Click to expand...
 

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