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

#101
We certainly don't "need" high-end basses with intricate active electronics. We don't need any bass. The world was fine for many millennia without the electric bass. A P-bass with no effects straight into my GK does more than I'm capable of as a hobby bassist that plays P&W on Sundays and does fill in work and a few open mics. But plenty of folks love their Foderas with pickups that cost more than my entire rig. More power to them. World would be a boring place if everyone did the same things as me.
 
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#103
jim777 said:
I too wrote a long winded response, but everything I wanted to say has already been said, and should be obvious.

I'll just leave it at this : OP, you don't have 2 basses with active pickups, you have 2 with active preamps: there's a difference.
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Well we don't know that for sure - he may have EMGs or Evans of some old Basslines (or an older high-end SGr... or, or), - he didn't actually say what his active basses where did he?
While you are probably right - very few basses have active pickups now, there was time in the 90s when very many did have active (or at the very least low impedance which are effectively active as they ONLY work effectively with a pre and power). Assuming he wasn't just stirring up s*** I will say the point was only two of his basses are not of the "modern elaborate" variety.
Of course, if he was just trying to stir up controversy - then, please continue to mock his ignorance.
 
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#104
Jack Butler said:
We certainly don't "need" high-end basses with intricate active electronics. We don't need any bass. The world was fine for many millennia without the electric bass. A P-bass with no effects straight into my GK does more than I'm capable of as a hobby bassist that plays P&W on Sundays and does fill in work and a few open mics. But plenty of folks love their Foderas with pickups that cost more than my entire rig. More power to them. World would be a boring place if everyone did the same things as me.
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I don't know man, I think I DO need my basses - LOTS OF THEM AND MULTIPLE RIGS AND A TON OF EFFECTS AND... AND... AND... AUUUUGH! But I'm not hooked, I could quite anytime, I like living in an alleyway surrounded by thousands of dollars in gear.
Hey buddy, can you spare an EQ?
 
#107
danosix said:
Well we don't know that for sure - he may have EMGs or Evans of some old Basslines (or an older high-end SGr... or, or), - he didn't actually say what his active basses where did he?
While you are probably right - very few basses have active pickups now, there was time in the 90s when very many did have active (or at the very least low impedance which are effectively active as they ONLY work effectively with a pre and power). Assuming he wasn't just stirring up s*** I will say the point was only two of his basses are not of the "modern elaborate" variety.
Of course, if he was just trying to stir up controversy - then, please continue to mock his ignorance.
Click to expand...

Yes, we both know there is the possibility he has EMGs or another active pickup type like an early Bart or something, but we also both know the likelihood he knows what he's got is almost non-existent. I am not a betting man, but I'd bet he not only doesn't have active pickups, but he doesn't know he doesn't have active pickups. He has 2 basses that have batteries, and that equals active pickups for him end of story. That is so much more typing than his original point deserved LOL
 
#110
Those "simpler basses" were state of the art though, I'm pretty sure those cats didn't look back to glorify washtub basses or some other at the time simpler basses, they played the best instruments they could.

Anyway, "best" is subjective, what's great now is we have a choice of any number of different (not "better") instruments and we get to choose according to taste and music style. Happy days.
 
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#112
I went to see "Motown the Musical" last night at Fisher Theatre in Detroit. It is literally right down the street from Hitsville USA, which I have visited many times.

And this is relevant because??????

As one would expect, they played a ton of Motown classics. Songs that were recorded using P-basses with worn out flats, tube amps with questionable speaker technology, mixed through sound boards and microphones that by today's standards would be considered toys. I seriously doubt that the band playing from the orchestra pit or the singers on the stage where using anything resembling the archaic equipment that is still to this day hooked up in the little house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard. But they NAILED the tone and the feel of originals.

We spend a lot of time on TB professing that only non-modern, non-active basses can achieve sound reminiscent of "the old school", even though every other piece of the sonic formula has long moved on. I don't get where the angst lies.

If You Hear Any Noise...

If You Hear Any Noise...

  • Media owner malthumb
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It's just me and my boys....in front of Motown Museum at Detroit Bass Player's photo shoot in 2012
 
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#116
In music, as in all things that involve subjective taste, there is no categorical way to quantify it. You may not "need" active electronics, but someone else might. The question is who are you to make that call for someone else?
Personally I like the ability to shape my tone to be exactly what I want it to be. My Lakland 44-02 has a three band EQ and the ability to split the MM style humbucker, which gives me an endless number of tonal options. In my mind I can't understand why someone would want a boring old P-bass when my bass can do that, plus a jazz, plus a Music Man, plus its own unique tone. But that's me.
 
#119
I used to play a hondo bass with a marlin neck with an m6 penny washer as a neck shim through an old 70 watt pa. That was twenty years ago and my playing/tone went down really well. Now I have an active ibanez and really aapreciate the controllability the preamp gives. It's a sound gear model but quite different from what I played before. I agree with a lot of the comments in this thread. The added extras are there if you want them, if not no problem.
 

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