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Do you mostly play passive or active basses?

Do you mostly play passive or active basses?

  • Passive - no batteries for me

    Votes: 235 58.3%

  • Active - with either a pre amp, active pups, or both

    Votes: 141 35.0%

  • Carrots with a 9 volt

    Votes: 27 6.7%
  • Total voters
    403
#41
Jim C said:
Curious what the percentages are
Click to expand...
I had a Warwick Covette STD for a good while that was active. It’s the
only one I’ve owned, but I’ve played others. With my limited exposure, I can say the Covette sounded better without cutting or boosting the preamp and the balance at the center detent.

I will add this that I only use amps that offer excellent tonal control and haven’t owned an integrated amp without a parametric mid range EQ in over 25 years.

Active bass with on board EQs offers the convenience of adjusting your tone without running back and forth to your rig for adjustments, as well as mitigating tonal shortcomings of one’s rig.
 
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#43
I am old. Passive. P Basses.

I've owned and played active basses in the past but speaking for myself, I would always be messing and tinkering around with the Eq controls instead of staying focused on playing.

Also, and only speaking for myself, I find active basses to be redundant because I already have all the Eq that I need on my amp.
 
#44
Of my 5 basses, 4 are active. I play two of those passively, with the pre-bypassed. The other two are always active but if I had the option I might also play the fretless passively. The ABG is piezo so no choice but to use the pre.

My perfect bass would be active with a bypass. 90% of the time I would play them passively. It's always nice to have the option of switching on a onboard pre if you need to extend your tone a bit.
 
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#46
If I like the tone, I could care less what's under the hood. I often think it's amazing the fear a 9v battery can instill in grown men.

1761143708283.png

I'm coming for YOU . . . . .

I frankly got spoiled to a period where I played axes with full EMG installs, and later Alembics: They were in a practical sense silent. No noise. And since I prefer an uncolored tone, they were right down my alley.

Later I began to play a lot of passive fendershapedobjects, all passive. Gotta admit it was different with tone that had a little hair on it and no cut/boost (I will NOT give up a balancer for two volumes, though), and as long as they were quiet, a lot of fun as they were different to active and far more simple under the hood.

Again, if I like this or that bass, I'm at this long enough I can teach it to do what I want, active, passive, doesn't really matter.

Plus, I don't get the cold sweats when I see a 9v battery . . . . sad, really.
 
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#47
Hello everyone,

I have owned in total 64 basses. 31 were active.
I now only own a Yamaha TRBX304 and am considering getting a Sire Z3 or a Squier Affinity Active Jazz Bass.. so i guess i like active basses more?
 
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#53
I have one active bass, a Kramer DMZ6000B, which gives me the sound I want for a few songs that our band does. I'm not fond of the background hiss from the rather primitive electronics, though. The rest of my basses are all passives, unless you want to count the acoustic bass with a preamp as an active bass, which would still leave the 4 other passives in a clear majority.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both, so I use whatever works for the current situation.
 
#54
J Wilson said:
If I like the tone, I could care less what's under the hood. I often think it's amazing the fear a 9v battery can instill in grown men.

View attachment 7350069
I'm coming for YOU . . . . .

I frankly got spoiled to a period where I played axes with full EMG installs, and later Alembics: They were in a practical sense silent. No noise. And since I prefer an uncolored tone, they were right down my alley.

Later I began to play a lot of passive fendershapedobjects, all passive. Gotta admit it was different with tone that had a little hair on it and no cut/boost (I will NOT give up a balancer for two volumes, though), and as long as they were quiet, a lot of fun as they were different to active and far more simple under the hood.

Again, if I like this or that bass, I'm at this long enough I can teach it to do what I want, active, passive, doesn't really matter.

Plus, I don't get the cold sweats when I see a 9v battery . . . . sad, really.
Click to expand...
Yes, I would prefer my active EQ to be powered by a nano-gram of plutonium, with a half-life of 500 years, but so far that option isn't available?
 
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#58
Mostly passive, but there's no wrong answer, to be sure. I prefer the warm, passive, vintage tone in my old age. But there is a place for active basses, for sure. Totally personal preference. If I play an active bass, it has to have a passive bypass that still works even if the batteries die as a failsafe. But that's just me.
 
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#59
mambo4 said:
Passive I have always found to work better in a mix
Most of what active brings to my EQ spectrum is in the "eaten by guitars and drums" range of frequencies.
I suppose it must depend on the ensemble to a large degree.
Click to expand...

I would chalk all of that up more to the room/FOH/amplifier settings and the rest of the band than the fact that a bass has an active on-board EQ. If you're sending the FOH a signal with a bunch of EQ already baked in, it could certainly cause problems there too. But an active bass, set flat or with very minor boosts/cuts, shouldn't render it 'eaten up' at all, unless the FOH engineer doesn't know what they're doing. I've heard passive Jazz and P-Basses rendered as lifeless 'thuds' or devoid of mids by a careless FOH engineer, which is why the active/passive 'live' debate as an either/or doesn't ever sit well with me. Too many factors at play. YMMV.
 
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#60
70% (5/7) of my electrics are actives nowadays. I'm mostly using either a Stingray, my Maruszczyk Jazzus P/MM with Audere Classic 3-band +tone, or a Godin A5 ultra fretless. The only passive basses I have are the 4003s, the LB-100, and the upright.
 

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