Its not an either or question though. I love a good P bass as they work for many things but I still have others. Perhaps I am the odd man out with that perspective.
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Do you mostly play passive or active basses?
- Thread starter Jim C
- Start date
Active, I don't like cable capacitance sucking my sound and I don't have to be d down to EQ that was. Preferably I like to have the ability to switch to passive though.
The thing with active is you can still use a passive tone control or even e.ulate the cable capacitance if you want. You can even use a power supply so you don't have to use batteries.
The thing with active is you can still use a passive tone control or even e.ulate the cable capacitance if you want. You can even use a power supply so you don't have to use batteries.
passives but i like to have the body rear routed for weight reduction, and HIpshot ultralites to counter that.
Also will try the hot preamps someday, Audere East, Aguilar, Nordy, etc
Also will try the hot preamps someday, Audere East, Aguilar, Nordy, etc
- Aug 21, 2003
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You have a point Lady…I’m a little ignorant in this area. I have actually never owners just a “P bass” and I’m pretty sure I never will.
There are a dozen ways to address cable capacitance. Most tuners have buffers in them that would take care of the issue
So…..
If you play a passive bass into a pedal board, which has some kind of gain stage on it, preamp etc, is your bass active or passive?
The VAST majority of so-called active basses use the same pickups that are on passive basses. I am not able to understand why the physical location of the gain stage in the signal chain affects the “tone,” or classification of the bass as “active” or passive.” Whether a Sadowsky preamp is on the pedal board or on the bass, the signal chain and “tone” are essentially identical.
BTW, I use the Sadowsky preamp on my boards for all of my passive basses; Precision Bass included. Bonus: the Sadowsky preamp on the board is also effective as a leveling amp to control gain staging.
There are a VERY few intrinsically “Active” basses; such as the Alembic Series I / II. I believe those actually started the whole onboard electronics thing. Pretty hard to fault those for “tone.”
Not having a battery onboard the bass, but rather on the pedal board, probably has some maintenance / reliability advantages.
I would advocate good signal chain assembly design, rather than being tribal about the innards of the bass guitar, which is only one piece.
What was the question again?
If you play a passive bass into a pedal board, which has some kind of gain stage on it, preamp etc, is your bass active or passive?
The VAST majority of so-called active basses use the same pickups that are on passive basses. I am not able to understand why the physical location of the gain stage in the signal chain affects the “tone,” or classification of the bass as “active” or passive.” Whether a Sadowsky preamp is on the pedal board or on the bass, the signal chain and “tone” are essentially identical.
BTW, I use the Sadowsky preamp on my boards for all of my passive basses; Precision Bass included. Bonus: the Sadowsky preamp on the board is also effective as a leveling amp to control gain staging.
There are a VERY few intrinsically “Active” basses; such as the Alembic Series I / II. I believe those actually started the whole onboard electronics thing. Pretty hard to fault those for “tone.”
Not having a battery onboard the bass, but rather on the pedal board, probably has some maintenance / reliability advantages.
I would advocate good signal chain assembly design, rather than being tribal about the innards of the bass guitar, which is only one piece.
What was the question again?
I have a couple of two-bands and like 'em, but I always thought the pre-Special three-bands had some unfortunate but inherent sizzle and lack of low mids. To each his own, but I didn't enjoy the tone of those basses.
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
I think that's finding the smallest possible nit in a sea of pedantic nits to pick. 'Active bass' has come to mean, historically, a bass with an active preamp installed in the bass itself, irrespective of the pickups in question. There's a reason why few basses in general followed the Alembic model of being 'fully active', and the options for those systems have remained relatively scarce in comparison to the established setup we see widely used. EMG comes to mind. Even Leo decided that an active pre with a passive humbucker was the ticket for the StingRay.
If you play an active bass into a pedalboard with another preamp somewhere along the way, it doesn't make the bass 'double active'.
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
Rechargeable batteries have existed for decades. They aren't reliable in terms of a full, stable current and it's why they aren't recommended in critical applications like in a bass guitar preamp, especially over time with unreliable current drain. If people are worried about alkaline or lithium 9Vs failing, rechargeable ones are not the answer to help them sleep soundly at night. Plenty of manufacturers and even custom builders recommend against using them for those reasons. And I certainly wouldn't use rechargeable 9Vs in my smoke detectors or anything critical of that nature either. In a portable CD player or walkman that eats batteries regularly? Sure.
I used to have McMillen a battery tester, and would check periodically, and for a while I was still needlessly changing batteries once a year.
I eventually went to changing after 2 years, and they're still perfectly good when I pull em out.
Here is the voltages written on these pulls that were a little over 2 years of use.
I have never ever ever had an active bass fail on at a gig. My only failure was a 70s P bass.
Attachments
Almost always active. I like the sound of my active basses and love having some degree of control over the EQ at the bass.
I believe you missed my point.
If you play a “passive” bass into a pedal board, which has the “active” preamp, is that still a “passive” bass?
If so, how is that different from the same bass with the same preamp installed in it, making it “active?”
These two signal chains are now fairly common. I fail to see how my comment that this supposed differentiation is a “smallest possible nit.”
Alembic pickups are not active, they are low output passive devices. Their passive pickups then go to preamps designed to boost the low output of the pickups.
JazznFunk
Supporting Member
I was responding to the prior commenter who asserted that Alembic's setup was the only 'true' active system. Hopefully they see it. I assume then that they meant that only a true, discreet, 'filter based' EQ system like Alembic's should be considered a 'truly active' system. -shrug-
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JazznFunk
Supporting Member
I did not miss your point. You missed mine.
An active bass has an active preamp onboard. The electronic boost/cut system being built into the bass makes is an 'active' bass per the industry standard definition. A passive bass does not. Not sure how that is confusing.
A car's cruise control manipulates the throttle without using the gas pedal, but that doesn't mean the cruise button is the same as the gas pedal, even though they manipulate the fuel flow into the engine to maintain a given speed. We don't suddenly refer to the cruise button as the gas pedal.
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