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Do you run your bass' volume control wide open?

#104
micguy said:
A volume pedal is another load on the pickup - it'll take away some of that "edge and presence", even with the bass and it on 10.
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Depends on the impedance of the volume pedal. That's why Ernie Ball offers the VP/VP Jr pedals with differing volume pot resistances to reduce the load as much as possible for passive instruments.
 
#105
JazznFunk said:
Depends on the impedance of the volume pedal. That's why Ernie Ball offers the VP/VP Jr pedals with differing volume pot resistances to reduce the load as much as possible for passive instruments.
Click to expand...
The volume control in the bass, the tone control in the bass, and the external volume control are all loads on the pickup(s) that are electrically in parallel. You can make a volume control pedal with a higher value pot than the one on the bass, so it has minimal impact when dimed, but it will always have some impact - your bass will always lose some of its "edge"/presence sonically, even when dimed.

In addition to that, if you use a higher value pot in the external volume control pedal, yes, it minimizes the loss of "edge/presence with the thing on "10", but when the thing is partway up, you will lose more "edge"/presence than you will if you play without the volume pedal and the volume control on your bass part way up. A higher value pot in the volume control pedal is "optimal" for when it's dimed, and worse for when it isn't - if you're going to always dime the volume pedal, then there is no real point to having one. A volume pedal is useful if you really need to control your volume with your foot, but other than that, it's not the optimal solution for an instrument with reactive pickups.
 
#106
I mainly play my P basses with volume full most of the time and adjust my tone knob whenever necessary. As for playing dynamics, I start with my right hand and if that's not cutting it, I use the volume knob on my bass -- if my overall volume is too loud, I adjust my amp.
 
#107
So, why have volume knobs at all? Just plug in an go.
What about the tone knob(s)?
Why aren't all basses just passive with all volume and eq'ing done at the amp or pedal or whatever?

I actually thought about doing this. Passive basses. A bunch of different preamp pedals and/or eq. I guess I kind of did going with a Stomp.
I have 2 active and 2 passive basses. Although like many others I suspect, I run my active basses flat 97%. of the time. My jazz is basically wide open. My P usually gets the tone rolled off a little.
 
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#109
micguy said:
The volume control in the bass, the tone control in the bass, and the external volume control are all loads on the pickup(s) that are electrically in parallel. You can make a volume control pedal with a higher value pot than the one on the bass, so it has minimal impact when dimed, but it will always have some impact - your bass will always lose some of its "edge"/presence sonically, even when dimed.

In addition to that, if you use a higher value pot in the external volume control pedal, yes, it minimizes the loss of "edge/presence with the thing on "10", but when the thing is partway up, you will lose more "edge"/presence than you will if you play without the volume pedal and the volume control on your bass part way up. A higher value pot in the volume control pedal is "optimal" for when it's dimed, and worse for when it isn't - if you're going to always dime the volume pedal, then there is no real point to having one. A volume pedal is useful if you really need to control your volume with your foot, but other than that, it's not the optimal solution for an instrument with reactive pickups.
Click to expand...

Some of us leave our volumes dimed all the time. Some of us prefer to use a volume pedal which - as previously stated - applies as little load as possible to the signal (active OR passive). Some of us REALLY like to control our volumes with our foot and leave our bass's signal dimed for max signal output. I'd wager that no one can hear the loading or loss of 'edge' on their signal from a properly chosen/designed volume pedal in a live situation, especially if you are using a quality bass with a quality active preamp. Passive basses will always be susceptible to loading. It's the nature of the beast. It's why I usually hit a preamp of some sort with a passive bass. YMMV. I will concede that a poorly designed or poorly chosen volume pedal is worse than no volume pedal at all. There's a reason why the passive Ernie Ball pedals are generally regarded as a solid, wise choice.
 
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