Does my bass have active or passive pickups? (Peavey Milestone IV)

[Antonkt]

Hi
I have a Peavey Milestone series IV bass at home. On my amplifier you need to plug it into either active or passive. I don't which one mine is?
Sorry for the bad english
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[teej]

Milestones are passive.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/bass/peavey-milestone-4-string-electric-bass

FEATURES

• Neck
• Shape: C
• Wood: Maple
• Neck joint: 4-Bolt
• Scale length: 34"
• Truss rod: Yes
• Finish: Gloss polyester
• Pickups
• Active or passive: Passive
• Configuration: SS
• Neck: Not applicable
• Middle: Split single coil
• Bridge: Single-coil
• Brand: Peavey
• Series or parallel: Series
• Active preamp: Not applicable
• Special electronics: Not applicable
• Fretboard
• Material: Rosewood
• Radius: 12"
• Fret size: Medium-jumbo
• Number of frets: 20
• Inlays: Dot
• Nut material: Synthetic bone
• Nut width: 1.5" (38.1mm)
• Neck width at 12 fret: 0.903"
• Body
• Style: Double cutaway
• Construction: Solidbody
• Body wood: Maple
• Top wood: Maple
• Body finish: Gloss
• Orientation: Right-handed
• Controls
• Control layout: Volume 1, volume 2, master tone
• Pickup switch: No
• Coil tap or split: Not applicable
• Tone switching: Yes
• Special switching: Yes
• Hardware
• Bridge type: Fixed
• Bridge design: 4-Saddle vintage style
• Tailpiece: Not applicable
• Tuning machines: Open-geared
• Color: Chrome
• Other
• Number of strings: 4

 

[RickyT]

Let me Google that for you......Passive

 

[line6man]

When in doubt, check the wiring. If the battery connects to the pickups, then they are active. Otherwise, they are passive.

 

[mech]

When there is no battery, they are definitely passive

 

[dtripoli]

No worries
Milestone Basses are fine being passive
Many, many professional bassists over the years use nothing but passive
Years ago I got an active/passive bass and went around telling everyone how useless
the active function was on it. It wasn't until a full year later someone asked when I last changed the battery.
"It has a battery?" Oh....
I had gotten so used to the passive tone when I did change the battery I rarely used the active mode.

 

[teej]

I tried an active set of EMGs once and later an active on-board preamp (Aguilar OBP) but decided I preferred the simplicity of a passive setup.

 

[lz4005]

On my amplifier you need to plug it into either active or passive. I don't which one mine is?

Doesn't matter. Try both, use the one that sounds better.

 

[teej]

Doesn't matter. Try both, use the one that sounds better.

If I had to guess, the active input probably has lower gain.

 

[line6man]

The active vs. passive input labeling on amps is a misnomer that actually has nothing whatsoever to do with whether a bass is active or passive. When active circuits became popular, there was some anticipation that they would have high output, but that ended up not being the case. The convention has remained, however.

The difference between the active and passive input usually does not involve input impedance, as you would expect. Rather, the active input is usually just a padded down version of the passive input. Unfortunately, it is usually just padded with a resistor, so it does not sound very good. The way that you choose which input to use is to always start with the passive, and only switch over to the active if the passive is distorting too easily.