I will never buy another "active-only" bass

[Les Fret]

If your message is in reply to my message #178, then we have a little misunderstanding.

My case is about active pick-ups. They don't have the possibility of switching to passive. (Three of my solid-body basses feature an active equalizer. On two of these, the equalizer only works in active mode. On the third, the equalizer also works in passive mode. I have two acoustic bass guitars with piëzo bridge pick-ups. Their equalizers are always in active mode, as I understand it.)

It is not a reply to your message. It’s a reply to the OP.

 

[BassDudeSA]

The FOH guy does get a say, sure enough, but he has neither the time nor inclination to tweak it to perfection. Neither, really, do recording engys. They have to work with what they're given, and generally speaking most engys prefer to do as little true tone-shaping as possible. If they can't get at least a usable raw sound out of your input in about 5 minutes of sound check, they'll "suggest" you make some changes at your end to suit their needs (which tend to mirror those of the mix). Most of their EQ from that point will be to tame overly lively frequency bands, and to make space for everyone in the midrange (often by carving yours completely out).

I've said it elsewhere, here's good as any; you are your own biggest tone critic. You will care about your tone more than anyone else in that venue. Doesn't mean nobody else will care at all, just that pretty much everyone else will be happy long before you are. Take that for what it's worth; if nobody else thinks you sound like crap, that should say something, but at the same time if you're not happy with what you're hearing, that will affect your mindset and your playing.

In my over 40 years of playing paid gigs and numerous cheap to very high quality recordings, all of this is absolutely true. Wise words!

 

[Bob_Ross]

amongst my many hyper-anal OCD behaviors, I always change the batteries in all my active instruments on January 1st of every year, whether they need replacing or not. Make it a routine, to reduce the likelihood of surprises.

So this is interesting:

As noted above, I have always changed all the 9V batteries in all my active basses every January 1st as habit/routine.

But this year I did something a little different. I pulled out my Fluke meter and measured the voltage of every battery before replacing it.

Out of my 7 active basses, 4 of them still had batteries with *over* 9V capacity! And not just a little over 9V; these 4 were within 0.02 and 0.03 volts of the brand new batteries I compared them to!

So either I’ve been replacing batteries unnecessarily
…or I haven’t been playing some of my basses often enough!

 

[crazycloud]

I don't suffer from Battery Derangement Syndrome.

 

[GIBrat51]

If I can't play it in passive mode, I will not buy it.
(Note - doesn't include basses that are solely collectibles or for "non-playing" purposes.)

Who agrees? Who disagrees?

Well...
Far be it from me, to tell you - or anybody else - what to spend their money on. Plus, I'm certainly not going to tell a random stranger that they're wrong - or, waste my time trying to persuade them otherwise. You do you - and, I'll do me... However;
Personally? I have basses that are active only, and some that can pretend to be passive, too. But, with the exception of my '15 Custom Shop (cause it's a lefty) Tom Hamilton Signature ASAT Bass? I play all of them as active. The ASAT Bass isn't really "active" (in the accepted sense), anyhow. It's just louder with a battery, so I don't bother... In any case, I'm not worried that my bass will die on stage, in the middle of a set. I haven't been on stage, in the middle of a set, since... oh, about the middle of 1973. And, I have no plans to be on stage again - ever... In any case? I have lots of 9v batteries, for clocks; smoke detectors - and active basses...
So, bottom line? Please yourself... you play yours, and I'll play mine...

 

[shade_1313]

I like having active, but it’s not necessary, and I have passive basses I’m perfectly happy with. I prefer my active basses to be able to play passively, but I’ll overlook that if I otherwise like the bass. Besides that, I’m perfectly willing to wire in an active/passive switch, if it’s that important.

 

[Yahboy]

I hate that pop sound while active/passive swift on my few basses has onboard preamp.

Therefore I mod my charvel pro mod PJ IV to fully passive, yah, sound more massive , dynamic and organic !

 

[mikeswals]

So this is interesting:

As noted above, I have always changed all the 9V batteries in all my active basses every January 1st as habit/routine.

But this year I did something a little different. I pulled out my Fluke meter and measured the voltage of every battery before replacing it.

Out of my 7 active basses, 4 of them still had batteries with *over* 9V capacity! And not just a little over 9V; these 4 were within 0.02 and 0.03 volts of the brand new batteries I compared them to!

So either I’ve been replacing batteries unnecessarily
…or I haven’t been playing some of my basses often enough!

I did this too... I was originally replacing them every year.
I was always using my mutlimeter and writing on the battery with a sharpie what the voltage was going in.

Yes I'd always noticed a new 9.6/9.7v was only down to about 9.3/9.4.
During 2020 since not alot happened, I just let them go more than 2 years. My last changes: 2.5 yrs, and all were still 9.1+, and my only bass that drops to 8v has LED lights.