I will never buy another "active-only" bass

[Rip Van Dan]

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?

You could say half of my basses are active and half are passive. I only have one active bass and one passive, but by far and away I prefer the sound of my passive bass. Back in 2009 I needed to buy a 5-string but money was an issue. At a friend's recommendation I bought a Rogue LX405 Pro (not Pro I or Pro II, but the original one made in Korea). Was just a bit over $200 instead of the $400 I had planned to spend and I was very nicely surprised when it arrived. Fit and finish was amazingly good, it was lighter than my '82 Jazz 4-string, and although the neck was wide and flat (12" radius vs. 7.25" radius on my Jazz), it is a slim neck and not fat at all. I found it surprisingly comfortable to use - not as nice as my Jazz, but not as tough as I expected.

Good news is that it can play in either active or passive mode. Controls are: volume, pickup balance (has 2 pickups), treble and bass EQ controls. I happily didn't find the active EQ made much difference in getting a good sound. The bass and treble EQ controls don't work in passive mode, but the pickup balance does and I found I could just turn the balance slightly towards the bridge pickup and get a good sound from it. Since that means I don't have to adjust the gain setting on my amp when swapping between my 4-string Jazz and 5-string Rogue, I always use it in passive more. If I run it in active mode I have to reduce the gain setting on my amp, but not as much as the pad button does. That's a big difference when switching basses between songs and NO I will not use the 5-string for all the songs. My Jazz sounds too good for that.

 

[Root 5]

I feel some anxiety performing with an active only instrument. If it konks out song/ performance is kaput!

 

[Tosh]

Six vs 1/2 doz.

All but 2 of my basses can be played either active or passive. One bass is passive only (yet I use a pre-amp pedal with it much of the time) and another is active only (Wilcox Lightwave - no power = no sound).

I like the flexibility of active/passive. It gives me more options as opposed to all active or all passive.

Freedom of choice, not freedom from choice.

 

[Liko]

I'm not sure where I would even find an Active Bass that can't be played in Passive mode. Generally the pickups themselves aren't active, it's the preamp.

I think the point is, can you turn that preamp off? Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. Whether the op-amps are built into the pickup housing ("active pickups") or are part of a PCB in the control cavity ("onboard preamp"), if the op-amps can't not be part of the circuit providing the output signal, it's "active only", and quite a few models of bass do not allow bypassing the active circuitry, at least in stock form.

 

[Thumpin6string]

I will never buy another "passive only" bass.

 

[Jefenator]

Boycotting certain bass guitars will make them easier for me to find a good deal on them.
So, please: go right ahead!

 

[edwinhurwitz]

When I got a real job in the 90's, I bought myself an Alembic (spoiler) and played it and enjoyed it for a few years. But, once I got called to the studio, I found that the passive "vintage" sound was more what I (and the client) was looking for. I do have a few active basses, but my go-to stuff is all passive now.

That's been my experience as well. My main bass is the Alembic equipped Starfire in my profile pic and I also have active Modulus basses and others, but I've done some studio sessions where the producer insists that I'm playing the parts wrong until I play the same part on a Fender.

As far as needing to have a passive option on an active bass, I don't see any need for that. My Starfire uses an outboard power supply and my other active basses have preamps where the batteries last forever.

 

[wraub]

I'm not sure where I would even find an Active Bass that can't be played in Passive mode. Generally the pickups themselves aren't active, it's the preamp.

I have a couple Ibanez basses that have active low impedance pickups, and they only run on batteries. No passive sound at all. I used to gig with them but mainly use them for recording these days.

 

[GroovinOnFunk]

I guess that's one way to look at it. But I don't judge a bass by it's components. If it sounds good and feels good, I'll consider buying it. If it happens to be passive, great. If it happens to he active, great. If it's active-only, we'll, I know enough to not worry about batteries and to change them every 6 months on basses that get lots of play time.

 

[BassDudeSA]

I used to love active basses, but now prefer a passive bass with something like a Tech 21 or Darkglass pre-amp pedal. Those pedal pre-amps turn passive basses into active ones and provide a lot more punch and options than any little pre-amp that comes inside of an active bass.

 

[sawzalot]

So you'll cut yourself off from a lot of really great sounding basses. Not my choice, but definitely you can do that if you like.

 

[Peter - Oregon]

I only have one bass with an option, my Fender Ultra J. I usually play that passive, but it's fun to play the hotter active sometimes. My two Stingrays are always active, and my P and Thunderbird are passive. It doesn't really matter to me.

 

[rogerbmiller]

It’s quite an easy job for a tech to wire your bass with an active bypass. You can also stack two of the tone knobs and add a PTC.

@rojo412 has done this for quite a few of my basses, both custom built and stock. Very useful mod.

 

[ectoflanger]

On second thought, I like basses that are passive-aggressive.

 

[DirkP]

When I was a child, I never bought a ghetto-blaster or an integrated stereo-system. When I was grownup, I didn’t buy an analog mixer with an integrated audio-interface. Gave up active basses inbetween.

 

[Greenman72]

I'm not sure where I would even find an Active Bass that can't be played in Passive mode. Generally the pickups themselves aren't active, it's the preamp.

Yamaha TRBX304/305 comes to mind.

 

[Geri O]

Its unnecessary weight in the bass. The onboard EQ is redundant once the signal gets to my pedal board. And most importantly, they don't sound good (to me). Yeah, I get the initial rush when you first put it on. But soon afterwards you realize it was just as good if not better as passive.

Damn….

And people laugh and point when I mention the weight of an SVT…..

 

[getBAK]

On certain active/passive basses when the battery dies, the passive mode is not an option.

That just sounds like poor design... so, I suppose I wouldn't buy it

 

[red_rhino]

On second thought, I like basses that are passive-aggressive.

I'm trying to figure out how that works. Does a passive-aggressive bass refuse to provide an active option, or does it just let the battery die and say "Oh well, guess you'll have to play me passive then, won't you?", while it sneers at your pathetic attempts do anything other than cut the treble?

I mean, this is why I'll never buy a passive-aggressive bass; they're kinda jerks.

 

[Dincrest]

There was one time I had an active bass plop out on me at a gig and I had neither a spare 9v battery nor a screwdriver to undo the rear cavity cover to change it. Since then, I've favored passive and have had a luthier I know "de-active-ate" several of my basses into full passive machines. Especially since fully passive, 24-fret, 5-strings are a rare bird.

One of my basses has passive soapbars with an active preamp, but it has a full passive bypass (meaning the bass can be played without a battery). It doesn't have a passive tone control, but it sounds just fine. The fewer knobs I have to fiddle with, the better.