New to bass.

[Malak the Mad]

Sometime after buying my first-ever bass, I got some good advice from a guy working at a local music store. I mentioned a particular active bass I'd been considering for my first...a Squier Deluxe Jazz IV, I believe. He suggested I stick with with a passive bass for for starters. It was something to the effect of "learn to play first and get to know a bass' passive capabilities before diving into the complexities of active electronics". It may not apply to everyone, but I can see the wisdom of starting off simple, learning "the rules" through time and practice before advancing into deeper waters. That being said...

Roll off the treble and you essentiallly have a tone control.

This right here! This basic truism will save you time, money and, as suggested before, will preserve your instrument's resale value should you decide to sell/trade it in. After all, a tone circuit's job is to roll off treble while preserving the lower frequencies, ja?

I would venture to say most people here don't still have their first bass - even one as nice as the one you bought.

Speak for yourself, my friend!

 

[B-Mac]

Spend your money on some bass lessons. Passive tone control won't improve your playing 1 bit. Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) is an endless rabbit hole of gadgets and add-ons that will only slow down your progress. Written by a reformed gasoholic.........for now...

You’re replying to the wrong person

 

[sgiacomo]

I’m new to bass, and I just recently acquired a fender player plus precision bass. I have OCD and I couldn’t decide between this, or saving up for the American performer precision bass so I just pulled the trigger on this. lol. And I have a few questions.

This bass does not have tone control in passive mode. I do want to add this. How can I add this, and what should I look to buy? I want to be able control the tone in passive mode.

second is upgraded electronics. This is something I might not do for a good while as take the tim to learn. But I like to get an idea now if what I can do with upgraded electronics down the road as I get better at playing. What are some good pickups to upgrade to? And should should the knob controls be updated as well?

This might sound silly. But like I said I’m new but I do like to know about options. I might not be asking this correctly. But can, or should I upgrade the pre-amp in this bass?

Thanks everyone.

Welcome! In general I recommend spending more time just practicing the instrument before modding anything. Time spent modding could have been spent improving your chops. Just my $.02

 

[DanAdams]

My most sincere advice is to offset every minute spent on talkbass, with 5 minutes of playing or watching instructional videos
Talkbass can be a trap, and is soooo much about gear, and gear envy, and knobs and aesthetics, and deep dives into the intricacies of things that don't matter in the slightest bit to anyone except other talk bass users.
Focus on playing whatever bass you have. All bass guitars sound like bass guitars, and yours is absolutely fine just the way it is for any genre, and any style playing.

 

[Nebadon2000]

Nordstrand The Tone Drop Passive Tone Control

Maybe this might work outside of Bass
https://www.broughtonaudio.com/product-page/low-pass-filter

As for New Preamp Sadowsky makes Great Preamp with VTC for reasonable price

 

[BobDeRosa]

First, I have trouble believing there's no passive tone control on that bass. Second, since you're new to bass, work on you, as @Ampslut suggests. Make your OCD your best friend and obsess over getting a great sound with whatever electronics your bass offers. It will take time, but it will be well worth it.

 

[TomB]

Lots of good advice here, but I’ll note that there are plenty of folks who post here more for the love of modding and luthiery than for actual bass playing. If you’re one of them, you’ll find an overwhelming amount of info here on TB, good and bad. Mod away, but do be aware it will very often reduce resale value, even if it’s more valuable to you. Welcome, anyway!

 

[Mjk412]

I don’t want to mod it now. Down the road after I become better at playing, and get a ear and feel for sound I might, and I was curious to see the mods I can do down the road. Not now.

 

[Mjk412]

And thanks to everyone that replied!

 

[Malak the Mad]

Nordstrand The Tone Drop Passive Tone Control

Okay, I'm well away I have a tendency to lay the prose on thick from time to time, but this ad copy is just way out of control!

Mayhaps, 'tis an April Fool's Day gag that adorns and bedazzles yonder website?

DESCRIPTION
This .047uf-.1uf cap switch is an orange, two headed monitor lizard that speaks a simple, southrange grit atop a subtle, simmering murk. Just as the heart might subtly react with ancestral repulsion at the sight of an ancient reptile vibrating intensely just above the stream, so too does this twinned switch deliver an equal bite of private phenomenon. It provides a convenient way for players to navigate a space between the temperate and traditional character called .047uf, and its slightly more dramatic and swampier sibling called .1uf. More specifically, the .047uf allows remnants of the high end to beam through; and if perceived by the player as not so tangible a thing as a direct beam, then perhaps more like memories of the egg days leaking into the mind of an incapacitated dragon doggypaddling the bayou. In the case of the .1uf cap, it is the hand that yanks the Thing just beneath the bright-bound surface. Everything capitulates an electric, light-drowned mud, and in this darkening forms the aperture through which you might dig, with intention, into the flow of the tune. Dive toward the murk.

Hint: besides these two characteristics, we invite you to seek the resonant peak—an ephemeral ridge as vibrational as it is dissipative. Instructions: roll off all caps to enable an understanding between the two, and allow the signal to flow through your rig with only a sliver of viscera painting its fullbodied back. This is the road to the peak. Follow it wisely. If you dare to look over, don’t hesitate. React. Whiptail! Like a lizard.​

 

[Malak the Mad]

Firs, I have trouble believing there's no passive tone control on that bass.

I hate to break it to you, but Fender has produced many models over the years that have no tone control to go with an active/passive switch. Several Deluxe models, Mexican and American, as well as the Reggie Hamilton signature Jazz come to mind.

 

[GreyBeard]

First, I have trouble believing there's no passive tone control on that bass. Second, since you're new to bass, work on you, as @Ampslut suggests. Make your OCD your best friend and obsess over getting a great sound with whatever electronics your bass offers. It will take time, but it will be well worth it.

If it is like my Player Plus Jazz V then it does not have any passive tone control.