p-up/electronics

[GnRDuff1]

Can you use a passive pickup with active electronics? I use a traben phoenix 5 and the electronics are active. The pickups I'm looking at are all Duncans. They are:

67/70 & 70/74 (passive)
SJB-5 (passive)
AJB-5 (active)

Is there any reason I couldn't use the first two with my active bass?

 

[GnRDuff1]

And another quick question:
Which of these three pickups is closest to being a 5 string version of the Seymour Duncan STK J2? This is the pickup I heard that I liked, but I have a 5 string, so I'm looking for the closest match

 

[Clorenzo]

In general you can use passive pu's with active preamps, but the preamp has to be designed for that purpose (for example SD's pre's come in two different versions, one for use with active pu's and one for passive pu's). So, find out of which type are the stock pu's in your bass and use the same type.

Interestingly, the closest that I've heard to the SD Hot Stack (which I have in a P/J bass and also like a lot) in a 5-string version, is the Fender Vintage Noiseless Jazz Bass:

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I have it in two J/MM basses and it sounds more like the Hot Stack than a regular vintage Jazz pu, both in terms of output (hotter) and tone (warmer).

 

[lug]

As Clorenzo said, depends on the preamp. I use a passive Bart MMC with an active EMG BTC. EMG makes 2 versions of this preamp, one called the BTC Control and one called the BTC System. The Control is for passive pups, the System is for active pups.