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Passive 6 String Basses?

#22
While there are not many active pickups out there, some passive pickups are designed to work together with an onboard preamp. So you could remove the preamp and the pickups still work, but they may not sound as good.

If you get something with a standard pickup config - like P or J, you have the option of also replacing the pickups if needed. However, I would take up the suggestion to work directly with the builder to make sure the electronics are designed for passive. Unlike some of the other posters here, my own experiments with this were not real successful. YMMV...

The other point that was made - if the bass sounds good, why worry about having that battery in there? I have both active and passive basses, and love them all!
 
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#23
cavemanbass said:
While there are not many active pickups out there, some passive pickups are designed to work together with an onboard preamp. So you could remove the preamp and the pickups still work, but they may not sound as good.

If you get something with a standard pickup config - like P or J, you have the option of also replacing the pickups if needed. However, I would take up the suggestion to work directly with the builder to make sure the electronics are designed for passive. Unlike some of the other posters here, my own experiments with this were not real successful. YMMV...

The other point that was made - if the bass sounds good, why worry about having that battery in there? I have both active and passive basses, and love them all!
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The only reason I'm asking is I have a (somewhat irrational) fear of my batteries dying in the middle of a set. Nobody wants to watch you replace the batteries in an instrument at 10 pm on a Friday night when they came to watch a band. I've only owned one active bass (a MIM fender dimension) and I have never gigged with it. It wouldn't be a huge deal breaker, I was just wondering if anyone knew of any passive 6 strings. I'll probably end up with an Ibanez anyway cause they look so freaking cool
 
#24
LCAirPasta said:
The only reason I'm asking is I have a (somewhat irrational) fear of my batteries dying in the middle of a set. Nobody wants to watch you replace the batteries in an instrument at 10 pm on a Friday night when they came to watch a band. I've only owned one active bass (a MIM fender dimension) and I have never gigged with it. It wouldn't be a huge deal breaker, I was just wondering if anyone knew of any passive 6 strings. I'll probably end up with an Ibanez anyway cause they look so freaking cool
Click to expand...

Many active instruments have an active/passive toggle for this reason; if the battery starts dying, you can flip over to passive and finish the set. It's important to note that on instruments with a push/pull active/passive knob, you should refrain from using it unless you need to. They aren't nearly as sturdy as a switch and should only be used if necessary, not just for fun!
 
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#25
jasonmatthews said:
Many active instruments have an active/passive toggle for this reason; if the battery starts dying, you can flip over to passive and finish the set. It's important to note that on instruments with a push/pull active/passive knob, you should refrain from using it unless you need to. They aren't nearly as sturdy as a switch and should only be used if necessary, not just for fun!
Click to expand...
I have never heard of this failure being a problem. It's not something I'd worry about.

That being said most basses are wired in a way that you can remove the battery and play in passive mode. The switch to active functions as a mute.
 
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#26
LCAirPasta said:
The only reason I'm asking is I have a (somewhat irrational) fear of my batteries dying in the middle of a set. Nobody wants to watch you replace the batteries in an instrument at 10 pm on a Friday night when they came to watch a band. I've only owned one active bass (a MIM fender dimension) and I have never gigged with it. It wouldn't be a huge deal breaker, I was just wondering if anyone knew of any passive 6 strings. I'll probably end up with an Ibanez anyway cause they look so freaking cool
Click to expand...

Ibanez SR656 ticks all your boxes. Active with a passive bypass.
 
#28
LCAirPasta said:
I've never done anything with electronics other than installing a pickup in a Squire P bass. I didn't even know you could wire an active bass to be passive! I'll have to look up some youtube videos of that
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If the preamp is pretty flat then you could use resistors to set the eq on the preamp to the detent values, wire in a passive tone, and just disconnect the unneeded knobs. One new pot, capacitor, the right resistors, and minimal soldering, and relatively easy to go back for resale.
 
#29
LCAirPasta said:
Hey all! I was looking to get into the 6 string bass world, but I'm not really into active electronics. Seems like most 6 strings are active, does anyone know of any cool passive options? My budget is about $1,200. Thanks for any feedback!
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this is passive ... but beyond your budget and very rare and collectable

4005-6-07.jpg
 
#32
I've had/have 2.

I had Carvin make me a lb76 with a VVT control configuration. Walnut top, maple/walnut neck w/ ebony board, alder body. It was a beautiful bass but I didn't love the neck shape or the narrow spacing. I played 50/60 gigs with it.

I also have a Skjold 6 with a single pickup and tone knob. Bubinga top, ash body, maple neck w/ maple board. I've played a couple hundred gigs with it - it weighs less than 8 lbs. and is just a wonderful instrument. Unfortunately, the 35" scale is a little too much for me for a full show these days...
 
#33
LCAirPasta said:
The only reason I'm asking is I have a (somewhat irrational) fear of my batteries dying in the middle of a set. Nobody wants to watch you replace the batteries in an instrument at 10 pm on a Friday night when they came to watch a band. I've only owned one active bass (a MIM fender dimension) and I have never gigged with it. It wouldn't be a huge deal breaker, I was just wondering if anyone knew of any passive 6 strings. I'll probably end up with an Ibanez anyway cause they look so freaking cool
Click to expand...
totally understand, this is not irrational - it's Murphy's law! Also, batteries can corrode if left in an instrument for too long... So I too prefer passive. It just happens that I really like my Musicman Stingray which has a preamp with no passive mode. It would probably function without the preamp but I'm fairly certain it would not sound the same.

The Ibanez looks great, I don't think you could go wrong with that. Nice to have the bypass option.
 
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#34
jasonmatthews said:
It's important to note that on instruments with a push/pull active/passive knob, you should refrain from using it unless you need to. They aren't nearly as sturdy as a switch and should only be used if necessary, not just for fun!
Click to expand...

Why's that? The switch is there so that you can remove the preamp from the circuit whenever you decide that you want to. It's useful for when you want to drive a higher quality preamp, or want to bypass a preamp that is not transparent. You don't have to rigidly adhere to some arbitrary rule that a feature must only be used in emergencies. The feature is there to be used as the player sees fit. And as for the quality of the switch, any decent bass should have a switch that can actually be used. If your switches are so fragile that you are afraid to use them, then you have cheap parts that should be replaced.
 
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#35
line6man said:
Why's that? The switch is there so that you can remove the preamp from the circuit whenever you decide that you want to. It's useful for when you want to drive a higher quality preamp, or want to bypass a preamp that is not transparent. You don't have to rigidly adhere to some arbitrary rule that a feature must only be used in emergencies. The feature is there to be used as the player sees fit. And as for the quality of the switch, any decent bass should have a switch that can actually be used. If your switches are so fragile that you are afraid to use them, then you have cheap parts that should be replaced.
Click to expand...

Well sort of. I kind of understand where Jasonmathews is coming from though. My G&L L2500 main axes are active-passive. And tone controls are passive. And the main active-passive switch is one the main controls. I'd say I used them about 50-50 active and passive. It's an absolutely great feature. On the other hand my active Ken Smith 6er has an "emergency" passive push pull switch. The bass is really not designed for passive use. When you go passive all EQ quits. So with that bass the deal is if the preamp or battery dies you can limp through or even in normal use, say you want to use a better or "different" external preamp? Fine. Got EQ, pull the knob. Job done. These days some active-passive basses have Bass/treble EQ for active but also a "tone" conrol for passive. That way you aren't left EQ-less Like with my Smith. But with that bass I rarely if ever use it in passive mode, though I really don't worry about a push-pull switch dying. My G&L has a push-pull switch I put on for the OMG mode and it gets used all the time and works fine. Point is as Line6man says, those switches and controls are there to give you different things out of your instrument. They are there to be used if you want what they do. If you don't then you just leave them where they are.
 
#36
By the way the best way to go passive 6 string is to do what I did (which is NOT get a Smith and pull the knob to make it passive!)
Namely go online to Rondomusic.com and order THREE SX passive 6 string Fender clone basses. You'll want one Fretless, one with rounds and one for flats. A little extra spent on tweaking like say a tort pickguard (see avatar) or top loader bridge won't hurt either. Yes, AirPasta, 6 string Fender Clone passive Jazz bass actually IS SOMETHING!

Then use the left over money to satisfy some other GAS. :)
 
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#38
bassbenj said:
Well sort of. I kind of understand where Jasonmathews is coming from though. My G&L L2500 main axes are active-passive. And tone controls are passive. And the main active-passive switch is one the main controls. I'd say I used them about 50-50 active and passive. It's an absolutely great feature. On the other hand my active Ken Smith 6er has an "emergency" passive push pull switch. The bass is really not designed for passive use. When you go passive all EQ quits. So with that bass the deal is if the preamp or battery dies you can limp through or even in normal use, say you want to use a better or "different" external preamp? Fine. Got EQ, pull the knob. Job done. These days some active-passive basses have Bass/treble EQ for active but also a "tone" conrol for passive. That way you aren't left EQ-less Like with my Smith. But with that bass I rarely if ever use it in passive mode, though I really don't worry about a push-pull switch dying. My G&L has a push-pull switch I put on for the OMG mode and it gets used all the time and works fine. Point is as Line6man says, those switches and controls are there to give you different things out of your instrument. They are there to be used if you want what they do. If you don't then you just leave them where they are.
Click to expand...

Very true! Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find out that both tone controls on my Harley Benton B550 work in active and passive. However, in passive one of them works from the detent to the end and the other works from the max end to the detent. And yes, it weird like that even if I take out the battery.
 

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