/ Register

Passive Active Switch help

Discussion in 'Pickups & Electronics [BG]' started by Step, Jun 23, 2008.

  1. Jun 23, 2008 #1
    Step

    Step

    Feb 20, 2008
    Maastricht
    Hello everyone,

    Yesterday I heard my amp hissing whenever I played a note with my reggie hamilton Jazz, it's an active Bass with an active/passive switch

    when i switched to passive, the hissing disappeared, so clearly my battery has run out. Strange enough, this doesnt affect the passive setting. Now, we all know that when you let an active bass plugged in it drains the batteries

    so, when I let the bass plugged in when it's on passive mode will it still drain the batteries? since the passive setting doesnt use the batteries at all, maybe it goes through a different circuit and bypasses the batteries entirely?

    and as a bonus question, it uses 2 9v batteries instead of 1, why is this?
     
  2. Jun 23, 2008 #2
    Merton

    Merton

    Apr 28, 2008
    Redhill, Surrey, UK
    The switch bypasses the active electronics, it does not "switch off" the battery.

    The battery will always be "on" if you have a lead plugged into your jack socket, it's a stereo jack socket and one of the socket tips is used to "make" the active circuit (so the battery will then begin to drain)!

    You have 2x 9V batteries to give an 18V preamp. More headroom. :)
     
  3. Jun 23, 2008 #3
    mjolnir

    mjolnir Thor's Hammer 2.1.3beta

    Jun 15, 2006
    Houston, TX
    +1

    Exactly.
     
  4. Jun 23, 2008 #4
    Step

    Step

    Feb 20, 2008
    Maastricht
    ok, thanks for the help :D