Passive to active switch?

[bass07]

Hey, what kind of outcome would you get if you were to try to make a passive bass active? What kind of work would be necessary? I'm assuming at least cutting out a spot for a 9V battery slot and the rewiring work are necessary. What kind of effect would it have on a bass's overall quality, potentially?

Thought of this after doing research and stumbling upon the Ibanez SR5005E, which is a passive bass, even though I usually use active pickups and I'm not necessarily looking to be limited to having a warmer tone all the time. Suggestions?

 

[sixway]

The easiest way to make a passive bass active is to buy an active system that will fit in your control cavity. An active system always has a small PC board, wired to pots that replace your current ones. Usually you can wire an active system up to the pickups in the bass, but depending on the system you buy, some work better with low output pickups, so make sure the active system will work with the pickups currently in the bass.

You can't just wire a passive/active switch, and a battery to your pickups, and expect it to be active/louder. You'll most likely cook the pots, or send too strong a signal to your amp, and face possibly damaging it as well.

That's my take on it... anyone with more experience than me in this area that can be more explicit on my thoughts, or debunk what I think I know?

 

[line6man]

What exactly are you trying to do by making the bass active?
"Active" simply means that there is at least one active component in the signal path. There are many different flavors of "active." Some like onboard EQ, some like buffering, some like gain boosts, etc.

You can't just wire a passive/active switch, and a battery to your pickups, and expect it to be active/louder. You'll most likely cook the pots, or send too strong a signal to your amp, and face possibly damaging it as well.

If a 9v battery were connected parallel to the output, a 2W pot would exceed it's capacity for thermal dissipation at somewhere under 50 Ohms. You would be alright if you never turned your pots down all the way.
Still not a good idea, or useful in any way.

 

[lunarpollen]

If someone could clone the pre-amp of a Yamaha BB1200S, I would have one installed in every bass I own.

 

[bassbenj]

Hey, what kind of outcome would you get if you were to try to make a passive bass active? What kind of work would be necessary? I'm assuming at least cutting out a spot for a 9V battery slot and the rewiring work are necessary. What kind of effect would it have on a bass's overall quality, potentially?

Thought of this after doing research and stumbling upon the Ibanez SR5005E, which is a passive bass, even though I usually use active pickups and I'm not necessarily looking to be limited to having a warmer tone all the time. Suggestions?

The easiest way to switch a passive bass to active is what I did to my old Aria Pro II. I simply added a stacked Bass/treble tone EQ (EMG BTC control) where old tone control was. I also added (which I very much recommend) external flip-up battery boxes which require routing (had local shop do it). I installed 2 for 18 volts but 9 volts works OK too. After all this work and expense, bass was still a dog, but that's the way life works sometimes.

Doing this the pickups are not active only the bass is. To go with active pickups you have to buy active pickups and install them. (which I actually did with my Aria (EMGs)) The active pickups were VERY quiet, but still didn't save that bass.

 

[bass07]

Thanks for the input so far. Let me clear up a few things, though. By switching from passive to active I was planning on, if I ever went through with this, switching to all active Bartolini pickups and EQ, though after looking it up more it seems that I wouldn't be able to perfectly match the knobs & switches since the SR5005E has 6 knobs and 1 switch and Bart electronics only have up to 5 knobs & 1 switch (leaving one blank/useless knob). I assumed switching out the pickups and preamp were a given, and I don't intend to cut open a hole in my bass, shove a battery in, and expect stuff to change and work correctly. Not sure that would do the trick...

To answer your question, line6man, I prefer active pickups for all three of the reasons you listed. I like having a cleaner sound that I can alter and produce a warmer sound if I choose. For the most part, though, having a "warmer" sound ends up muddying the mix, at least when it's done to excess.

If someone else has another idea how to accomplish this, basically the reason I thought of this is because I really like the design of the SR5005E (Mono-Rail bridge for greater string isolation, mahogany body, wenge fretboard, solid construction), I'm looking for something that I don't have to fight against to play, and I like having the options of a cleaner sound and a higher gain potential that come with having active electronics. If you know of any good, reliable, well-tested basses that fit this description as well (and have 24 frets), I'm all ears.

 

[bass07]

P.S. I realize now, much later, that the subject title of this forum is where you got the idea that I wanted to try to put a passive/active switch in the bass, sixway. Sorry about that. By "Passive to active switch" I meant to convert the bass completely from a passive bass into an active or passive/active bass. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[sixway]

P.S. I realize now, much later, that the subject title of this forum is where you got the idea that I wanted to try to put a passive/active switch in the bass, sixway. Sorry about that. By "Passive to active switch" I meant to convert the bass completely from a passive bass into an active or passive/active bass. Sorry for the confusion.

NO problem! Got to say however, most tone purists would disagree with you on an active system giving you a "cleaner" sound. The idea is that the EQ section of your power amp is better built, with more tone options capable than a 3-way EQ on a small PC board in your bass. It's obviously more convenient to have the controls on your bass for on-the-fly adjustment though. Having had both, I feel that I get more subtle nuances out of a passive system than active. But I like my active basses too, depending on the style of music I'm playing, and the mood I'm in!