Nothing really I just had all passive basses and figured I would add some active basses to the herd 
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Passive vs Active
- Thread starter TheArchitect
- Start date
the novelty and curiosity, it's all part of the modern era journey which led back to the beginning.
funny thing is, my top passives, same PUs / setups, weren't designed / offered until recently...
funny thing is, my top passives, same PUs / setups, weren't designed / offered until recently...
G&L’s L2k and L2.5k have the ideal solution for me:
Separate passive treble and bass controls: I set both at about 50%, and add or subtract as needed.
And, IF I want/ need it (which is pretty much never), the preamp and preamp with treble boost settings are just a flick of the switch away.
I’ve always liked the IDEA of active better than the reality; the tone I can get from the passive, subtract-only, treble and bass controls is exactly what I was looking for!
I went from active to passive because passive basses have less things to go wrong, you don’t need to worry about battery life; and I play into a line 6 helix and can do all kinds of electrical wizardry to my signal with the helix.
LOVE that Monarch PJ, btw. You don't see these very often, especially with that control set.
I have both, I use both. If I had to pick only one style, I'd go active, those basses just tend to fit my style and tone more. I don't tend to mess with the EQ during a gig or set much, but I can. And I like having the volume knob at 80%, knowing that if I need to roll on some boost for a solo or slap or whatever, it's right there, since with an active bass you don't have to have the volume dimed for 'maximum tone' or whatever.
I have noticed that I need to tweak my amp settings for passive vs. active; my amp has several voicing options for preamp and power amp, and after a year or so of fiddling, I've come to learn that the Jazz basses need one eq/preamp/power amp setting, and the actives need a different one. But that's easy to switch on the fly should the need arise.
I have noticed that I need to tweak my amp settings for passive vs. active; my amp has several voicing options for preamp and power amp, and after a year or so of fiddling, I've come to learn that the Jazz basses need one eq/preamp/power amp setting, and the actives need a different one. But that's easy to switch on the fly should the need arise.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but if you take a set of passive pickups, they should sound virtually the same run through a passive circuit with the tone wide open, as they do run through a well-designed and well-made active circuit where the "flat" settings are designed to be neutral -- yes?
I just feel these threads tend to be way overbroad with the majority of opinions being based on entirely too-small sample sizes to justify the hugely general conclusions offered.
I just feel these threads tend to be way overbroad with the majority of opinions being based on entirely too-small sample sizes to justify the hugely general conclusions offered.
I've owned active basses, but just never really found that I preferred them over passives in any situation.
Well...
In my case, I'm not sure that I'd call it "drawn". When I made the list of basses - models, brands, and kinds of basses - I'd like to have in my herd, there was a spot for "Active Bass". I didn't much care what brand- or scale - it was; just had to be active. So, when I finally decided to look on eBay for a left handed, 4 string active bass, the first one that popped up that day, was a '95 Alembic Epic. The pics looked good, and the price seemed reasonable (even with the inevitable "Lefty Surcharge") - so I bought it. Still have it, 15 years later. It is a really, really nice bass. Although, having a battery in the control cavity, along with all that very expensive Alembic electronics, still gives me the shivers...
Currently, I have 2 other active basses; a '15 G&L Tom Hamilton Sig. ASAT bass, and a '20 EBMM 4HH Stingray Special. The G&L now fills the "Active" spot, 'cause I moved the Alembic to the "Long Scale Set Neck" spot. The EBMM doesn't really fill a spot; I've just always wanted one, and AFAIK, they never made lefty 4HH's until 2020. Anyway...
Do I like and play my active basses? Yes I do, but... no, they aren't the basses I reach for automatically when I feel the need to play. Unless I want to fool around with the active controls, and see what kind of noises I can make. For just playing, there are a couple of the 23 passive basses I also own, that sit out for that purpose. Currently, those are a recently acquired Ibanez Thunderbird copy (which is actually longer than my Gibson T-Bird
), and my latest acquisition; a '22 Epiphone Jack Casady bass. Normally, my "reach for" basses are an older MIK Rogue VB-100 violin bass, and my '73 Rick 4001. I learned to play bass 'way back in 1968 (on a 4001 Rick). So, I'm really used to passive basses; and they've always served me - and what I like to play - perfectly well.To be honest, my feelings about active basses are... mixed. I can see where someone in a busy band, that plays a lot of different - and post-'80s - music would find an active bass very useful. But, that ain't me. I haven't played in a band since the early 1970's (yeah, I'm kinda old), and even then, most of what we played was originally recorded with a passive electric bass - or an upright. And, that's the music I still like to play today. Which, sadly, renders the versatility of my active basses - which is one of their main raisons d'etre... kind of moot. It is fun to play with their capabilities, but... when I do actually play them? I've found the settings I prefer a while ago - and that's where the controls tend to stay. So, to me? An active bass in pretty much like the 12-way power seats in my car. Once I found the sitting position I like, all the versatility and the controls are superfluous - for me. Of course, YMMV....
- Apr 18, 2008
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- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Mostly. There are some small losses in a passive circuit even when the tone and volume controls are wide open. Additionally, the buffering of an active circuit protects against treble loss due to cable capacitance.
Mb94952, yes, they are called the Musician series.
Mine was made in 1979, and I bought it new in May of 1981.
I mainly bought it for its looks. Yes, I am shallow.
It wasn’t until after I played it in the store, that I realized it had active electronics in it.
The store I bought it from was, Alex Music, which was on the famous West 48th Street.
I believe Alex was the third music store on 48th Street if you were walking from 6th Avenue and walking towards 7th Avenue.
Can any old timers concur?
Boy, the memories.
Mike
P.S. There is an Ibanez Musician thread here at Talkbass.
What you say makes sense, but there are a couple other considerations as well...
Not only is hearing "subjective" as you say, but there is also the element of neuro-psycho adaptation. It's like walking into a home where mama's been cooking and it hits you when you walk in the door. 5 minutes later you no longer smell it. When it comes to nuances like this your/our ears are going to adapt to whatever your ears as exposed to at the moment. Ask any trumpet player that owns 30+ mouthpieces! Secondly, what you plug into is going to make a huge difference. And again, your ears will adapt to that sound. Lastly all of this is dependent on the acoustic envirnoment and the volume at which you play.
I use active basses in live settings and passive basses when I'm recording. So for me, I suppose it depends on the setting.
IMO, no.
Simply adding an amplifier to isolate the pickup from the parasitic loading from a cable will affect tone. This is what I think people hear when the say that an active preamp colors their tone even when the tone controls are set flat.
IME, it's easy to design an op amp circuit with a flat frequency response. It's harder to design a circuit that emulates the effect of cable parasitics. Especially since these parasitics will vary from cable to cable.
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Active basses tend to have a wider frequency response, and the tone controls allow for more drastic EQ and tone-shaping options. To me they tend to hang better in a dense mix.
But of course this is just comparing the passive basses I own to the active basses I own, for the most part.
Each bass is the sum of all of its parts and I judge them holistically.
But of course this is just comparing the passive basses I own to the active basses I own, for the most part.
Each bass is the sum of all of its parts and I judge them holistically.
