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Poll: Active players: 9v or 18v?

Active players: 18v or 9v ?

  • 9v

    Votes: 31 34.1%

  • 18v

    Votes: 41 45.1%

  • Carrots

    Votes: 19 20.9%
  • Total voters
    91
#22
line6man said:
Neither.
Once i get my Jazz bass back from my luthier, (rear routing job) I'm putting in an OBP-1 at 27V

9V is not enough, i would not play a bass that is running on 9V.

I don't understand why 9V would be preferable to 18V?
Do you guys not like headroom or something?
Click to expand...

:confused: I've never once come even close to overdriving the input stage of a high quality 9 volt preamp. I guess if you play with a gorilla touch and a pick, this might be an issue. However, you would then most likely be better off going passive, since all the subtle tone differences that the buffering of an active pre gives you would be buried by that type of playing.
 
#23
DWBass said:
In my case, I'm running an 800w amp. I have all the headroom/volume I need and my 9V actives already have high output which cause me to have to turn 'down' my gain so I don't clip! I had to pad even further when I had the 18V bass! The signal was way too hot!
Click to expand...

Remember, 9 versus 18 has nothing to do with output level and volume, but in internal headroom of the preamp. Again, per my post above, it would take massive attack to ever overdrive the input of an onboard active preamp.

The only advantage of an 18 volt system over a 9 volt is 'internal headroom' in the rare case that you play with such aggressive attack, or I guess have very hot pickups, that the input stage of the onboard preamp clips.
 
#24
KJung said:
:confused: I've never once come even close to overdriving the input stage of a high quality 9 volt preamp. I guess if you play with a gorilla touch and a pick, this might be an issue. However, you would then most likely be better off going passive, since all the subtle tone differences that the buffering of an active pre gives you would be buried by that type of playing.
Click to expand...

I am not by any stretch of imagination an aggressive player, but being given the choice of higher or lower headroom, why choose the lower headroom 9V when even if there is close to zero noticeable difference between 9V and 18V, 18V is simply a matter of spending a couple of bucks extra on batteries once a year or so, and taking up a tad more control cavity space?

I like the piece of mind that my preamp can take absolutely anything i throw at it. If i want to put in super hot pickups and play with a weed whacker, I want to know that my preamp can handle that...
 
#25
KJung said:
Remember, 9 versus 18 has nothing to do with output level and volume, but in internal headroom of the preamp. Again, per my post above, it would take massive attack to ever overdrive the input of an onboard active preamp.
Click to expand...

While I know next to nil regarding the inner workings of preamps.....I owned a Peavey Millennium with an 18V preamp system and lawd jezuz that thing was 'hot'! I'm sure not all 18V systems are like that! I just felt I didn't need anything that hot and my current actives are perfect for me output wise although my active Lakland does clip my GB Shuttle a little so I have to keep the gain down. My passive Lakland, I can turn the gain almost all the way up with zero clipping.

Just to clarify, I was referring to the gain on my amps and not the pre-amps in case there was any confusion.
 
#26
Most of my active basses have 18v preamps in them and if they don't I usually mod them to go 18v. I've always liked to have the headroom I need in any certain situation and I have been in situations where I had either a passive bass or a 9v setup and I really could've used the extra juice to cut through the muddy acoustics in a crowded room. There's nothing like cranking the mids and pushing the tone through the mud so that when everything else sounds like garbage, my bass still sounds clear and punchy.
 
#27
DWBass said:
While I know next to nil regarding the inner workings of preamps.....I owned a Peavey Millennium with an 18V preamp system and lawd jezuz that thing was 'hot'! I'm sure not all 18V systems are like that! I just felt I didn't need anything that hot and my current actives are perfect for me output wise although my active Lakland does clip my GB Shuttle a little so I have to keep the gain down. My passive Lakland, I can turn the gain almost all the way up with zero clipping.

Just to clarify, I was referring to the gain on my amps and not the pre-amps in case there was any confusion.
Click to expand...

I always thought that the Peaveys weren't too hot until you messed with the EQ. I thought I recalled something to the extent that Peavey wanted it to almost have the output of some average passive basses.
 
#28
line6man said:
I am not by any stretch of imagination an aggressive player, but being given the choice of higher or lower headroom, why choose the lower headroom 9V when even if there is close to zero noticeable difference between 9V and 18V, 18V is simply a matter of spending a couple of bucks extra on batteries once a year or so, and taking up a tad more control cavity space?

I like the piece of mind that my preamp can take absolutely anything i throw at it. If i want to put in super hot pickups and play with a weed whacker, I want to know that my preamp can handle that...
Click to expand...

Kind of strange logic, but OK. I guess the 'it doesn't sound any different but it's not much more money or space' sort of argument has some validity, but it will take me a few moments to see it:D It surely won't hurt anything, you are correct there. I just feel sad for people who would, for example, eliminate a Sadowsky or Alleva-Coppolo preamp just because it is 9 volt.
 
#29
DWBass said:
While I know next to nil regarding the inner workings of preamps.....I owned a Peavey Millennium with an 18V preamp system and lawd jezuz that thing was 'hot'! I'm sure not all 18V systems are like that! I just felt I didn't need anything that hot and my current actives are perfect for me output wise although my active Lakland does clip my GB Shuttle a little so I have to keep the gain down. My passive Lakland, I can turn the gain almost all the way up with zero clipping.

Just to clarify, I was referring to the gain on my amps and not the pre-amps in case there was any confusion.
Click to expand...

That's the same logic as saying 'I plant radishes in my garden to keep the wolverines away'. When asked, 'how do you know the radishes work?, the response is 'well, I've never seen any wolverines in my garden:D

Of course some preamps are WAY hotter than others, and most preamps have internal trim pots that allow you to make them stupid hot or at 'passive unity', which is my preference. Whether these are 9 volt or 18 volt is not relevant to the output of the preamp.

Also, your comment about the amp gain control is correct. That's what it is for, to adjust the different outputs of different instruments so your amp always sees the 'optimum' signal level (for a solid state amp... just under clip for optimum signal to noise while still maintaining a clean tone, and for tube preamps, the amount of 'clean versus grit' you want).
 
#32
My fender J and P are both passives, I haven't had the money or time yet to install active pre's.
My ESP 305 and Carlo Robelli 8 are 9v
My Bongo 6HH and my Peavey Fury VI are 18v.

MM is my main bass, and the Peavey is my back up, simply cause they're both 6ers in Drop D.
ESP gets a bit of play time, but it's in a drop B tuning, so that limits its usefulness at gigs.
I usually bust out my J (with a fretless P neck) for blues gigs and jazz gigs where I need a little more vintage tone.

The other two don't really get used very often.
 

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