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Prefer a Passive Bass?

#41
I've owned and eventually gotten rid of every passive instrument I've owned. I get the "purity" argument, and in general my passive basses have had a bit sweeter tone that I can hear when I play it alone or record it with no other instruments. In a live situation though? Forget it - the sweetness is lost in the mix and I want/need the ability to push my tone around depending on the room and the tune. I prefer an active 3-band, as having a mid control is essentially the key to the kingdom wrt cutting through a mix when you need to.

But it also depends on the gigs you do. For some situations I'm sitting in the mix, for others I need a knife.
 
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#42
Staccato said:
In response to players not wanting to replace a battery all-the-time, I don't like to constantly recharge my laptop, cellphone, ipod, digital camera, or audio recorder...but occasionally replacing the battery in my active basses takes much, much less of my time by comparison.
So, what's the big deal?
Click to expand...

Some of us are really bad about unplugging all the time. So we worry about the battery going dead at a gig. Not me of course, I have a memory like a.... you know... those big things... gray... strange nose?

The difference is that the laptop, cellphone, etc all tell me when the battery is getting low. The bass doesn't.

It might be hypocritical to worry about a battery in the bass when I use a wireless, but the wireless not only tells me when it is low, it basically only lasts 2 gigs. So I am basically changing the batteries often enough that I can keep track :D

But if I did find an active I really liked, I *would* use it live. So the battery is not a deal breaker.

Hope some of that rambling makes sense.
 
#44
seanm said:
Some of us are really bad about unplugging all the time. So we worry about the battery going dead at a gig. Not me of course, I have a memory like a.... you know... those big things... gray... strange nose?

The difference is that the laptop, cellphone, etc all tell me when the battery is getting low. The bass doesn't.

It might be hypocritical to worry about a battery in the bass when I use a wireless, but the wireless not only tells me when it is low, it basically only lasts 2 gigs. So I am basically changing the batteries often enough that I can keep track :D

But if I did find an active I really liked, I *would* use it live. So the battery is not a deal breaker.

Hope some of that rambling makes sense.
Click to expand...

My musicman sterling
(not the cheap Range , although I
Imagine most musicman to have similar performance) gets gigged on average 3 nights a week doing between two 45 min sets and up to 3hrs on occasion. I carry a spare battery to gigs and if
It does go then on a musicman it is
So quick To swap batteries .



That said.........I have had the same battery in since before my current bands existence, first gig Halloween 2009. this really is how Long my battery has lasted. I unplug the lead between sets too. I do use. The higher powered batteries only though . Can't remember if it is a duracel or ever ready , bass sounds as lobelias ever.
 
#45
Love the larger low end of active
but I love the organic, natural feel of passive.

I feel like I can really dig in and play w more reckless abandon w a well set up, passive fender & a nice big cabinet.
It's easier locking into the mix, or bass drum w passive.
Sometimes my active basses can feel over EQ'ed,

But I've gotten to where I'm used to that low end bump that u get from turning up the lows on my active basses,

I set the amp flat, the treble on the onboard pre flat
and only bump up the lows a bit.
and basically use my blend knob and fingers for tones, (& occasionally my midrange knob, on my OBP3)

The Sadowsky preamp & pu's kind of accentuates the lows in an amazing way, and very clear, articulate highs that are good for slappers, but I like to roll them off a little for finger style.
my Aguilar OBP3/ Bartolini soapbars seem to have a more warm, pillowy, yet punchy tone that accentuates the mids more.
Active basses lack a certain feel that passive basses get, it's hard to describe but a Fender type bass just fall right into the mix, and lock in easily, it's a feel thing..

But..
I've found I've become dependent on that low end knob,
thet little boost is like a secret weapon, and my mid control is getting used more and more these days.. I can go to a recording session with a Fender, but id feel,"naked" going onstage at a rock or pop gig without that low end control. I can't get a P bass to growl like my Roscoe, it's what I'm used to, other folks make a P sound like Punk personified,

I guess I like the feel of passive & the huge lows of active
 
#47
Thanks to whomever for getting this into the right forum.

Let me say that as far as the battery thing goes, it's not that I think it would be a big deal to keep up with (I do it with my tuner, ect.), but just that I don't wanna deal with it AT ALL. Plus, I'm getting killer tones from my basses and rig already, so I'm satisfied. My Jazz with Chromes and playing with my nails through my Markbass rig has become a tone monster. Woohoo!
 
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#49
seanm said:
The difference is that the laptop, cellphone, etc all tell me when the battery is getting low. The bass doesn't.
Click to expand...

And that is something that should be addressed. It would take less than a dollar's worth of parts for the manufacturers to put a battery monitor in an active bass and light an LED when the battery has 20 hours or so life left. You can wire up a 1/4 inch stereo plug to allow you to measure your battery voltage through the amplifier jack though so it is not terribly painful to check it now and then on existing basses.

I just got my first new bass in forever and it is a Fender Deluxe Active Jazz. The three band EQ is great but I am sure I could have been happy with a passive bass too. I was actually more interested in the hum canceling pickups (even if a lot of you don't like the dual coil pickups that model sports). I actually ordered a Blacktop Jazz with dual Ps at first but when the delivery date stretched out the store gave me a good deal on the Active model and I took it instead. Battery life was a big concern after reading about it here but then I measured the current on the preamp in the bass (you can do that through the amplifier jack too) and realized that at around 600 uA that battery was going to last a long time. Of course there is no guarantee that every bass preamp is that frugal with battery current so don't take the measurements on one Fender model as a universal value.

Ken
 
#51
I like active pick-ups, (EMG's) (I have no use what-so-ever for active tone circuits though). Active pick-ups really give me the oomph and headroom I like for my jazz bass, and I like how they never pick up 60hz hum or buzz when my passive basses sound like a bee hive. I've never had a battery die on me mid-gig, and I've been using active basses since the 80's.

That said, I also use passive pick-ups on my p-type bass, it just has "that sound", a little grit and growl, that for me, defines what a rock-n-roll bass should sound like.
 
#53
i only play passives, being more of a retro rocker type fellow, however my guitarist friend left his fender jag at my house and i must admit that the thing was pretty impressive and i could see where it could be useful to be able to dial in a more focused or aggressive tone by using the active options
 
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#54
Back in the day everybody was going active. I remembered when I did. I turned my 69 J into an active bass Seymour Duncan style, in about 1985 or so. I tried hard to convince myself that I liked all that brittle high end and dispersed boomy low end. Not to mention the lack of warm, woody midrange. I have several active basses now but every time I leave the house to play I have a passive bass with me. Like I said before: When you send eq into eq and to the board with more eq you over-emphasize and cancel out some frequencies. Some guys get great tone with active instruments so this is not a absolute, but I just like the punch and straight forward direct sound of a passive instrument.
 
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#55
I have one of each. My fretted is the active one and has a certain throaty hi-fi tone I really enjoy, just hate changing the battery. My fretless is passive and sounds amazing with its EMG pickups, I just run it through a Bassbone preamp and voila! Can;t say I like changing batteries on the fretted but it's that tone that motivates me to bite the bullet with that one specifically. Otherwise, I much prefer passive systems and run the signal through an outboard preamp.
 
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#58
I've played active for decades, but am having a fling with a quality passive P bass. I'm especially enjoying the different flavor of mid-range.

I also like being able to leave it plugged in and ready to go, indefinitely, without worrying about unnecessary battery drain.

But I'm conscious of its high impedance output -- and that my guitar cable is now a filter!
The longer the cable, the lower-fi it gets.

For when I need to use a longer cable (e.g., walking out front-of-house to help with soundcheck), I've ordered up a belt-pack "Redeemer" buffer circuit. It doesn't aim to sculpt or boost the sound in any way, it just takes the signal from a passive instrument and makes it capable of traveling a good length of wire without degradation.
It's small and light and simple, with no cluster of controls to get accidentally nudged while playing.
 

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