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There is something about passive I really like

4Mal

4Mal

Gold Supporting Member
Jun 2, 2002
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Columbia River Gorge
#1
I was all active all the time for several years... Then a Marco N1P arrived. Then a Lull P5. Then I traded my last active Lull for a Valenti J and swapped the Sadowsky preamp for a VVT plate. These basses just seem to have a thing I was missing with active electronics...

I still have an active 44-01. It seems to be a case queen at this point... still I’ll hang onto it just in case.

I know this isn’t a real WOW! moment. It is surprising to me after so many years of active though.
 
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#5
Vodyanoi said:
If i may, what's that?
Click to expand...

To my ear, it is a more natural, less overstated sound. Less hyped. There is a place for that. I'm just less interested in that place these days. I still get full and rich tone. I feel like my tone is more about the string and pickup selection and less about the preamp designer's imagination.

It's funny but for me my affair with active on board preamps really took off with Audere - which is one of the more transparent preamps still. Lakland introduced me to Bartolini and Lull introduced me to upper end Bartolini. The Lull setup, good as it is (and it remains my favorite active preamp) was where I started using the pull for passive and using the passive tone control. After a while it was like just go passive...

My recent Valenti addition and the Sadowsky preamp sealed the deal. Loved the bass. Couldn't find a tone i liked. Swapped out for passive and damn! That is what it's supposed to sound like. Well to be the sound in my head anyway... That made a good bass great... for me.

I could see other folks going exactly opposite. I did for a long time. Maybe I will again. For now I'm digging the battery free life;-)
 
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#6
4Mal said:
For now I'm digging the battery free life;-)
Click to expand...

Thank you for your elaborate reply.

I also play an active (Bartolini NTMB; really transparent pre) bass, which i usually run in passive mode. I shape my tone in my amp anyway, so i use the pre only when i want to shape it further on-the-fly.

I don't see any sound difference between passive and active (when set to flat) mode anyway.
 
#7
Agree. IMO, IME, passive basses have a somewhat "organic" sound. Active sort of has a somewhat "sterile" and "crispness" kind of sound. A bit too clean or something. The difference between passive and active is minor though and not all that noticeable, IMHO. But, there is a difference.
 
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#10
4Mal said:
I was all active all the time for several years
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me too! :) there was a time that i wouldn't have even considered a passive...for decades!

4Mal said:
To my ear, it is a more natural, less overstated sound. Less hyped. There is a place for that. I'm just less interested in that place these days. I still get full and rich tone. I feel like my tone is more about the string and pickup selection and less about the preamp designer's imagination.
Click to expand...
i definitely agree with "less overstated" and "less hyped." i used EMG active configurations for a long time, but i went to passive electronics a decade ago (albeit, tenuously). i haven't had any regrets!

4Mal said:
I still have an active.......I’ll hang onto it just in case.
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same! :laugh:

TBH: these days i'm into 'micro-tweaking' the weight thing, so: not having to deal with batteries (and complicated pre-amps and wiring) is a plus, too.

i can appreciate your "WOW" moment --- good luck with the passive instrument(s)! :thumbsup:
 
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#11
I played only active basses for many years, and haven't played them for a while now. I agree with passive sounding more "organic and open" and it's a sound I've been chasing without realizing it for years. Nothing wrong with active basses, I still have a couple, but, for me, passive is where its at atm.
 
#12
Real active pickups/preamps (like the Alembics or basses I've owned with EMG's and one of their networks) have what I hear as a certain coolness or a reserved feeling, no doubt from the fewer wire turns and whatever shaping the attached tone network accomplishes relative to passive pickups through the pots and down the wire to the amp.

What can be bothersome for me is the more normal presentation with passive pickups followed by an active tone network. Depending on the original pickup and how good a match it is with that network, at best it's wonderful, like Sadowsky, or on lesser instruments, occasionally you're amplifying a lot of noise or showing how bad a match THIS pickup was with THAT preamp.

This is all subjective impressions, but that's what I hear.
 
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#15
I momentarily turned my active back on, to see if I could work out what I was that bothered me about it. I can't say I managed to, but I did feel that the sound had been set off down a path that needed pursuing: I had added one thing to the sound and now ought to be adding something more to balance or complete that, eg compression, or a bit of distortion. Without that something else it sounded awkward and clumsy.

Having written that it occurs to me that the clumsiness is coming from me, the active is magnifying that, and my ears are hearing the need for something else to mop things up :(
 
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#16
4Mal said:
Hah. I have necked it down a bit. Way down from several years back. I'll probably let go of a few more based on when they were last played.
Click to expand...

I'm planning on taking it to two by the end of the year. The chances of either one being passive are astronomically tiny, but I think I'm very near the end of the road on doing any new onboard preamp designs as well. Most of my friends seem to to prefer having a zillion often expensive pedals instead these days, all good by me. ;)
 
#17
Passive sounds more like the real thing. The first P-Bass was designed for upright players. Without that sound they wouldn't have migrated to electric basses. Even Sting switched back.
 
#18
Same. I own 8 passive basses and 1 active, never got quite used to the active sound (it is a Sub4). I like how it sounds, don't get me wrong, but is not MY sound. There are some things that sound nice on active but 95% of the time I go with passive.
 
#19
I get it. I think my Ray and Sabre EBMM basses sound pretty natural, just with more EQ options. But I have an active fretless that really sounds like 1986 in a box. And most of the time I'm playing passive for a lot of reasons. And yeah, nice to not have to unplug every time you put it down.
 
#20
Yeah I'm in a big time passive phase right now. My main player is all passive.
20200929_082703.jpg

This beast is all passive.
20200929_082803.jpg

Of course...
20200928_134019.jpg


And I have a few others.

The bass in my collection that is fun to play in active mode (although it still sounds great passive) is the fretless G&L L2000.
20200929_082733.jpg
 
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