Upgrade to active?

[AnnieSocial]

Hi!
I have a passive Peavey Millennium BXP 5, and would like to upgrade to active electronics. First, is this even possible, and second, is it a costly upgrade?

Thanks from a player who's getting back into it after 30 years.

Ann

 

[line6man]

Active pickups or a preamp?

What were you hoping to gain by upgrading anything? What aspect of the bass' tone or versatility are you dissatisfied with?

 

[line6man]

First, is this even possible, and second, is it a costly upgrade?

Yes, it's certainly possible.
The cost is going to depend on what you buy. Some pickups/preamps are more expensive than others.

 

[darkstorm]

Yes, the vast majority of active basses are passive pup and active eq preamp. Not expensive at all. Preamp like the basslines blackout 2band are very nice and quite inexpensive even though they have selectable treble freq switch.

 

[AnnieSocial]

...What were you hoping to gain by upgrading anything? What aspect of the bass' tone or versatility are you dissatisfied with?

As I understand it, the pickup volume controls are wired out of phase so that when both are up equally, any noise seems to be canceled. Set one higher than the other, the noise level in the one tha's up goes up. I would much rather just have a volume control for each pickup, and a totally separate tone control. Or would this also result in higher noise?

The bass seems quite noisy (humming) with just one pickup on; I need to have it looked at anyway, as there is a wire that is unconnected to anything except one volume pot. I'm guessing that this may be the source of the hum, but I'm out of my depth here.

At any rate, thanks everyone for your advice.

Annie

 

[line6man]

As I understand it, the pickup volume controls are wired out of phase so that when both are up equally, any noise seems to be canceled. Set one higher than the other, the noise level in the one tha's up goes up. I would much rather just have a volume control for each pickup, and a totally separate tone control. Or would this also result in higher noise?

The bass seems quite noisy (humming) with just one pickup on; I need to have it looked at anyway, as there is a wire that is unconnected to anything except one volume pot. I'm guessing that this may be the source of the hum, but I'm out of my depth here.

At any rate, thanks everyone for your advice.

Annie

You're referring to how two single pickups are reverse wound AND reverse polarity from each other so that at equal volumes they will humcancel. Traditionally single coil sets are RWRP so that the signals match at 0 degrees, but the 60Hz hum is 180 degrees out of phase, so that when the amplitude is equal, the destructive interference cancels out the hum.

If two pickups are out of phase from each other, (RWRP, and then wired out of phase.) you will have a thin nasal sound when they are played together, as most of the frequency content cancels out.

In any case, having 60Hz hum when the pickups are not at an equal volume is completely normal with single coils. It's the nature of the beast, and there really is nothing you can do about it unless you want to try adding dummy coils or switch to humcancelling pickups.

 

[Stilettoprefer]

The unconected wire you're referring to is the ground.... Its supposed to be connected to the bridge.

The hum is natural with single coils. Nothing you can do about it without installing noisless pickups.

 

[SteveC]

Some would say it isn't an upgrade.

 

[Stilettoprefer]

Some would say it isn't an upgrade.

+1