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Very quiet passive bass

BonesawMcgraw13

BonesawMcgraw13

Guest
Jan 13, 2016
154
46
38
Louisville KY
#1
So I was just wondering if it's common for a passive bass to be super quiet. I've only every owned active basses. I haven't actually done this intentionally, it's just always worked out that way. Anyway I just picked up a westone electra fretless bass for free off of a friend of mine. Anyway I know it's not active like my other basses. This thing is super quiet when I plug it in. I have to crank my Ampeg SCR-DI preamp pretty much all the way up and still have my amp turned up pretty loud to even hear it at any sort of decent volume. It's a little ridiculous. I was just curious if this is a normal thing with passives or if there is something amiss with this bass. It seems like it shouldn't be normal because I know there's plenty of people who don't use active and it would seem crazy to prefer passive if every bass was like that.
 
#4
Could be that It's just old and needs some work or something. The pick ups aren't set super low or anything like that. I've got both the bridge and neck pickup volume all the way up. I can hear it through my amp but i have to crank everything up so much that I'd be shaking down the neighborhood if it was any of my other basses.
 
#7
hmm thanks. It could be. The guy i got it from is a pretty amazing bench tech. I work for pretty large AV rental house and we freelance him all the time to fix amps, speakers, mics, etc. I'll have to check when I get home and see what the pots look like. Would it be obvious what resistance they have from just looking at them?
 
#10
BonesawMcgraw13 said:
I thought the difference was that an active has an onboard preamp usually. Wouldn't that make the signal hotter coming straight out of the bass.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Preamps may be unity gain, or they may have adjustable gain, but be set to a lower output. Whether or not a preamp boosts the output is something that is dependent on the design choices made by the manufacturer.
 
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#11
line6man said:
There is no relationship between active/passive and output.
Click to expand...

This, the assumption that passive instruments are somehow lower output than active basses stems from the normal and -15db pad inputs being labeled as passive and active inputs, which is rather ridiculous. I have passive basses that will absolutely smoke my active basses as far as output goes.
 
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#13
"decent volume" and "pretty loud" don't mean anything. Measure the output.
Preferably by recording both the Westone and another bass using the same recorder settings and comparing the waveforms.
 
#15
Hopkins said:
This, the assumption that passive instruments are somehow lower output than active basses stems from the normal and -15db pad inputs being labeled as passive and active inputs, which is rather ridiculous. I have passive basses that will absolutely smoke my active basses as far as output goes.
Click to expand...

It is rather unfortunate that we are still stuck with that convention for labeling amp inputs. The labeling is not inherently bad, if you go back to the fact that active basses were anticipated to be really loud, when they were first being developed. The problem is that it now misleads too many people into thinking that you choose an input based on whether or not you have a battery in your bass, rather than whether or not your bass needs padding. I wonder if the industry will ever do away with the active/passive labeling?
 
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#16
Hopkins said:
This, the assumption that passive instruments are somehow lower output than active basses stems from the normal and -15db pad inputs being labeled as passive and active inputs, which is rather ridiculous.
Click to expand...
This was my exact thinking. I've always used the main input on my amps and don't ever pad unless I'm leaving the room during practice or something so it won't be resonating through the amp the whole time I'm gone.

lz4005 said:
"decent volume" and "pretty loud" don't mean anything. Measure the output.
Preferably by recording both the Westone and another bass using the same recorder settings and comparing the waveforms.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I don't really have the means to do that. I can say that for the level I would normally practice at home with my amp has to be cranked so high that it would be shaking the house if I had anything else plugged into it. That doesn't seem normal.
 
#17
line6man said:
It is rather unfortunate that we are still stuck with that convention for labeling amp inputs. The labeling is not inherently bad, if you go back to the fact that active basses were anticipated to be really loud, when they were first being developed. The problem is that it now misleads too many people into thinking that you choose an input based on whether or not you have a battery in your bass, rather than whether or not your bass needs padding. I wonder if the industry will ever do away with the active/passive labeling?
Click to expand...

Personally, In all my years I have never come across a single instance where the pad was at all useful or served any purpose besides being a tone suck.
 
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#18
BonesawMcgraw13 said:
This was my exact thinking. I've always used the main input on my amps and don't ever pad unless I'm leaving the room during practice or something so it won't be resonating through the amp the whole time I'm gone.
Click to expand...

If you're leaving your bass plugged in while leaving the room you hit the -15db switch instead of just turning the volume knob?

BonesawMcgraw13 said:
Unfortunately I don't really have the means to do that. I can say that for the level I would normally practice at home with my amp has to be cranked so high that it would be shaking the house if I had anything else plugged into it. That doesn't seem normal.
Click to expand...

If you have a computer, you have the means.
You might as well say your amp makes leprichauns come out for all the good "shake the house" does in diagnosing your problem.
What are the knob positions that make the same apparent volume for the two basses out of the same amp?
 
#19
lz4005 said:
If you're leaving your bass plugged in while leaving the room you hit the -15db switch instead of just turning the volume knob?
Click to expand...

Yea that's just my preference. I know I could just as easily turn down the volume on my bass or amp or turn off the amp altogether. I'm not talking hours here, like 10 minutes tops. I'm not too worried about the battery in my bass because I have an endless supply of free batteries.

lz4005 said:
If you have a computer, you have the means.
Click to expand...

I don't have a home computer. I have one at work. So unless I have a very slow day at work where my boss wouldn't mind me spending time in my office recording a bass, I don't have the means to record.

lz4005 said:
What are the knob positions that make the same apparent volume for the two basses out of the same amp?
Click to expand...

I have both gain and volume knob as high as it will go in order for the westone to be at almost the same volume my other basses would be with the gain at 10 o clock and the master at 12 o clock. I'm going into an ampeg svt450 which is going into an old carvin 15".
 

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