Why basses don't come with a HP filter in the electronics?

[shoulderpet]

Why basses don't come with a HP filter in the electronics?

Because it is a bass.

I have basses I have had a passive bass roll off added to in place of the usual tone control, I find this much more useful.

 

[el murdoque]

Interesting to see how slowly the whole HPF idea crawls.

This thread was started in 2014, when HPF seemed like a well kept secret.
Now nearly a decade has passed and HPF is not a secret any more, but still more exotic than one could have guessed.

Only a handful of amps have that feature nowadays, and if you want a pedal that properly does it, you will still have to resort to small builders.

 

[JfetPre775]

On the original question: HPF could easily be integrated into an active bass design, on a passive not so much. Two problems doing it on a passive: 1) Too gradual slope. 6 Db per octave would suck out much of the low end as well as the problem sub-frequencies. 2) Pickups are inductive components. Add a capacitor, or another capacitor as the tone control already uses one, creates an LC tuned circuit which resonates at a specific frequency, that frequency will either be sucked out or boosted. That effect is sometimes used, and useful on guitars, on bass not much.

^^This is an excellent point!!

 

[jdjk7]

My new passive Squier VI has a built in HPF. They call it a strangle switch but it is a HPF and when you engage it the tone control knob varies the cutoff frequency over a pretty wide range although it cuts of pretty much everything if you turn it down all the way. I am going to hazard a guess that the reason they are not more popular is that they aren't that useful in normal circumstances. Maybe they have a use in recording, I wouldn't know. I have played with mine quite a bit by now and the only useful setting I have found so far is "OFF". If you really want one they are easy enough to add and like I said if you follow the Bass VI strangle switch schematic you will get a variable HPF when the HPF is engaged.

It's worth noting that the VI's strangle switch is not meant to do the same thing as the HPF you would normally apply to bass. The VI's strangle switch is meant to aggressively cut bass to make it sound more guitar-like or help it play better through guitar amps. The HPF you would apply to normal bass is just meant to clean up the lowest registers, not to fundamentally change how the instrument sits in the mix.

EDIT: Oh wow, I didn't look at the date on the post that I replied to.

 

[JfetPre775]

-Easy answer; They’ve been equipped on electric guitars & basses since well.. guitars and basses have existed. But even though they’re still standard fare for passive instrument’s, nobody actually REALLY utilizes or likes them especially..
*Okay I’m being a bit facetious including “everyone” in that statement. Even so I’d still wager that a poll would show the majority (95% plus) gtr/bassist’s never touch the tone pot, keeping it wide open permanently.
Traditional country guitarists who play bright voiced Fender and Vox amps dead clean alongside ice-pick brittle Tele/Esquire bridge pickups.. Are one instance where a cap bleeding highs to ground is welcome.

-Second, In an active 2/3/4 band Bass Eq; the treble pot moved counterclockwise from center cuts high frequencies in a very specific, controlled, arguably more musical way. Most circuit designers and musicians feel this is a more than adequate (often superior) way to deal with excessive highs.

-The answer to your question about whether it’s difficult and/or prohibitively expensive to incorporate a passive tone control into a design; The answer is no not really.. It will increase overall cost somewhat. But mainly it just depends on what most customers want & if your circuit will still be sized within spec. Generally speaking the smaller the circuit is the easier it will be to install, customize, and fit the multitude of different of basses without needing to permanently route or modify an instrument..

Oh jeez.. I just came back to this thread only to realize that everything written in my previous post, was mistakenly made in reference NOT to HPF’s but rather LP-FILTERS.. Umm, So Yeah that’s embarrassing!!