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Why do you think there are so few passive 5 strings?

#3
That's a simple answer Jimmy but it is exactly what I had in mind. More of a marketing/demand thing than a real technical reason. I concur. I have a passive 5 string Jazz Bass style that is pretty amazing but I sometimes think of slapping a preamp in it just to get a good alternative to my 4 string Jazz Basses/P Basses.
 
#8
Yeah, I agree, it's more cultural than technical. The five-string is associated with a "modern" sound, whatever that means, and so are active electronics, so they often go together. Four-strings are more "traditional," which people associate with passive. Personally, I like passive better, and both my fivers are passive.
 
#10
Mostly "just because" I'd suspect.

Active pickups and a preamp also make a lot of things easier from an electronics design perspective. No need to select and match individual components (whose specs can vary as much 10-20%) to get your brand's signature sound just right. A few trim adjustments on the preamp and it's taken care of.

Also, with the additional low frequency range of a five or six string, an active tone stack might make more sense from a control perspective, depending on who you talk to.

For the record, my only non-acoustic/electric bass that has a pre in it is a Spector-5.
 
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#11
Fender offers a fair number of passive fives, at a glance Ibanez offers only one. I suspect that means the typical fiver buyer prefers active and those who prefer passive also prefer Fender. I buy active and passive indiscriminately. Now, I did just trade for an active five and I do plan to sell my passive five but that is driven by how they play, not by the electronics packages.
 
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#12
There's also the fact that (aside from the ill-fated Fender Bass V) pretty much all 5-string basses came out after active electronics started becoming popular, whereas the dominant 4-string designs (Fender Jazz and Precision) have been passive basses from the beginning, even if active versions came out later.
 
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#13
Talking about the ill-fated Fender Jazz Bass V, I think the fact this bass was not a hit contributed to the lack of interest for passive fivers.
I remember Roscoe Beck, when talking about his signature bass, saying that a regular Jazz Bass pickup does not sound good with a B which I believe is true. A Jazz Bass V pickup has to be engineered differently than Jazz Bass lV pickup in order to retain more definition on the B string. As a result the instrument does not sound like a Jazz Bass four string on which you just added a B.
 
#14
I don't think there's any particular problem with the Jazz Bass V, but it did come out after active electronics were already in fashion, and the first Jazz Bass V's were active instruments.

Rather, the "ill-fated" instrument I was referring to was the Fender Bass V, the 15-fret bass tuned E-C that came out in 1965: Fender Bass V - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Frenchy-Lefty said:
Talking about the ill-fated Fender Jazz Bass V, I think the fact this bass was not a hit contributed to the lack of interest for passive fivers.
I remember Roscoe Beck, when talking about his signature bass, saying that a regular Jazz Bass pickup does not sound good with a B which I believe is true. A Jazz Bass V pickup has to be engineered differently than Jazz Bass lV pickup in order to retain more definition on the B string. As a result the instrument does not sound like a Jazz Bass four string on which you just added a B.
Click to expand...
 
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#15
khutch said:
Fender offers a fair number of passive fives, at a glance Ibanez offers only one. I suspect that means the typical fiver buyer prefers active and those who prefer passive also prefer Fender. I buy active and passive indiscriminately. Now, I did just trade for an active five and I do plan to sell my passive five but that is driven by how they play, not by the electronics packages.
Click to expand...

I think you see this effect even more with 6 string basses. The only passive 6 string bass I own is my SX 6ers. And all my 5 string SX are passive too. But of course they are all Fender-style clones even the 6ers. All my other 6ers are active and "modern".

Which brings me to my main axes: 3 G&L L2500 5ers. As you may know they are a bit odd with both active and passive with passive EQ controls (except for the high boost). This allows you to choose between active and passive in actual playing rather than in just a passive as an emergency measure when the battery dies and the EQ with it. The point is that when I first switched to 5 string basses I was all active and was convinced that people saying passive was a special sound were misguided. Now I am enlightened. The G&Ls have proved to me that passive basses do indeed have a certain special "something" to their tone. And the money quote here is that in my playing of the G&L basses I find that I use the passive and active settings about 50-50. Both are useful and both can work well in certain situations. And best of all I don't have to choose between buying an active or passive bass.
 
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#16
I have a 5 string passive
I love passive if pups are good, played some active basses in past, they suck (for my taste), at least most of them
Played my friends 6 string, it has active Aguilar with passive switch. I put it to passive, it sounds amazing, all across the neck.
I'm fan of flat eq, eq bypass and everything like that, and I love filters (passive tone controls). I'm planning to get a custom 6 string with Glockenklang. Will run it passive :)
 
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#17
bassbenj said:
The point is that when I first switched to 5 string basses I was all active and was convinced that people saying passive was a special sound were misguided. Now I am enlightened.
Click to expand...

I think there is value in the passive sound too. If the preamp input impedance is right (and it isn't always) then an active bass should sound like a passive bass with the tone control dimed. But you really cannot get the same effect from an active bass as you can from rolling off a passive tone control. My main player the last few years has an active/passive switch and a passive tone control and volume control in passive mode. So, yes, passive mode does give you a limp home feature if the battery fails but it also is a useful mode in its own right. My new (to me) Ibanez SR605 is a straight active bass but I most likely will mod it to give it a passive mode with tone and volume controls.
 
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#19
I'm with @JimmyM that most who prefer 5 string probably want the active system sound as well. Not me. My main bass is a Warmoth medium 5 Gecko that I put EMG pickups in. I did not put in a preamp, and the sound really works for me. it sounds more like a passive.

I'm likely building a 5 string passive as a backup as well. I keep new batteries in the Gecko but Murphy's law you know.
 

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