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Why have an onboard preamp if you don't tweak it?

#22
I guess this goes to preference as much as anything else. I know some performers prefer a stage bass with nothing more than a volume control. I guess these folks are doing most of the tweeking on their pedal boards or at the pre-amp/amp head.
 
#23
dmusic148 said:
AJ is far, far pickier about tone than most. He tried a bunch of pre's, but felt they all added distortion. His bass is the result of many years of trials and custom builds leading up to the bass he plays today. I can't think of anyone who's put as much effort into it as he has.
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...or anyone who has spoken about it quite as much.:D
 
#24
Jared Lash said:
I guess what confuses me about this phenomenon is why someone would bother with the controls in the first place.

I can certainly understand the "baked in" EQ of an onboard pre and how most do color the tone.

But in the case of a Fodera it makes little sense to me because the Pope pre is designed to be as uncolored as possible. Also, being custom instruments, why not just ask for the preamp to be installed without the holes/pots for the bass/mid/treble. You could easily get a bass that simply had controls for volume and balance with the EQ controls fixed in the "flat" position and not requiring knobs.

It just seems strange that if someone doesn't ever touch their preamp controls that they would bother having them at all on a custom instrument.

Clearly Anthony Jackson felt that way with HIS Fodera.
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I've never had any electronics in a custom bass built for me.
Seeing gary willis running that way years ago gave me that idea.
So far I have never regretted going without electronics.
 
#25
kraigo said:
I prefer passive basses, but I'd go for an on board buffer, especially if I ran it phantom with a TRS cable like EBS amps do for you.
KO
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That sounds very interesting-i have been thinking about the buffer thing for a while but not implemented it yet because I have a couple questions regarding this;
Where would one be able to get such a buffer and how would it be put into an instrument on which one would like to keep the option of running without the buffer engaged -in case no phantom power is available?
Would one need a second socket, splitting the cable from the pickup to the socket?

Thanks! :-)
 
#29
The controls aren't there so you have to use them. They're there in case you want to use them.

I have most of my pre's set flat or in one position 95% of the time. Why? Because it sounds good where I have it. I only make small changes when I need to. That said, I don't need to change my sound for every verse, chorus, and solo just because I can.
 
#31
My Big Al gets played exclusively passive. At least when I bought it I thought I would run it active more, but that has virtually disappeared after 2.5 years of it being my main instrument. I don't even know if the batteries still work.

If I could order one passive without the extra knobs, I would certainly consider it.
 
#32
I can see have a main setting position for each control that seldoms changes. If one uses pup blend fro main voice variations. I can see just doing little tweaks of the onboard eq with just one or two of the controls as main thing. But your right, I dont see the purpose of buying acive if your not going to use the controls and are just going to run it passive.
 
#33
Personally, I run my basses flat most of the time. I believe in getting the sound from the hands, pickups and the speaker primarily. In particular, you have tons of control over the sound just in your hands. People who play acoustic bass know this intimately.

But there are many times, like if I go to take a solo, that I want to hear myself a little more clearly (high mid bump) or I feel like in a particular room, my bass feels small across the board, so I want the source signal that goes to the amp and the house to have a little more ass at the start.

Or there is a musical reason I want to add a ton of treble...or get rid of a ton of treble....for one section of a tune.

Another factor is, a lot of musicians simply don't know that much about technical stuff and would rather not screw with things they don't understand if they're getting the result they want anyway. A lot of guys don't care about gear. They just want it to work and sound good consistently. I've actually built a couple preamps for Richard's basses that were nothing more than older versions of Pope/Fodera preamps with the Eq pots removed to make room for MIDI/Piezo stuff. It's what he has, what he has had, and what he knows to work for him. So why screw with it?

Also, no preamp is truly transparent unless you load the front end of it the same way as the cable at the output. In my mind this sort of defeats one of the main purposes of the preamp. I like the way a high impedance input opens up the sound of the pickups. Some don't, but I do. The Fodera preamp, when presented with a low impedance source that doesn't care about the impedance difference between active and passive, is extrememly transparent when flat. But if you listen to the difference betweeen active/flat and passive, it is relatively obvious because of the change in loading on the pickups. So you can really tell it's there. However, in a non a/b context, the preamp when in active mode, it really lets the bass breathe.
 
#34
The Audere on my 12ver has none of the EQ options-It is just vol, vol and a six way knob for the Z modes. I almost always leave it on Low Z Neck/High Z Bridge. Basically, I own the preamp because I love the Z mode stuff, which in a way does EQ the pickups I suppose.
 
#35
So you have to adjust the eq on your bass to have an OBP be worthwhile?

How about just the fact some people like an active sound, regardless of where the eq is set?

Some people blow my mind; its like if they cant see it being a contributory factor, then obviously it isnt and you're are a tool/idiot!

Kinda like the guy who wanted an amp designed with 2 knobs on it.....so self centered
 
#37
JimiLL said:
Another great reason that i you dont wanna use it, no one is putting a gun to your head
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Dude!
It happened to me. Right in our second set. This guy rushes the stage grabs the mic from the singer. Yells he's heard what a fine luthier made my bass. Demands I show more than it's pretty top, pulls out a 9. I had to do what he said.

So I hit the active switch, dialed out a little mids hit alternate mids push pull, dialed the bass up and all hell broke loose. The floor filled with gyrating honeys! The drummer laid into his kit. The guitarist started playing rhythm like I'd never heard before.The horns were blatting this sweet staccato.

We were booked by the club every Sat nite until the earth ends, when we're in town. The nine month tour began last week.
Our five album deal is sweet. We didn't take an advance at signing so they owe us.
I met the greatest girl that night.
Oh, the guy with the gun. He mysteriously disappeared but he looked suspiciously like our new manager. Oh well, that night was a blur.
 
#39
JimiLL said:
So you have to adjust the eq on your bass to have an OBP be worthwhile?

How about just the fact some people like an active sound, regardless of where the eq is set?

Some people blow my mind; its like if they cant see it being a contributory factor, then obviously it isnt and you're are a tool/idiot!
Click to expand...

I think you're reading too much into what I asked. I posed a simple question because I wanted to hear some answers, not because I was trying to prove a point or insult anyone. But I did point out a solution for people that feel similarly to you that don't ever use the EQ on a bass. A buffer circuit would give you that "active" sound and low impedance without the additional knobs if they aren't being used. But obviously there are other reasons why people have a preamp that they always run flat or passive and that's what I was asking.

And I have gotten some good answers in this thread. Obviously, if you find a bass you love the sound and playability of and it has a preamp in it there's no reason to take it out.

I was more thinking about custom basses where a player is deciding all of the options. And the notion of hurting resale value is one I hadn't really thought of, but even with a custom bass ordered to your specs it should probably be a consideration.

Thanks for your response thepontif. Interesting that you run your own preamp flat most of the time - I wouldn't have suspected that. Also interesting that you posted in this thread since it was in part your response in another thread that got me thinking about this notion.

I forget the thread topic but I remember both you and kjung making the point that there was absolutely no downside to having a preamp in a bass if it could be run active/passive.

I can certainly agree that it doesn't hurt anything, but for me and what I do (live electronica for the most part right now) having a low impedance bass would play havoc with certain effects (fuzz for instance) that are an important part of what I do. So I certainly could have a preamp and set it for passive all the time but I wondered why I'd bother. But as I said, there are pros like Richard Bona that seemingly do exactly that so it got me wondering.

I'm certainly not trying to push an agenda or insult anyone.
 

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