Passive/active thoughts

[bass_ferret]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='174673' date='Apr 11 2008, 04:41 PM']I'm not saying you can't choose different tones from different playing styles. I play with my fingers, a thumb pick, my thumb and my nails - but I still gig with 20 odd pedals.[/quote]
Someone that thinks actives f***s up the purity of the sound is unlikely to use 20 pedals I used to muck around with my eq but now I just have a few sounds that I like to use. The thing is you dont have to keep mucking around with the eq but with an active bass it is there if you want it.

[Perry]

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='174483' date='Apr 11 2008, 12:40 PM']I agree. If you're going to make an album, labour intensively over every bit of it. You may never get another chance. [size=3][color="#0000FF"]But you must also appreciate that most listeners won't appreciate the fact they you forked out for a £900 cab over a £300 cab. Of course, you can (probably) here it, and that's what is self indulgent. I'm not knocking it, everyone likes to self indulge[/color].[/size]
As for stopping using pedals, I agree again. If they're pretty extreme, then they become an integral part of the sound. People will notice this.

They won't notice who manufacture your strings.[/quote]


+1

[silverfoxnik]

[quote name='matty589' post='174501' date='Apr 11 2008, 01:10 PM']The poster about Warwicks is spot-on, which is why I am glad most circuits have a pull-passive, I prefer both of mine bypassing the circuitry. Actually a high-quality full-range passive pickup in a balanced-sounding bass is best to my ears - If you have a good even hi-fi amp you can eq to suit and the eq from a good recording setup will be far more transparent than any onboard eq. In all the basses I have played and owned the active circuit seems to add headroom at the expense of purity and variety of sound. I think it is also worth mentioning that you can get a lot more of variety of tone with your hands! I recently read a Jonas Hellborg interview in Bass Player where he was talking about his signature bass and amp. He said that onboard eq never works because it runs on 9 or 18v batteries - nowhere near powerful enough to provide the headroom and frequency response of a good mains-powered eq. New strings, changed more often, also reduce the need to play with eq so much as well. One of my favourite players is Anthony Jackson, and his bass has one full-range passive pickup wired directly to the output jack. Nothing wrong with his tone! I just have to convince someone to build something similar for less than £10K [/quote]
+1

I still think this all comes down to taste and style and that neither option is superior to the other. IMHO, some of the best records ever made with some of the best bass playing and bass sounds ever committed to tape will have been made with passive basses. But as I say, that's only in my opinion. On the other hand, some people really like Flea's tone or Mark King's tone for example, but neither does anything for me.

When I'm gigging, I prefer to get the changes of tone I need from the way I strike the strings with my hands, rather than through using lots of e.q, either on-board the bass or in the amp. It works for me but I doubt it would for others..

And besides, when I DI into the band's PA, they always muck my sound up anyway