jonnythenotes Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 After recently going back to using a passive bass again, there is one thing I am still not sure of... All posts I read about passive pickups and there relationship with the Tone control state that you can only ' take away' signal or frequency, where as with an active bass you can 'add' to the sound of the signal..mid, top, bass etc. My bass is the Yamaha BB 2024, and the controls are a pickup select switch, volume, and a tone knob. The tone knob is graduated from 1 to 10, with 1 being low tone and 10 being high frequency.... So the question is, at what number is the start point at which you 'take away' from the tone. Is 1 the start point, or 10, which would seem logical as you are removing, or 'taking away' the higher frequencies as you move towards 1. Sorry for my ignorance, but hopefully someone will understand what I am trying to ask... Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 A passive tone control is best understood as a treble cut - fully open in your example is 10, so all the frequencies make it through. As you wind it back to lower values you progressively take out the higher frequencies leaving only the lower frequencies - it's what's known as a low pass filter. The value of the capacitor that's connected to the tone pot is important as that makes a big difference to how much treble you subtract as you close the tone control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oopsdabassist Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 [url="http://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/repair/passive-tone-controls-explained.html"]http://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/repair/passive-tone-controls-explained.html[/url] Does this help? Tone control turned fully clockwise is effectively 'off' with the full treble frequencies getting to the amp. as you wind the knob anticlockwise more high frequencies are bled to ground giving a more bassy sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnythenotes Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 Thank you both for that.....it really does help. It's been bothering me for ages, and now BINGO.... Cheers, and I am sure quite a few folks will be interested in this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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