Active or Passive

[fretmeister]

Both.

 

I have active JJ, PJ, and P and passive PJ and P. They have a selection of flatwounds and roundwounds on them. All the J pickups are noiseless irrespective of active or passive.

 

I like a set and forget approach as much as possible. On a passive bass I tend to set the amp EQ with the bass tone knocked down to about 2/3 so I have room to let more treble through or cut it completely. Actually I do this on actives where there's only a single tone control as well.

 

Where I have a full EQ then I set the amp EQ with the bass flat and then I can adjust a little if needed as I play - often it will be to cut the bass a bit if the room is boomy.

 

On a 2 pickup bass I adjust the pickup balance far more than anything else.

 

Most of the time I pick the bass I'm playing just because I fancy playing that one rather than any specific tonal approach. I have a view that nearly every bass part can be played on a P or a J bass (and indeed a stingray but I haven't got one of them!) and the differences between them make it fun. If a cover tune is well know for using one of those types then I do sometimes take a perverse pleasure in using the 'wrong' bass for it.

[Ed_S]

Passive, for most of the reasons others have said; less temptation to twiddle, the tone I want is 'just there', cheap and easy to service/repair/replace. I also like the 'cleaner' look of an instrument with just a couple of controls much more than clusters of knobs and switches all over. That said, most of my basses are actually active as that's the only way they come and I don't have a big enough problem with it to start ripping the preamps out.

 

One I did rip out by necessity was a Rockbass where the preamp died. The active MEC pickups still need powering but sound great into passive VVT controls, and there was even a spare hole for a toggle switch to select one/other/both parts of the twin-jazz pickup in the bridge position, which gives a substantial difference in overall tone.

[chris_b]

 I use the same two basses for all my gigs. One is active with rounds, one is passive with flats. I sound check them and choose the one I prefer on the night.

 

All my basses sound great with the controls on the amp set to 12 o'clock. Buy the right amp and you probably won't need the EQ. Very bad sounding rooms can throw a spanner in the works, but usually the master volume is usually the only control I use.

 

IMO if you regularly have to take big swings at the EQ to get a sound you like, you bought the wrong amp.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Passive — preferably on a single pickup bass. I just don't feel the need to tweak the tone any more than a passive tone pot allows. Also I don't like batteries in basses.

 

Edited Wednesday at 17:55 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[markorbit]

Passive is my preference. Extensive tone tweaks can usually be done elsewhere and I don't have to worry about batteries and electronics that I didn't need going wonky.

 

If I have the urge for an active bass it's a plus if it also has a passive mode and it's quite a big deal that it can still function if the battery dies.

 

When I hear a good demo of a good Fender Precision I ask 'why would you need anything else'?

[Nice Guy Rich]

Passive 100%.  My Squier 40th Anniversary Precision sounds amazing every time 😁👍🏻

[NickA]

For me the point of active is not the eq.  The amp can mostly do that.  The point is getting the best out your pickups and being able to use pickups with a low output and flat frequency response ( things that are related)

 

Having said which, my Warwick has bass and treble cut and boost that seem very well matched to the bass in a way my amp can't manage.  In that respect, you can choose a greatly tweakable amp ( my old trace gp12smx ) or a tweakable bass and a neutral "hifi" amp ( my pjb )

 

As for why anyone needs anything beyond a passive squire precision.... horses for courses.  Holding down a pop/rock/blues band, yes indeed.  Playing jazz solos and even simple bass lines whilst getting a tone you like and still being audible above saxes, trumpets etc.... is why there are Alembics, Wals, Skjolds etc.

 

I read that Pino Palladio had given up on boutique basses in favour of a precision.  Apparently he wanted (audiences) to concentrate on the notes not the sound of the notes.  If I could play his notes, I might agree.

[ead]

I used to use both active and passive basses.  For reasons best known to higher beings I liked active fretless bases more than their passive cousins and for fretted instruments Ps and Js, mostly passive.

 

Sadly now having to sell stuff off, but I'm going to hang on to one ACG fretless bass (active) and a P and a J style bass so that I can keep making noises until my fingers freeze up completely.

[tauzero]

Active. Preferably with an active/passive switch. I generally leave the tone controls flat but it does come in useful if the tone needs some adjustment which I can do on the bass rather than going to the amp.

[BigRedX]

I've never found the need to fiddle with EQ at a gig, but for the last 30 years I've been using programmable multi-effects where each song has it own set of patches that have been carefully crafted to produce the right sound and sit the bass in the right pace in the mix of other instruments. 

 

If that sound needs some additional EQ FoH to compensate for the room (although there are limits as to how useful this is as room problems are both frequency and time based and trying to apply a frequency-only fix only works in certain areas and can actually make the sound worse in others) that is the domain of the PA engineer. On stage it would be nice to have a perfect sound, but until my band move to in-ears, I'll settle for being able to tell that I am in time and in tune with the rest of the band and not be so precious about it.

 

I'm also of the opinion that over all the whole band performance is better, if I play the song with slightly the wrong sound, than if I stop playing to fiddle with the EQ.

[JapanAxe]

Mainly passive. I set the amp to sound ‘good’ to me, with as much top end as I’ll need when the bass’s tone control is at maximum, and tweak it on my bass from song to song (if needed). I’ve become accustomed to the way a passive bass responds to tone control adjustments.

 

1 of my 4 basses is active and I do enjoy what that brings, but I can bypass the preamp with a switch if there’s ever a problem.

[Delberthot]

I like shiny things so whatever today's favourite shiny bass is , that is what I am going to use. I don't really think about it.

 

I have both passive and active basses and generally only use one bass at a gig. It's purely down to which one I fancy taking with me on the night and I'll adjust my preamp pedal to suit whichever bass I pick

[andruca]

Is the question really "active or passive?" or should it be "why no active?"? Is there anyone "shunning" every passive bass?

 

After 36 years of playing bass I've owned and own many of both. I still can't give a conclusive answer. What I'm sure is I don't like basses that sound generic. And I happen to find more active basses that sound so than passive.

 

That said, out of the 12 basses I own nowadays 4 are active: 2 Stingray5s, a MarkBass GV5 (as gnarly a Jazz Bass in active mode as passive) and an Ibanez EHB-1005MS (with alnico Wilkinson pickups replacing the stock Bart BH2s, 1st time I've dealt with the generic sounding issue without selling a bass, I like it that much).

 

I don't think it's a question of active vs. passive but of the higher chance there is of messing up the tone the "longer" the circuitry and overall options/variables involved. There will be active circuitry (and not just the cheapest) that will kill the tone/feel/responsiveness a bass can give, there's noisy circuitry, there's wrong EQ frequency point/curve choices for the particular instrument and/or pickups, there's "curious" voicings, etc.

 

I'm just guessing more combinations could equate to more chances to screw up, thus probably a higher % of negative experiences with active bass guitars, resulting in the notion in some players' minds "blacklisting" active instruments.

[GriffJamerson]

In university - active 

On the ships - active with a passive switch

 

Now - passive p bass!

Also now - I'm looking for a jazz style bass, or atleast something with a bridge pickup. Actually fallen in love with the new ultra ii jazz 5 string. But like all the ken smith, f basses and boutique basses I've also tried recently, i tend to find THE tone I like and leave it. Maybe blend the pick ups a bit to alter the tone. But it's usually always, treble all the way off and boost the mids a lil, lean on the bridge pickup a lil. The rip your nads off tone. It's always been the same with me with active basses. I also get easily confused if I HAVE to start tinkering and am never happy with the tone, but that would generally be because of the room, or monitor mix, not a problem with the bass itself. The tinkering rarely solves this problem.

 

But i do love passive! I can always find a workable tone with passive.

[itu]

On 21/11/2024 at 00:36, GriffJamerson said:

But like all the ken smith, f basses and boutique basses I've also tried recently, i tend to find THE tone I like and leave it.

This is against my idea of finding the suitable sound for the song. I use both bass and pedals (comp, octaver, fuzz, reverb, parametric, synth...) to alter the sound to fit the music. From very dry, middle peaking crack to reggaeish dark and mushy depending on the atmosphere.

 

Adjustments are there, and with pedals, bass, and hand position I change the character of the tone quickly.

[franzbassist]

My two fretted basses are active but can be switched to passive.  I tend to leave them in active but hardly ever adjust the EQ as I get enough tone shaping during a gig through the blend knob.  That said, the Sire PJ sounds amazing in passive with the neck pickup solo.  My fretless is passive, but as the pickup has a coil tap there's a lot of variation to be had.

 

In a live setting the amp is where the main EQ changes are made, and I am fortunate to have an amp with a very comprehensive EQ section, so I set it to sound good in the venue at the sound check and normally just run with that all night. 

 

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by franzbassist