mcnach

If you are, nobody here will be able to tell the difference as you would blend right in

Go crazy! Experiment!

The thing with turning the bass volume down is that on most passive basses that also changes the tone somewhat, losing some treble. It could be a great sound as it is, but it might not be strictly the same as turning the gain down on the amplifier's input.

Yeah, I've made lots of mistakes over the years, I guess that's what they call experience :p But a lot of it comes down to preferences... I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with using one or another input. If you like the result, then it's good. The VM4 in passive mode... it's a tricky one. It will probably come down to personal taste and what else you do with the bass: amplifier, speakers, room... In some situations I find passive sounds a lot better, while in others it makes little difference (but still 'better' for my liking). It's free to try so have a go and see if you like it. In my case, I was never in love with the preamp: it's not bad, but it doesnt give me the ability to adjust the sound the way I want, I find it always a compromise. So once I figured I much prefer its sound passive, that's it: the preamp must go. But you might like it as it is, in which case just carry on. When I go passive, I'm definitely putting a Tonestyler plus a pot to adjust its intensity, as I'll have the space. I'm going to be moving soon so I've got a few things to take care of first, so it won't be immediate, but when I do it I'll record a few clips as it is now, and then with the passive circuitry. It's not as good as comparing with your own bass/strings/equipment but it may still be useful if you're curious.

wait, doesn't the AG500 have adjustable input gain? I think I've played through one of those...

I'm not going to say *all* because obviously I have only tried a small subset of amplifiers of all the ones out there, but I generally found the active input lacking something. I think it most cases it's a very basic attenuation circuit that they add and you're probably better off giving a less strong signal to start with, on the passive input, if it's too hot for it when fully open. It seems to sound better, in my limited experience. I tend to favour amplifiers with an input gain knob, so I just adjust as required.

I never use 'active' inputs. By default I go with passive and only if that doesn't work well I'd switch to active. I have never had to. Most active basses have an output comparable to most passive basses. My lowest output bass was a passive Jazz. My highest output basses were also passive. On an active, you may turn all controls to max and then it'll probably have quite a large output, but that seems a bizarre way to do things, certainly not something I ever felt I needed.

I sold an OLP once to a guy, I had put a Nordstrand MM4.2 pickup and the 2-band preamp from my Stingray (I had replaced it with e 3-band John East MMSR). The guy liked the bass, and was talking about some preamp he had found that was supposed to be an exact copy of MusicMan's 2-band preamp. I told him "but that's what you've got in there now". He was surprised, he thought I I couldn't possibly have put a real MusicMan preamp in there. Good job we got talking or he would have ended up with two similar preamps unnecessarily

I suspect he only found out after the deed was done...

THere's even a coffee-drinking one!!! I feel like I haven't lived

Nice one!

A drummer I sometimes play with tends to play ahead unintentionally, which makes things sound rushed. I try to pull back a bit, but he notices it, what he does is slow down... and I just have to stop trying or we'd end up going really slow. He's been a drummer for decades, so I can't find a way to approach this. I am the new guy, relatively, so I just go with it. It's difficult, but when you play with someone who gets the whole playing behind the beat etc, it makes me sound great, I love it

It is versatile indeed. I tend to favour the P pickup. Anywhere between both pickups on equally and all the way to P alone. Bass control flat or slightly up, treble down somewhat, sometimes completely. The treble is not wide enough for me, and removes part of what I want to remove but not all. The two controls interact a bit, and it's relatively easy to adjust your mids once you have experimented a bit. If you love it, don't try passive, just in case

If I were going to use another preamp I'd use the U-Retro I have. I really like those. It uses three stacked knobs, so I could leave one knob as dummy for those moments "oh, sure, don't worry, let me adjust this... -turn dummy- any better now?" or, better, add a passive tone control (it can be added easily to the U-Retro). But I'm really enjoying the basic passive sound, so that's what I am leaning towards right now.

Mine looks a bit different, especially the treble control. It's got a dual pot of some kind. In passive mode it does change the sound a bit, but it's marginal, nothing like a standard passive control. :shrug: edit: to clarify, left to right we have - bass - treble - balance - volume (push/pull for preamp bypass)

I opened it up to see if I could find some tell-tale label, but found nothing. Then again, I used to have a really cool 3-band with passive tone control Glockenklang preamp a few years ago and I don't think it came with any labels. I have to say I am impressed at the hardware they used. Those pots/switches look solid, quality stuff. The preamp is not a bad one, but me and 2-banders don't usually share a deep love, and every preamp seems to colour the sound slightly. The Sandberg one is pretty neutral, I would say, but there's still something there. At home I can live with it, and in many live settings it's just fine even if I still prefer the passive flavour. But sometimes it's just too much in your face (my face, baceface ). It's subtle, I suppose, for most people, but it's at a frequency range that I guess I listen to a lot, and once you hear it it just bothers me. I'm a fan of onboard active EQ, just not every option is to my liking. I do love passive tone controls... A single passive tone control and an active semiparametric mids module would be my ideal.

where did you find those emojis??? !!!! PS: in case that English flag was there because of my Scottish location... as much as I love Scotland, the coffee situation is the same (but improving rapidly too ). I am Spanish and got hooked on coffee in Portugal, where every little tiny cafe/bar had delicious coffee, and I just needed to ask for a coffee. Just coffee. If I wanted milk, or diluted with water, I'd ask separately. None of this having to study a two-page list with names I would never remember, and then get to the till and forget under pressure, so you blurt whatever you could remember "what did you go for?" "surpriseccino coffee" "I didn't know they made that one" "they do, just for me"

Three months on... I love the bass. The pickups are great. Preamp... nah. It's got to go. Lately I've been playing it more and more in passive mode and there's just a quality there that becomes... hidden under a blanket the minute I engage the preamp. I didn't notice it at first but it's one of those things that once you realise it, you can't ignore. I was noticing something not quite to my liking on the higher bass/low mids, and it goes away when I bypass the preamp.

Not a fan of Sandberg's 2-band EQ: I've been playing my VM4 a lot for the past 3 months, since I collected it. I was never entirely convinced by the preamp (2-band). I found ways to make it work, but it's just not there. Lately I've been playing it mostly in passive mode and enjoying it a lot more. There's something going on in the low end with the preamp engaged that I'm not liking. So it's going to happen. I'll either install the John East U-Retro that I've got in my drawer, or... most likely... I'll make it passive. I really like passive tone controls. As there's room for 4 controls, I could do volume, blend, Tonestyler and 'Tonestyler depth'. The pickups are nice (standard Sandberg), no problem with those. Does anybody know what Sandberg uses as standard for their 2-band preamps? I didn't specify anything so I got whatever is standard for them. I'm curious to find a bit more about them.

That looks very interesting! Thank you, I'll have to check it out

yeah yeah yeah, we all say that...

The mutes were installed separately, not on the studs. The studs served to anchor the bridge and as stops for the saddles, so that they don't move sideways.

good point. It's got to be fun.

I missed that earlier. I guess he went for the Standard Business plan that gives you something like 2 or 5TB storage. We've been using the Basic plan, which is free. You get 2Gb to start with which can grow up to 10Gb once you get a few referrals (I have 8Gb). Anyway, I'll shut up, you found what works for you and I know how annoying it gets when you find something you like and others keep telling you "oh, but you can do X and Y like me" I just wanted to make clear that it doesn't need to be a paid service. A couple of Gb is a LOT of band rehearsal material in mp3 format.

You know the SY-1 will appear in stock the minute you order a C4, right?