Am I overthinking this?

[yorks5stringer]

Contemplating modding a Jazz Bass to active. This will entail the usual 2 volumes and 1 tone changing to 1 volume, 1 balance and a stacked t&b pot.

Lying in bed thinking about this ( as you do), on the original Fender system you could have say volume 8 on your neck pickup, volume 3 on your bridge pickup and something between 1-10 on the tone.

With an active system you end up blending the volume on the 2 picups (unless you are at either extremity of the pots parameters) but the tone also has the advantage over the original system with seperate pot for both t&b.

Is my presumption regarding the active controls correct assuming I go for the 2 Band active circuit and does it make a great deal of difference to the character of the Bass?

[mart]

Yeah, I'd say that's right. From one point of view you're going from three knobs to four, and so from three parameters to vary, to four.

In practice, even that's not really the whole story, since an active treble control tends to provide much more variation than a passive treble control. But also, even if you just have the treble and bass flat, the preamp will shape the sound somewhat.

All of which suggests that yes, the character of (the sound of) the bass will change quite a lot when you go active.

Having said all that, I've got one bass with passive pickups and a preamp with a bypass switch, and there is only a subtle change to the sound when you engage the preamp.

[neepheid]

I have nothing to add here, other than the usual answer to the question "am I overthinking this?" is "yes"

[chris_b]

You'll get more "sounds" out of an active bass, but in my experience most players, active or passive, don't stray very far from a limited range of tones, which is where they're happy with their sound.

I'd suggest that a good set of passive pickups would get the best sound without the expense of preamps, batteries and the woodworking.

[brensabre79]

I used to make all my basses active, then i sorted myself a decent amp and speaker and they have all been on flat since then.
The one big disadvantage of active systems is when the battery goes dead.
On some systems this also means the bass goes dead too.
Most pre-amps will colour the sound a little even on flat, and do not fall into the trap of thinking you will get a higher output from an active bass than a passive bass, I used to think this and I thought that even on flat I was driving the front end of my amp more for a growly sound. Then I plugged a passive Precision into my amp one day and had to turn everything down.

Don't overthink this but do think about why you are adding a pre-amp. Whilst there are advantages to be had, there are also pitfalls, so make sure its worth the hassle.

[bassmachine2112]

I would get a pre amp pedal saves a lot of work