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Active, passive, dunno...


Richard Jinman
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Erm, quite possibly a dumb question, but as someone who knows nothing of these things I’m going to ask it. I have a Yamaha BB1100s (love it) which is active. But the neck pups (as far as I know) are identical to those on passive BBs like the 1200 and the 1600. So, in passive mode why would the 1100s sound much different to those basses? Or to turn the question around why wouldn’t you opt for active as a switchable option? PS: I know 1200 is neck through, but does that really make a significant difference to sound? PPS: this isn’t a Yamaha question because there are plenty of Fenders (deluxe P) with a similar set up. Be gentle...

Edited by Richard Jinman
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Good question. I don’t know the scientific answer, but I’ve had a few switchable active/passives and almost never use the passive option on those basses. I also have passive only instruments which I use and like just as much. 🤷‍♂️

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Except EMG, a few Seymour Duncan models and a very few other brands, all pickups on instruments are passive. Now, you can always bypass the active preamp with a switch or a push-pull volume or tone. As easy as that. That said, an instrument is a whole, so the sound of a BB1100S will not be the same as a BB1200 or BB1600, even with the same pickups, but the overall pickup grain will be the same.

Now, there will be another war starting with the Almighty Pickups Power believers, but don't worry, the thread will derail by itself or it's not BassChat anymore. 😂

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An easy start is the signal chain of the bass:

pickups - blend - vol - tone - output

Any part of this chain can be "active" (low impedance is maybe a bit better term, but never mind), or "passive". It is very common, that an "active" bass has battery powered tone stack and that's it. This means, that blend and vol are simple (and usually low quality carbon track) pots. They always load the pickups in a way or another, most common issues are related to the treble or signal strength. In a "passive" bass the tone pot affects the sound, too, whether at 0 or 10 (yes, there are exceptions...).

When an "active" tone stack is bypassed (the bass is in "passive" mode) the sound is changed slightly. Compared to a "passive" bass, there is no tone pot to load the pickups and the sound is different. These tiny details depend on the pot values and types.

There are only few electronics with a mixer in them. That type of system is much more controlled (and more expensive), and does not load the pickups (= change the original sound).

Price comparison:

- a J bass has three carbon track pots, a cap, an output jack, and some wire: £5 (for the manufacturer)

- a John East preamp is around £150 - 220, but the performance is stellar

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10 hours ago, itu said:

When an "active" tone stack is bypassed (the bass is in "passive" mode) the sound is changed slightly. Compared to a "passive" bass, there is no tone pot to load the pickups and the sound is different. These tiny details depend on the pot values and types.

But here's the funny thing: the BB1100s has an active 3-band, but also a passive 250k tone pot :)

So in passive mode, the only thing that sets it apart from for example the BB1600 mentioned in the first post is the 1600 has two volumes whereas the 1100s has a 3-way switch and one master volume. 

Edited by LeftyJ
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3 hours ago, LeftyJ said:

But here's the funny thing: the BB1100s has an active 3-band, but also a passive... 

Yes, it is true. There are several constructions which include an extra pot that may be excluded or included with the lo-Z circuitry. I did not want to include every possible signal chain option, as there are many, like Alembic (filters; external power source for opamps), Wal (semi-parametric eqs), Vigier (semi-parametric + treble/tone) etc.

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