Active bass with distortion effects

[SteveXFR]

The only active basses I've had is my Sterling Ray34 and a Ray35 and I didn't find an overdrive or fuzz that worked with either. Is that a problem associated with active instruments? 

Would I find the same problem with an active Precision deluxe?

[MichaelDean]

I didn't find that overdrive or distortion worked that well with my SUB Ray 5 either. I couldn't get a dirty sound that I liked. It does work well with my Dingwall though. I think it's more the instrument itself. See if you can try it out with your pedalboard. 

[SteveXFR]

12 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

I didn't find that overdrive or distortion worked that well with my SUB Ray 5 either. I couldn't get a dirty sound that I liked. It does work well with my Dingwall though. I think it's more the instrument itself. See if you can try it out with your pedalboard. 

 

I have wondered that.

I forgot, I also had a SUB Ray5 and that didn't work either. With a nicely overdriven valve amp yhey sounded amazing but put in a pedal and it sounded like fried butt holes

[Doctor J]

There's no reason for an active bass not to work with distortion. Every EMG equipped bass and guitar is active and lots of bands who use distortion use those pickups. I run distortion on passive basses, basses with passive pickups and an onboard preamp and basses with active pickups and an onboard preamp, I can't recall every having an issue getting good distortion. 
 

Your distortion effects are active too, don't forget.

 

If you're one of those people who boosts the bejesus out of the low end on a Stingray type, then that might be your problem, possibly overloading the input stage of the effect and adding additional clipping where it is designed to be. Don't boost needlessly and perhaps turn the volume down or lower the pickup away from the strings to about the output level of a passive bass you like which works with the effect.

[mcnach]

48 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

There's no reason for an active bass not to work with distortion. Every EMG equipped bass and guitar is active and lots of bands who use distortion use those pickups. I run distortion on passive basses, basses with passive pickups and an onboard preamp and basses with active pickups and an onboard preamp, I can't recall every having an issue getting good distortion. 
 

Your distortion effects are active too, don't forget.

 

If you're one of those people who boosts the bejesus out of the low end on a Stingray type, then that might be your problem, possibly overloading the input stage of the effect and adding additional clipping where it is designed to be. Don't boost needlessly and perhaps turn the volume down or lower the pickup away from the strings to about the output level of a passive bass you like which works with the effect.

 

This. All of it. 

 

I use mostly active basses but not exclusively. I haven't found any active-specific issues. I have a bunch of overdrives, they all sound different with each bass, so I adjust to taste but I never found one that just would not work with active basses. If you're boosting the crap out of the onboard EQ I would not be surprised that the results might not be amazing... :shrug: Other than that, no idea.

[itu]

This fuzz/dist/OD is something I did not understand, so I started a research. Long story short I met a fuzz maker. He commented, that high impedance (hi-Z, passive) signal has different behaviour in an effect than lo Z (active). Therefore there are fx that act in a different way when driven with lo or hi Z signals. Even adjustments may have a different character.

 

OK, so the impedance means something, even more than the signal level (remember, that hi and lo Z signals tend to be pretty similar in level). Then I lent several fx units and tried them with both active and passive basses. Yes, that's it! I need different units for different basses.

 

Later I found the same applies to compressors, although in lesser extent. This is the reason I have fx boards for hi Z and lo Z basses.

 

Remember: if the fuzz/OD/dist is after other fx, the driving signal is lo Z. If it is the first in line, the bass dictates the behaviour.

 

(Some units I tried: Sparkle drive, Vemuram, Bass tight fuzz, Overlord (tube), Old growth fuzz (modded for bass), Crustacean, Møg, Oxide, Multi drive, Rat...)

Edited October 23, 2022 by itu
wrong letters

[Downunderwonder]

You can always turn the active part of the preamp off in a Fender P Deluxe and it becomes a passive P/J. Depending on where you have the vol and EQ set it can be louder or quieter switching between Active and Passive mode.

 

Remember to check if you have it in Passive before tweaking EQ to no effect.

[Nebadon2000]

5 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

The only active basses I've had is my Sterling Ray34 and a Ray35 and I didn't find an overdrive or fuzz that worked with either. Is that a problem associated with active instruments? 

Would I find the same problem with an active Precision deluxe?

 

Just buy a EBMM DarkRay; it's only a a tad more expensive than what you have😀 They have a 5er now

 

Maybe they will release an SBMM one.

[SteveXFR]

Just now, Nebadon2000 said:

 

Just buy a EBMM DarkRay; it's only a a tad more expensive than what you have😀 They have a 5er now

 

Maybe they will release an SBMM one.

 

I think I'll give that a miss. Less flexibility than pedals but considerably more expensive. 

[WinterMute]

I'm another one for amp distortion (or the modelled versions these days) I've never found a pedal that gives me the sound I want, but I have found a couple of amps that sound the dogs.

 

Don't know if that's an active/passive thing, haven't had a passive bass for 30 years, but all my MM and ACG basses sound great through the QC with nary a distortion pedal model in sight.

[SteveXFR]

1 hour ago, WinterMute said:

I'm another one for amp distortion (or the modelled versions these days) I've never found a pedal that gives me the sound I want, but I have found a couple of amps that sound the dogs.

 

Don't know if that's an active/passive thing, haven't had a passive bass for 30 years, but all my MM and ACG basses sound great through the QC with nary a distortion pedal model in sight.

 

That works if you only want one distorted sound. I generally have a base level of amp drive and then use either an overdrive or fuzz pedal on some songs or parts of songs 

[WinterMute]

2 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

That works if you only want one distorted sound. I generally have a base level of amp drive and then use either an overdrive or fuzz pedal on some songs or parts of songs 

 

I've got the Quad Cortex, there's a bunch of ways to kick in whatever gain or tone changes you want, song by song, section by section, I can change amps for choruses if I need to.

 

My point was more that fuzz or distortion pedals have never been able to deliver the kind of sound that I want.

[Tokalo]

I’ve got an EBS Drive Me Crazy that works amazingly with my Sire M7 in active mode (in series and single coil): full, dirty sound with no loss of low end. 
When I play my passive G&L SB-2 (split p/u) through it, it loses a lot of bass.
 

But with the pedal off, the SB-2 pickup gives a far grittier, louder, bassier output than the Sire.

 

It makes no sense to me, but Itu’s post helps.

[xgsjx]

I've got a Sub Stingray 5 & used a Behringer BDi21 as a drive pedal.  Sounded fine.  My Ibby used to be active & using various dirt pedals on it was never an issue.

Have you tried putting your fx through the fx loop on your amp?  It can yield very different results.

[SteveXFR]

1 hour ago, xgsjx said:

I've got a Sub Stingray 5 & used a Behringer BDi21 as a drive pedal.  Sounded fine.  My Ibby used to be active & using various dirt pedals on it was never an issue.

Have you tried putting your fx through the fx loop on your amp?  It can yield very different results.

 

 

The BDI21 is a preamp which just adds a bit of dirt, I find that works fine, i use a Le Bass preamp which sounds awesome with my Ray. It's when I get really nasty with fuzz or heavy overdrive it all goes wrong. Running through the effects loop makes no difference to this problem.