On board active electrics...going full circle.

[NickA]

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

where >90% of the settings are poor

that does indeed apply to my acg-eq-01 jazz with it's 8 pots ( volume & blend, LP filter & filter gain for each pu plus variable frequency and gain high frequency pass through).  Easy to get lost in there!

 

Not to the Wal tho ( a mere 4 pots and three pull switches) on which 90% of settings are good!

[crazycloud]

22 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Eventually I will do the individual buffers for each string.

I already have, but the amp stages are a bit current hungry and require outboard power, especially for 2 x 6 string pickups. They're very low noise and distortion and I'm not willing to compromise on the design to get it battery compliant. A simpler summing node design with 1 amp / pickup is about 95% as good, and no one would ever hear the difference.

 

Details, as well as the outboard processing (y'all should be able to guess what that might be), later. Not intending to release it commercially. I have other more important projects in the near term, but it's all based on my older existing designs.

[Woodinblack]

18 minutes ago, crazycloud said:

I already have, but the amp stages are a bit current hungry and require outboard power, especially for 2 x 6 string pickups. They're very low noise and distortion and I'm not willing to compromise on the design to get it battery compliant. A simpler summing node design with 1 amp / pickup is about 95% as good, and no one would ever hear the difference.

 

Not sure why you would need to compromise on power - there are high quality opamps that take nA current now, more down to price than anything.

 

But I always liked the idea, just to stop the loading of one element with another, goes all the way back to hearing the distortion channel on the original Roland GR300

[Chienmortbb]

23 hours ago, BigRedX said:

IME buffers are only useful if you have a very long lead to your amp, and nowadays most people in this situation will be using a wireless system which essentially acts as a buffer.

To an extent, I agree with you, but one issue with passive electronics require a relatively high input impedance in the amplifier, mixer, pedal. High input impedance basically equals high noise or hiss. Of course, if you are one of those nutters people that prefer true bypass, there is no hope for you.

 

As someone that makes cables for people, it is in my interest for people to need better cables and to make the case for a quality low loss cable but yes a Wireless system does effectively make the bass active (or more correctly buffered). Of course, I also make cables to replace the ones supplied by Shure Sennheiser and Line 6.

 

Personally, I use both passive and active basses but if the Fender Precision were introduced today, Leo would have installed a pre-amp (MusicMan?).

[Stub Mandrel]

8 hours ago, crazycloud said:

I concur with all of the above. My own design onboard pres have individual buffers for each PU.

Swap active and passive in your comment to better reflect how I feel about the two topologies.

 

 

As the designer you will have the understanding needed to get the best from them.

 

If mire active basses were truly 'flat' with all controls centred and had less aggressive cut and boost than is typical, then they would be easier to use for the average owner.

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, NickA said:

that does indeed apply to my acg-eq-01 jazz with it's 8 pots ( volume & blend, LP filter & filter gain for each pu plus variable frequency and gain high frequency pass through).  Easy to get lost in there!

 

Not to the Wal tho ( a mere 4 pots and three pull switches) on which 90% of settings are good!

 

The hardest thing to get good results from is a sweepable mid.

 

The problem is the ear tends to hear any change as an 'improvement' and you can go in circles.

 

Also in a soundcheck situation, other band members are unlikely to have the patience for you to seek the ideal tone...

[Stub Mandrel]

21 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Personally, I use both passive and active basses but if the Fender Precision were introduced today, Leo would have installed a pre-amp (MusicMan?).

 

And Stradivarius woild have made his violins from carbon fibre reinforced plastic composites. 

[Woodinblack]

2 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

And Stradivarius woild have made his violins from carbon fibre reinforced plastic composites. 

 

And maybe they would have sounded better!

[neepheid]

27 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Personally, I use both passive and active basses but if the Fender Precision were introduced today, Leo would have installed a pre-amp (MusicMan?).

 

Eh, he flip-flopped about actives it over time.  You forget G&L.  The L-1000, which is probably the final destination for the P bass as he saw it is 100% passive, 2 band EQ.

[biro]

Surprisingly, after years of switching off any preamp, I am finding myself more attracted to active basses of late, in two ways. Part of it is that I love EMGs and would install them anywhere if I could. But recently I have also enjoyed tinkering with the knobs of some of my other passive-pick up / active electronics basses when recording – something I was always inclined to avoid on the assumption that you should always record flat. Well, what do you know, some of these EQs are very musical and affect the tone in a way that is not quite the same as having doing things in the box. So there's that. 

[JPJ]

Ah a journey I have been on recently but in the other direction. At one time, most of my basses were five string actives, which over a period of time I ‘upgraded’ to John East J-Retro or Unibass preamps. I had my sound. 

Then a tribute sort of gig came along which required a P bass, so in came a very nice early passive Lakland Skyline P with the Lindy Fralin pickups, quickly followed by a Fender Tony Franklin fretless P bass (again passive) for an electric Americana project, and that was it, I was hooked on passive tone, so much so that I built (assembled) a passive five string PJ. Passive basses became my main gigging instruments of choice.

After about two years, I was feeling guilty leaving my John East equipped Overwater five string J series, my previous workhorse bass, unloved in its case. So I whipped it out for a gig and boom - I was back in love with active basses. For me, I think passives record better, but there is no substitute for the oomph of an active bass when you are playing live. What has changed is that I am now cutting the bass back much more and really dialling in the middle to get a really nice, almost passive, tone but with more balls. 

It’s funny how your tastes change over time isn’t it?

Edited yesterday at 12:32 by JPJ

[Owen]

On 26/10/2025 at 11:49, neepheid said:

Complexity, solved.

 

And that is a tone control. Because volume is either on or off. 

[Stub Mandrel]

25 minutes ago, Owen said:

And that is a tone control. Because volume is either on or off. 

 

In theory, you could wire one up to a dsp and Toneprint and have a control with multiple detents to give you a whole set worth of sounds.

[crazycloud]

On 27/10/2025 at 20:58, neepheid said:

 

Eh, he flip-flopped about actives it over time.  You forget G&L.  The L-1000, which is probably the final destination for the P bass as he saw it is 100% passive, 2 band EQ.

Who cares? Leo did this, Leo would have done that...

Irrelevant. He's one guy with his own set of opinions and was running commercial enterprises which will have materially affected design decisions (just look at what F and G make today!). His opinion of what he thought best at the time is not important compared to what I want in an instrument now. After all, I'm playing it and paying for it.

[neepheid]

58 minutes ago, crazycloud said:

Who cares? Leo did this, Leo would have done that...

Irrelevant. He's one guy with his own set of opinions and was running commercial enterprises which will have materially affected design decisions (just look at what F and G make today!). His opinion of what he thought best at the time is not important compared to what I want in an instrument now. After all, I'm playing it and paying for it.

 

I was replying to someone else's point - why are you popping off at me?  Easy, tiger...

 

I'm not with you and I'm not against you - I quote myself - "It helps to remember that there are no right or wrong answers here. Each to their own. I have both active and passive basses, and I enjoy playing all of them."

Edited 7 hours ago by neepheid

[Woodinblack]

TIL (actually last night), rickenbacker actually did do some active electronics in a guitar. I never knew that. No basses though.

[Chienmortbb]

On 27/10/2025 at 09:58, neepheid said:

 

Eh, he flip-flopped about actives it over time.  You forget G&L.  The L-1000, which is probably the final destination for the P bass as he saw it is 100% passive, 2 band EQ.

I think he was bowing to market pressure.

[Rich]

On 26/10/2025 at 11:49, neepheid said:

Complexity, solved.

 

 

Nah. Needs a bigger knob.

 

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, Rich said:

Nah. Needs a bigger knob.

 

 

I can't be held responsible for any effect my basses might have on you...

[Rich]

39 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

I can't be held responsible for any effect my basses might have on you...

Well, that black Les Paul bass did cause me some peculiar stirrings...  

[Rich]

Just to go on-topic for a second (shock!), a quick straw poll of my basses reveals that apart from my very first bass, a '65 Höfner, every instrument is active. Even the ones that started out passive. I guess I just like them that way. 

[HeadlessBassist]

49 minutes ago, Rich said:

Just to go on-topic for a second (shock!), a quick straw poll of my basses reveals that apart from my very first bass, a '65 Höfner, every instrument is active. Even the ones that started out passive. I guess I just like them that way. 

 

I'm mainly active (7), but have two passive Jazzes (soon to be three when the Walnut/Graphite build is complete.)

[BigRedX]

I currently own 4 basses. Only one is active and it is run with all the tone controls centre to their centre dente position. I'm seriously thinking of removing the preamp and wring it passive.

 

Of all the basses I have ever owned two-thirds of them have been passive. The only active basses I have owned where the electronics did anything useful (IMO) were the Pedulla Buzz and Sei Flamboyant both of which were fitted with ACG01 Filter Pre-amps, the 1985 Overwater Original fitted with the Overwater filter pre-amp and the Lightwave Sabre whose pickups don't even function without power.

[Woodinblack]

All active apart from the rics and the jabba mini bass. Well, also the chapman stick, although that is active or passive, depending on if you give it phantom power.