Bass - - Passive vs. Active

P

poo

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Ya I know this gets brought up a lot, but it's important! Lately, i've been favouring passive pickups for recording. Anyone else?
Is there anyway to get rid of that annoying clickiness of active pickups? my buddy has a cort bass with bartolini pickups and it just has those overtones that sound clicky thin.

I have a shitty shitty Series A bass with passive and I like the tone out of it way better..everybody says there is something wrong with me. But I know there isnt!!!!!!!!! So what's the deal, I must be doing things wrong if I can't get a decent tone out of a bass thats worth over a grand.
 
What kind of music do you play?? Alot of people I know prefer passive to active. Active bass is great for some songs, and passive is great for some songs. Nothing in music is EVER "the only way to go", or the "best". I know people that hate SRV's tone. WHAT?!?! But thats the greatest tone Ive ever heard. Nope. Some people actually strive to sound like dimebag Darrel instead. *choke*. Its all about you. I own a PRS and a G&L Tele. The PRS is worrth twice as much as the tele and I play it about 1/4 as much. Price means nothing. If passive sounds better to you, run with it.
Till your outta breath and every muscle and bone in your body is screaming, run with it. (that was my melodramatic "rally the troops" exit...hope you liked it)
T
 
poo said:
Ya I know this gets brought up a lot, but it's important! Lately, i've been favouring passive pickups for recording. Anyone else?
Is there anyway to get rid of that annoying clickiness of active pickups? my buddy has a cort bass with bartolini pickups and it just has those overtones that sound clicky thin.

I have a shitty shitty Series A bass with passive and I like the tone out of it way better..everybody says there is something wrong with me. But I know there isnt!!!!!!!!! So what's the deal, I must be doing things wrong if I can't get a decent tone out of a bass thats worth over a grand.
Click to expand...

That's because it is a CORT bass. If you put a 265 Horse engine in a golf cart, you aint gonna have no NASCAR.

It's preference. For a live application, Actives seem to offer more control. I also prefer the hotter signal for recording. Take a listen to a nice bass like a Tobias, or a Warwick with actives, then you will see the debate.

Good Luck,

Fangar
 
Series A passive pickups where superior

I took the pickups out of my series A bass that was bought at the mall record store in 1972 and put them in my squire P bass, the bass sounded better than ever. Then I forgot to take them out when I sold the P bass on ebay in 2004, I bought 1/4lbs pickups for my latest fender bass and these sounded just as good, on my 5 string I have bartolini MK-1's and these sound very good too.
 
It's completely a taste thing. If you like what you have, who cares what anyone else thinks?? I like passive for some sounds and active for others, but live (gigs and rehearsals) I generally go active for the flexibility of tones.
 
hm..my G&L L2000 is active, but with the flick of a 3way switch, you can switch between passive, active, and active with a treble boost...problem is, the pickups are more prone to include a popping noise when recording when in active mode, especially iwth the treble boost...but i do play with the active preamp on more than passive...my schecter has active EMG's in it, and it sounds great...and my jazz has passives, and its output is THE lowest of the 3 basses..
 
I dunno, the active module in my NS-2 (Spector) is extremely responsive on both the Bartolini J-position and the stock P-position pups...I can go from thick and lathery to clickety-clack with the 2 cut/boost knobs...But it sounds just fine with everything centered...

I suppose operator error is out of the question? Try playing without a pick... :p :D ;)

Eric
 
To me, it's a matter of preferance. On some songs the more mellow tones of passive pickups sound best, on others the aggressive attack of active pickups is the sound that works best. Most of the time I prefer passive pickups, I guess I just like the softer/more mellow tones, they just seem to have a more "fluid" sort of feel/mood/sound. Of course a player's style and the genre of music greatly influence the sound any musician strives get. Slap licks benefit from active pickups while smooth blusey licks sound better on passive. I don't want to imply that either is better than the other, just different, and depending on the sound you want one may work better than the other. It's not a matter to debate any more than are humbuckers better than single coils, it's a choice of whatever sounds better on the song. Active and passive pickups both have their place to fill, it's deciding which sounds best and using it that makes the lines stand out most. Whatever works best on one song may not work as well on the next, let your ears be your guide.
 
Taste is relative but don't ever tastes your relatives.
I prefer passive p/ups but then again I prefer flat wound strings.
I have round wound on a bass for the appropriate application.
 
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