Isn't it terrible ...

[uwe]

... that we all tend to make disparaging jokes about active basses here, but whenever I play a 9-volt-battery-entrailed bass at a rehearsal the guitarists inevitably (and not knowing that it is battery-fed) go: "Oh, that one sounds real good!"

It's like they have a certain active sound downloaded in their rodent brains and when they hear it they just can't resist. 

[Dave W]

I don't make disparaging remarks about active basses. Like passives, some sound great, others don't.

[westen44]

I had to think about this for a moment.  Then my mind when back to years ago when I went into a music store looking for a bass.  The salesman evidently was a guitarist.  He was genuinely excited about an active bass which he also expected me to like.  It was a good bass, but too bright with not enough depth for me.  I wanted something deep with a growling sound.  Somehow he never could understand that just because he liked the bass he was trying to sell that didn't mean I would like it, too.  Instead of moving on to other basses I might actually like, he just kept on and on about that particular bass. 

[leftybass]

Other than my Hamer 12-string this is the only active bass I have, a Schecter Baron-H. I like it a lot.

[TBird1958]

I love the tone of my Jackson Thunderbird, I only really need one active bass so no more are in my future, for Rock with a pick it really does stand out distinctly in the mix. 

[Basvarken]

I would never have guessed I'd ever play an active bass again after I sold the Ibanez Soundgear some twenty years ago.
But I like my 20/20 a lot. I use it quite often in the band.

[slinkp]

I still have and like my ancient Ibanez that I put a set Alembic p/j pickups in.  I love the lowpass filter tone control, that's a really special thing.

If I had the space and funds for a real Collection, I'd get a stingray too.

But yeah, I usually play the passive LPB, or the Greco bird, or even the Danelectro.  The Ibanez mostly sits at home unplayed

EDIT:  alembic, not anemic.  Thanks a lot autocorrect!

[Highlander]

My RD is not that active any more, in more ways than one...

[uwe]

I have active basses galore, they don't sound crap, just with few exceptions - the WAL comes to mind - not as individual as if these basses were all passive. There is a certain standard active sound that homogenizes anything it is fed with. And guitarists and drummers seem to dig that sound - probably because since the advent of the late 70ies they have heard it so often, it has become the modern P sound. In fact it is the modern P sound - just amplified with more focus on presence, sub-bass frequencies and a certain midrange.

It's not that I don't dig that sound occasionally too, but it strikes me that guitarist go for an essentially pumped up sound by a battery when they themselves eye active guitars with the greatest disdain for whatever reason.

Not knocking anybody's active bass.

[Chris P.]

I have one active bass, which has active pickups too. It has a great and even tone, but it misses this strange undefinable thing called character or mojo. But it ooes sound good in a mix, engineers liked it. (*)

Of course I reviewed a lot of active basses and I can't really see the purpose of active electronics. I mostly set everything in the middle or I switch a bass to passive and use my amp. In studios that's also mostly the choice of engineers. Gimme a passive bass and a well controllable amp and I'm happy:)

Having said that, maybe the thing I dislike most is a battery. I'm someone who's or to afraid it will run out, so I change it too often or I forget it. My all active bass can't live without one. I also use 1Spots for pedals only. It's not an environmental thing (more global warming please) but just laziness or worrying too much.

(*) The all active bass has mirrored P pickups like Entwistle used. There's something special about that. The front pickup has the split coil closer to the neck so it's a bit warmer. A reverse P. The E and A strings have the two splits close together so it gives something MM-ish or something like that. The split coil close to the bridge on the D and G side.. ..I dont think that ads a lot of sound.

[uwe]

"But it does sound good in a mix, engineers liked it."

That is why I am contemplating to take along an active bass for a festival where we are due to play a 40 minute slot end of the month. I'll probably be the soundman's darling if I do. But something tells me it's all wrong. 

[patman]

My sixer is not active per se, but I always put a Boss stomp-box eq in front of it.  Pretty much is the equivalent of active, the pre is just not on-board.  I think it sounds pretty good, actually.

[gearHed289]

I actually "met" all you guys when I stumbled upon the Pit during my transition from active to passive basses. My Rickenbacker had an EMG pickup and preamp at the time. Then I bought a Les Paul. Then pretty much all my basses were converted to (or BACK to) passive.  Now, I'm in a new musical project and have been experimenting like crazy with different basses. One being a Spector with EMGs. I was a fanatic about these pickups for a good 15 years. Then I lost my taste for them. But after recently hearing a friend of mine live, and also the vid of Mark with his Jackson, I thought I better re-visit. I've found I really like it for most fingerstyle and whatever little bit of slap that I'm doing. I don't like it so much with a pick. Too bright, not enough lows. I have the EMG BQC system preamp, which has a sweepable mid control. As I've always done with EMGs, I cut the treble a little, and boost the bass a lot. The mid is nice for a boost during solos or whatever (there's a lot of soloing in the new band  ). When I bought my Alembic last year, I became intrigued with some of the very usable mid tones I could get out of it. Real nice stuff, sometimes with a little chorus. So, I was looking to get some of that. Not quite the same, you just can't beat those Alembic low pass filters! But cool nonetheless.

Back to the Alembic - this thing sounds incredible with a pick. Fingerstyle doesn't really cut the way I'd like, and slap is a pain due to the positioning of the neck pickup, and the 24 fret fingerboard. It really challenges my beloved Ric, but doesn't have the feel or physical balance. I'd love to put Alembic pickups and pre in the Ric, but you're talking the cost of a whole new bass to do that. As it stands, I've got Ric HB1 humbuckers running through a Sadowsky preamp pedal (volume, bass, treble - boost only). And FWIW, I'm also using the 8 string Ric on a couple of songs.

What it all comes down to is, I want my bass to have a fighting chance of sounding great through the PA, and that's why I use the Sadowsky and am considering an active bass for live use.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I'm probably the biggest passive tone snob here and I have a G&L L5500 w EMG's, a Stingray, an Ibanez Musician, and my Marcus Miller all with onboard preamps. (My G&L L2500's preamp died and it can stay dead.) Of all of these, the old Ibanez sounds the most like passive but louder with zero tonal balance shift between active and passive until the EQ comes into play, and the Marcus Miller ONLY sounds good with the preamp engaged. It works in passive, but it's just a thin-sounding Jazz Bass then. The Stingray has a three band EQ, but it still sounds like a 'Ray should, and the older G&L is amazingly versatile with a mid frequency selector built into the preamp board and a damn great set of sounds.

Cheapie active basses sound good to "pseudo-trained" ears for the same reason most live PA mixes are kickdrum, sibilance heavy vocal, and chainsaw buzz guitar: each element sounds good solo, but that hollow modern P bass tone vanishes in that aural stew and like Uwe said, their ears are used to that tone from a million bad R'n'B pop songs. Active basses actually mitigate much of the difference between most tube and solid state preamps by lowering the bass's output impedance and not letting a tube preamp load the pickups directly.

[Dave W]

I just don't understand the generalizations. Except for the original EMGs, pretty much all actives are really passive pickups with active preamps. No different from putting an active stompbox preamp in your signal path, or for that matter, than the active preamp section of your amp.