Does an onboard preamp cut noise?

['59]

Good morning,

I'm looking at purchasing a new pickup for my bass that has series/parallel/coil split options. It has an onboard pre-amp. I can't see the top of the IC chip on it to tell what type it is, so I don't know if it has a differential amplifier (the main part of what makes an amplifier circuit reduce noise) in there or not.

Does anyone know off hand if most pre-amps get rid of 60 cycle hum? If not, I'll just go with series/parallel, because the tonal differences between parallel and split are not worth it to me if it's going to be noisy.

[jeremy]

im not sure i agree with paralle/split not being worth it, but thats just me.

a good preamp wont add noise, most wont cut noise in a significant way in my experience

[IMENATOR]

That is a question for the actual vendor. As far as I know the humb cancelling thing happens at the coil design and preamps just boost the signal. I may be wrong,

['59]

im not sure i agree with paralle/split not being worth it, but thats just me.

I agree, but being a bass guitar, the nuances of tone will oftentimes get lost in a full band situation, and I don't want split mode to become noise mode.

['59]

That is a question for the actual vendor. As far as I know the humb cancelling thing happens at the coil design and preamps just boost the signal. I may be wrong,

Interestingly enough the preamp in my bass appears to be at unity. It's also fairly transparent, so with all my controls set at noon bypassing it doens't really make much of a difference