Bass Players Poll

[kill your scene]

The Ultimate Question - Active or Passive? and why?

I choose passive. Actives sound way too artificial and processed for my liking. It's true that their tone is a bit more variable and clean. Not to mention that string to string response in more steady. But I happen to dig that dark, warm tone that only passives offer. I can't find a bass pickup that works better for my tone than the Quarter Pounder for P. Currently, I'm playing a Squier P/J that has a P body, J neck and Quarter Pounders in both P and J positions.

I wouldn't trade my setup for all the EMGs in the world, but that's just my .02 Any thoughts?

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Bass Players Poll

Active. More flexibility, and I haven´t had problems with sterility or such yet. But so far I´ve used either Bartolöinis with an SKC-preamp or Duncan Lightning Rods

That reminds me, I need to get a new set of Pickups for my Washburn, the Rods A customer took off of me a few weeks ago....

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Bass Players Poll

I've always liked active's more for bass. It gives me the option to shape my tone more for different styled songs.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Bass Players Poll

My Bass player swears by EMGs And I understand why Cuz' he gets a smooth even
tone, And there much easier to amplify. But one day I brought my G&L L1000 down
to a rehearshal. Everybody agreed it sounded better Than his EMG equiped J-bass ??
IMHO active's sound better in a P-bass than a J- bass. I vote for passive

 

[Wattage]

Re: Bass Players Poll

For bass active pups are OK, I am just not a fan of active pickups.

 

[Byakhee00]

Re: Bass Players Poll

Actives are great for the shear versitility, and if i had to pick between actives and passives, i'd go active every time, but i prefer the sound of passives.

 

[kill your scene]

Re: Bass Players Poll

For me, passives always sound better and most of my tonal versatility comes from tweaking the bass's knobs, the EQ settings and varying my playing styles. It's really amazing how many different sounds you can get out of an ordinary passive P/J setup if you use your imagination and your equipment to the greatest of it's potential. I've used actives and you can do a ton of great stuff with them, but it always came down to the fact that they sounded a bit too "cold" and "stiff" and I could never get rid of that unless I just grabbed my old P-bass.