smb4a active?

[5borochris]

i recently purchased tthe smb4a pickup and im going to be installing it on a dan armstrong lucite bass.. if i ever figure out what i should do. ive routed the body of the bass wonderfully to accomidate the pickup and would have no problem making room for a battery and preamp, but i am unsure how to wire the bass.

i do not want to install a preamp if i dont have to but then will the bass be active? or will it sound dull as it does now? im used to a jazz deluxe and im hoping to give this one a kick. can i just install a 9v and have that power the pickup? im really confused and figured theres no one better to help me than all of you. even if i knew if i was to include a battery or the battery and preamp. i would have no idea how to wire it all together. please help me i think i may cry (

 

[celticafro]

Re: smb4a active?

I don't think you quite have your pickup basics down. Here's how things work, as I understand it. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

The terms "active" and "passive" don't actually refer to the pickups themselves. They refer more to the SYSTEM through which the signal that the pickups produce is amplified and/or processed. It is not the pickups themselves that are "active" or "passive."

Passive pickups are easy. The signal created by the magnets in the pickups travel through the patch cable and into the amp, which makes the sounds much louder, and countours the frequencies a bit. Not very complicated.

Active pickups have a little more to them. Generally, a pickup is considered active when there is a pre-amp installed directly into the instrument. A decent-quality preamp will include your basic Treble and Bass BOOST (as opposed to boost/cut) EQ. All preamps require a battery for power, because there is no useful electrical signal flowing INTO the instrument. The batteries do NOT power the pickups themselves. The SMB4a will work just fine wihout a preamp to power and alter the signal, even though it would sound like absolute CRAP. (To give an idea of what it'd probably sound like, pick up your local Stingray and turn tone knobs down almost all they way down. Hear what I mean?) If your intention is to recreate that deep, punchy, lively mid-seventies Stingray sound, you would MOST DEFINATELY want to install a preamp with Bass, Treb, and Mid boost/cut capability, such as the Aguilar OBP-3.

*cough*Warmoth.com*cough, cough* includes, in their pickups pages, some basic info on the preamps that they offer, including wiring diagrams. If you don't feel up to some precision-work DIYering, I suggest taking that sh#t to a professional and coughing up 100 bucks or so to get a real quality job done on that weird, weird looking bass of yours. Is that an Ampeg reissue or an original Dan Armstrong?

 

[5borochris]

Re: smb4a active?

cool thanks alot, a preamp it is then !

its an original, but im not the original owner and the guy who had it before me messed with it a bit, bridge has been changed allong with the neck. yes its wierd lookin but it does turn alot of heads with the look, i just really want the sound to back it up. thanks again