Active bass into passive input?

[Corpsebass]

Hey guys, I saw some bass players like Alex Webster plugging in their active basses into passive input on the amp and I was wondering what might be the reason for that? Can anyone explain please, as I see no advantages of doing this at the moment. If Steve reads that, what method do you use yourself?

Cheers.

 

[ilikegrindcore]

This might have to do with Alex not wanting to overload the preamp. Being a metal fingerstyle player, he digs in fairly hard when he plays and he uses basses with high output electronics (Spector). This could easily cause overload the preamp stage if he's using a lot of gain. I know at for a fact that Spector Euros (e.g. ReBop or Euro LX series) have stupidly hot output and Alex endorses Spector Euro LX 5ers, for example. So, in order to be able to increase gain without distorting the preamp, it would make sense to use the passive (i.e. -15dB) input. That way he can crank up gain - for thicker, more compressed tone - and master volume, without busting the amp too hard.

The Modulus he uses has lower output and he uses some kind of pedal to compensate for the output difference when playing live.

Cheers

 

[Corpsebass]

Thanks, that's understandable in that sense.
Наливай yeah

 

[Son of Magni]

I'm not sure that makes sense. The passive input should be more sensitive (for use with a bass that doesn't have an onboard preamp), so it would be easier to overload the preamp.

Also it's an impedance mismatch because the onboard preamp is low impedance and you're plugging into a high impedance input. BUT, the mismatch may cause the tone to change and that could what you want. But this practice is not generally recommended...

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

I'm not sure if there's much of a difference between the different models of EMG pickups, but I know for a fact that my EMG J-X set is very low output compared to the stock pickups that were originally in my bass. If I remember right, all of Alex's Spectors and Modulus basses have 45s in them.

 

[Corpsebass]

EMG J's have much lower output than 45s, I had them on my Fender

 

[gonzoguri]

I'm not sure that makes sense. The passive input should be more sensitive (for use with a bass that doesn't have an onboard preamp), so it would be easier to overload the preamp.

Also it's an impedance mismatch because the onboard preamp is low impedance and you're plugging into a high impedance input. BUT, the mismatch may cause the tone to change and that could what you want. But this practice is not generally recommended...

thats right

the idea of pluggin an active bass into a passive input is getting a higher gain and probably a little overdrive, its the active input the one with some db cutted.

 

[spectordeath]

i do this all the time, and it seems to boost my signal quite a bit.