Instead of cutting the tone like on a passive bass, we can boost any frequency. This is simply because we’re supplying more electric into the mix from the battery. This allows us to have all kinds of tone controls like we would on a regular bass amp. On an active bass that electrical signal comes out of our pickups in the same way but then runs into a powered pre-amplifier. The tone control on a passive bass can only cut. Boosting would mean bringing extra power in from somewhere. So we can only take away from the signal, we can’t add anything to it. The important thing to realise here is that the tone control is just a simple resistor acting on that current we’ve created.
On a regular passive bass, the electrical current from our pickups passes through a single tone control, volume control and out through the lead to an amp. Pluck the string, it moves through that field. If you’ve ever taken the case off your pickups you’ll see the copper wire around a magnet. I won’t bore you with the more intricate details of how that happens here, just check out Faraday’s Law Of Induction and then google ‘How Pickups Work’ and it should all make a little more sense.īasically we get a voltage from the movement of the strings through a magnetic field. How Pickups WorkĪll basses have a set of pickups that create an electrical signal from the plucking of the strings. However, for the most part, when you’re shopping around for a new instrument, the term active bass will refer to the active preamp in there not the pickups. So it’s important to make this distinction. In those cases you’re looking at pickups that are battery powered rather than the preamp. But some basses do have actual active pickups like those made by EMG. Most active basses have passive pickups with active circuits. So think Active is powered, Passive is not. The term active bass usually refers to the addition of a preamp, the same as the one in your amp and this preamp is powered by a battery. So first of all, what’s the difference between passive and active basses? Well, It’s all to do with the pickups or more accurately the electronics and preamp that work alongside the pickups.Ī Passive bass is a normal, run of the mill bass with a basic single tone control. What’s The Difference Between Active & Passive?