[mrlizard]

Originally Posted by Clogs

in a bass you can find the following.

Active pickups - these pickups utilise a power source, usually a 9v battery, and provide a higher level output to passive pickups. This also means that the electronics in the instrument will differ, as different ratings of pot (controls) will need to be used.

Passive pickups - these pickups do not require a power source and are the pickups found on fender jazzes, precisions and most 'standard' instruments. Many people they have a 'truer' tone.

Active bass Preamps - Basses sometimes have onboard preamps too. Basses with active basses often come equipped with preamps as standard, and this allows you to have a more versatile EQ, where you can cut and boost bass + treble seperately, sometimes even mids.

Passive bass preamps - These are preamps that are fitted into passive basses. They take the passive signal and boost them AFTER the pickup, so the pickups will still function if the preamp is not present. However, adding one of these will give you an increased output and again, a more versatile EQ section.

Many people prefer passive pickup/passive control equipped basses however, myself included.

Note, a lot of bass amps have gain switches on the input of the amp, or 'high' and 'low' inputs. This is used to compensate for the difference in output of passive and active basses.

Sorry if anything is unclear.

also a higher signal to noise ratio.