The more I learn about and interact with the bass-playing community, the more I discover that my preferences typically fall in the “unpopular” category. I’ve already made my defense of Darkglass and the Gibson Bass Defense will have to wait because today, we’re talking about possibly the second-most polarizing topic (behind playing with a pick, of course): Active pickups.

Before I prove to you that active pickups are better than passives, there are two things we need to get out the way:

First, there are essentially 4 bass electronics setups.

1: Full passive, like you’d find on any old Precision or Jazz Bass. Passive pickup, passive volume(s), passive tone, output.

2: Passive pickup/active electronics, like what you’d find on a Stingray. This is probably the second-most popular setup. The passive pickup is fed into an active, onboard preamp with active (cut and boost) EQ.

3: Active pickup/passive electronics. This is what we’re focusing on today. These are typically black plastic-covered pickups, powered by a 9v battery, then fed into passive (cut-only) volume and tone controls.

4: Active pickup/active electronics. Probably the least popular of the 4 setups. Combine setups 2 and 3.

Secondly, to really help explain the concept, we need to look to amplifiers.

The sound you’re most likely familiar with is your bass through your amp and out of your speaker. And what a lovely sound it is! You spent a considerable amount of time and money to get that tone. Demo video after demo video after Premier Guitar article after TalkBass forum have led you to this one perfect combination of your very own signature sound…only to have the FOH guy or recording engineer plug an XLR cable into the Pre-EQ Direct Out, basically giving your meticulously-sculpted tone the finger.

Have you ever listened to your Pre-EQ Direct Signal? It’s not pleasant. It’s flat, harsh, fizzy, bright, and dare I say “sterile”. Why does the engineer want that sound? Because after all those negative terms used above, there’s only one term left, and it’s the most important of them all: it’s honest.

The only true sound in your entire signal chain is your string. Everything that comes after it is imparting its own tonal character. The pickup, amplifier, speaker, speaker enclosure, and microphone all manipulate the sound made by the string, and usually do so in a subtractive manner (I’m intentionally leaving wood out of this because you guys aren’t even ready for that article).

The problem with using that manipulated sound in recording or in a larger venue is it leaves little room to tweak it to fit the mix. The sound you got is pretty much the sound you have. Any hopes you had of trying to cut through the mix with the perfect mid frequency or even adding a little sizzle on top is severely limited if not completely gone (depending on your setup). The Pre-EQ Direct signal solves this problem perfectly. Start with more than you need and subtract to fit the mix. Rather than having your sound dictated by multiple pieces of inanimate objects at fixed values, you can have someone who knows what they’re doing sculpt your sound to that specific song, specific venue, etc.

So with that preface out of the way, let’s dive into why active pickups are superior.

1: Construction

A: Preamp

All magnetic pickups, whether they be passive or active are built upon the same foundation: Magnets and copper wire. By playing with magnet strength and the number of winds of copper wire, you can influence the tone and output of the pickup. Stronger magnets and more wire will give you higher output, but will typically sacrifice sustain and/or clarity (painting with broad strokes here). Alternatively, weaker magnets and fewer turns of wire will result in greater sustain and clarity, but will sound weaker due to the lower output. Finding the sweet spot of sustain, output, and clarity is where the art of pickup manufacturing comes into play. 

Active pickups still utilize magnets and wire, but introduce an internal preamp inside the pickup itself. Because the preamp does the heavy lifting in terms of output, active pickups are able to use fewer turns of wire, and/or weaker magnets to retain all of the clarity and sustain while still having enough output for any application. It’s the tonal equivalent of having your cake and eating it too.

The added benefit of fewer turns of wire means that you have much less risk of signal interference. Sure pickups are relatively small but a strand of copper wire wrapped around it approximately 10,000 times is going to start acting like an antenna, picking up hum from nearby fluorescent lighting or the dreaded Spanish AM radio signal (I’ve had that happen. It was no bueno).

B: Epoxy

All right, Passive Purists, I’ll agree that a vintage pickup with exposed poles looks pretty sweet even with its intrinsic flaws. The truth is that there’s not much protection from unwanted sweat, dirt, beer, or other various debris (ask Nick Maffei about the time the upstairs toilet flooded and leaked through the ceiling onto their guitar player, mid song) [Ed. Note- WTF?] making its way into the coil and completely ruing your pickup. Just some tape around the wire and a loose plastic cover that isn’t glued or sealed or anything.

I know there are some of you who can’t get past the look of the all-black, hidden-pole pickup, but it has an even bigger advantage than just annoying the purists out there.

I’m fairly certain this goes for all active pickups but just in case I’m mistaken, let’s stick to EMG. Unlike traditional passives, these pickups are sealed in epoxy. This basically guarantees that no sweat, dirt, beer, or toilet water will make its way into the coil. EMG puts an official lifespan of 15-20 years on their pickups but I’d honestly be surprised if they didn’t outlive you. Either way, whether it’s 15 years or 1,500 years, they’re still very-well protected.

2: Tone

If you think active pickups sound bad, you’re using them wrong. It’s as simple as that. Very much like the DI vs. Speaker example from earlier, the active pickup is giving you more of everything, just like your DI signal. Sure, if you just plug in and leave everything set flat, it’s not going to sound familiar to you. I’m trying not to say “bad” because it’s such a subjective word, so we’ll settle with “unfamiliar”. Much of the criticism thrown in the direction of active pickups is they’re “lifeless”, “harsh”, “bright”, “clangy”, and the ever-exhausting term, “sterile”. But again, much like the DI signal, they’re honest. They’re giving you much more of your instrument’s sound than you’re used to hearing. And that’s the beauty of them. Now, when you start shaping your tone, you can almost exclusively use subtractive EQ to sculpt your tone into just about whatever you want it to be. Want your bass to have more bite at 3KHz? Maybe a bit more fullness at 500Hz? Or what about some top end sizzle somewhere between 4KHz and 7 KHz? No problem. We have all the frequencies.

Now, before you make your rebuttal with “It’s a BASS. It doesn’t need treble”, I challenge you to take a picture of your amp settings. Unless you play exclusively reggae, I’d be willing to bet the majority of you have either your Treble or High Mid knob above the 12 o’ clock position. Most likely because you’re trying to get a nice amount of clarity, or just trying to balance your overall sound.

The reason subtractive EQ is a better method to sculpt tone than additive EQ is because when you start to boost certain frequencies, you’re increasing gain. When you increase gain, you’re adding noise. Starting with more than you need and reducing what you don’t is a much better way to mix. It gives you both increased flexibility and less noise.

So far, we’ve been talking a lot about the upper frequencies. But what about the lows? What if you are the aforementioned Reggae-exclusive player who dwells in the bottom frequencies?

I recorded the Reggae song twice. First with a passive pickup, then again with an active, both time with the same bass and strings. I plucked with my thumb and muted the strings with my palm. Here’s what I found:

The passive pickup did well. It had a good low end and lo-fi tone but the active pickup performed better. What I first noticed was a more consistent tone with the active. After analyzing the waveforms, I noticed there was a touch more compression happening. The peaks seemed less drastic and notes had more sustain with a less dramatic taper. There was also more sub information. The passive had a characteristic bump around 100Hz or so whereas the active had a more even response from about 40Hz to 120Hz. The best word for me to describe the active in this application was “richer”.

Compression is the last bit I want to talk about. Active pickups have inherent compression due to the internal preamp. It’s not a lot, but it’s there. Guitar players love to complain about this, but I see it as a plus for the bass community. I’m sure almost all of you have a compressor pedal on your board or built into your amp. Most of us understand and recognize the importance of a solid and consistent low end, but what a fraction of us utilize is serial compression. My friend, Jayme Lewis, refers to this as “death by a thousand cuts”. Rather than burden one compressor with all the work, distribute the load amongst two compressors. Each compressor will be doing less work and therefore do a better job. Having some compression inherent in the pickup itself will lighten your existing compressor’s load you can probably even decrease your settings.

So what don’t active pickups have that passives do? First, they don’t quite have the same punch that passives have upon the initial strike. This could be a positive attribute or a negative, depending on who you are and what you like. In my experience, it’s mostly noticeable when you’re actually playing, not as much in a recording. If you find that to be a negative feature, I at least hope you weigh all the positives before quickly using that as your excuse for remaining close-minded.

The second thing actives are lacking in comparison to passives is 80-year-long street cred. They weren’t used by James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Jaco Pastorius, or Geddy Lee on all those early, iconic recordings because they didn’t exist. If Jamerson was just starting out today, I’d be surprised if there wasn’t an active pickup in his bass

Finally, I want to leave you with this. Passive pickups don’t sound bad. Let me iterate as to be crystal clear here: PASSIVE PICKUPS DO NOT SOUND BAD. Believe it or not, not everything has to be so polarizing in 2021 (Hello, Future! The present sucks!) Passive pickups have built a legacy for themselves and there are times when they are the right choice. They’re simple, they’re user friendly and they have the same tone you’ve come to know and love right out of the box. The problem is they’re limited to only that sound. If you’re the casual player or hobbyist, don’t waste your money on actives but if you’re gigging or recording or in any way trying to get more serious about your tone, actives should be a no-brainer.

Chris is the executive producer, video guy, and editor of The Bass Channel and current host of Bassic Gear Review. He’s an aficionado of Gibson instruments and is probably the biggest Metallica fan you’ll ever meet.