From what i've noticed, passive pickups are better for a more vintage sound, but have a tendency to be more prone to signal hum. active pickups put out more power and are able to have a more elaborate EQ's (bass, mid and treble boost/cut)on the bass itself, (rather than just volume and tone which passive basses have) but then you have to worry about changing the batteries. I have active pickups on my bass and i really like them. I play it all the time and i only have to change the batteries every couple of months.
From my understanding (which is very little mind you) is that passive pickups do not allow you to control the EQ as much. With passive you basically can only cut or mute the bass and trebble. with Active PUs, you have the ability to control the EQ tone better.
Also, active pickups do not pick up as much interference as passive PUs do. Active is more clean sounding (almost fake sounding IMO). J3B is right, passive is more vintage sound of that fat tones.
My active 6 string drains the battery quick. I don't have a battery box, so it's a pain in the ass to remove the plate in the back to swap out the battery. So I don't use that bass so much.
My hand made bass has two passive Humbuckers with an active pre-amp so I can have active and passive tones via the push/pull pot and it sounds fantastic
From my understanding (which is very little mind you) is that passive pickups do not allow you to control the EQ as much. With passive you basically can only cut or mute the bass and trebble. with Active PUs, you have the ability to control the EQ tone better.Also, active pickups do not pick up as much interference as passive PUs do. Active is more clean sounding (almost fake sounding IMO). J3B is right, passive is more vintage sound of that fat tones.My active 6 string drains the battery quick. I don't have a battery box, so it's a pain in the ass to remove the plate in the back to swap out the battery. So I don't use that bass so much.
Battery boxes are really cheap, we can fit one to your 6 string as part of our project
