Active Basses and Fuzz....

[steevdeadman]

Soooooo... i REALLY want a Stingray, but I am nervous about using an active bass w/ my fuzzes.... Can any of you (i know BCBC plays an active) chime in with your thoughts on this topic? Thanks in advance yo.

[foomanfat]

I play a Sting Ray 5 from time to time and really, in my experience, any effect it has varies between fuzzes.
Some fuzzes can handle a hotter signal from the preamp (Big Muff) and some can't handle it as well (i.e. Woolly Mammoth)
It's kind of trial and error, unless you want to sift through the active bass/fuzz threads on TB.

[Mudfuzz]

My main bass is active, I have a old ibanez w' barts.

Thinking..... the only fuzz I own that doesn't work with actives is the HAO The Roar....

So that means....
Katana Sound: Supper Bass Fuzz and Thunder Cloud
lastgasp art laboratories: 八八式毛羽立歪機 SUPER OSCILLO FUZZ 以下 88
Fuzz Hugger: Great Wall, Velcroar, Arcflash, phantom octave works... like a normal fuzz, with a active it doesn't do all those cool glitchy thangs
Devi Ever: Bass Fuzz/SMBH, cherry pop, Ok, workhorse
ELK: Wau Fuzz
Mellowtone: Melx2
EHX/Sovtek/every other builder in the world: Bigmuffs of all shapes and sizes, I have never had a problem with any muff with my bass.
Semore duncan: Teak Fuzz
VooDoo Laps: supper fuzz
Guyatone TZ2
shin-ei: Companion FY-2
All work for me.

[steevdeadman]

Thanks for the info guys... muddie, that's quite an impressive list you got there...

[bigchiefbc]

Yeah, from my experience, you're really only gonna run into trouble with fuzz face-based circuits, which want the high impedance signal from passive pickups.

[Mudfuzz]

Thanks for the info guys... muddie, that's quite an impressive list you got there...

Yeah... I ♥ Fuzz actually where I say muff.. you know... um... that would be Sovtek G, Russian, NYC and GGG tuned...

[one bad monkey]

I've had this same concern (all three basses are active), and Tom was pretty good in explaining the issues that I would face with his pedals. Helped me settle on a Chalice, which has worked wonderfully. Making me think of picking up some other Fuzzhugger stuff now though...

[jrmy]

Yeah, I used to have a Stingray and loved it. The only pedal I owned that had problems was my Rat, but then I stepped up the the Turbo Rat and everything was just fine. All of my EHX stuff did just fine with it (in fact, I think my Bass MicroSynth sounded better with it than with my passive Jazz)... that was before I discovered the world of "booteek" fx, though, so I don't know how it would apply to my current setup.

[jrmy]

Although here's an idea for an experiment - do you have a clean boost? Try using that before any of the pedals you're concerned about. Wouldn't that be one way to simulate the stronger active pickup signal?

[McSpunckle]

For what it's worth, there are ways to simulate the signal coming from a passive bass/guitar pretty cheaply. You just need an enclosure, a transformer, a pot, and some jacks.

http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm

A lot of things work fine. I found my Devis didn't like active signals (from buffered pedals), so I can assume a ton of simple boxes like those are similar.

[theavondon]

A lot of things work fine. I found my Devis didn't like active signals (from buffered pedals), so I can assume a ton of simple boxes like those are similar.

I find the SM and TP work fine, but the Hype is just REALLY harsh and no fun with an Ibanez ATK.

[Eric!]

the TAFM and year4545 handle active just fine :D

(yay, I have constructive input!)