Active vs passive

[Jason Wilson]

I love the active sound on my bass, but I also really like the passive sound. But I read somewhere that it wasn't good to run your Smith constantly in passive mode? It sounded a bit odd to me, but I thought I would ask.

Is there any potential issues running your bass constantly in passive?

Cheers

[Ken Smith]

I love the active sound on my bass, but I also really like the passive sound. But I read somewhere that it wasn't good to run your Smith constantly in passive mode? It sounded a bit odd to me, but I thought I would ask.

Is there any potential issues running your bass constantly in passive?

Cheers

I have no idea where you read that but if you want to play your bass passive, do it. I would only suggest to check your batteries from time to time and change them when they get weak. There is no problem at all playing it passive all the time.

[Tim Bishop]

I love the active sound on my bass, but I also really like the passive sound. But I read somewhere that it wasn't good to run your Smith constantly in passive mode? It sounded a bit odd to me, but I thought I would ask.

Is there any potential issues running your bass constantly in passive?

CheersAlso, you should realize when in 'passive' mode, the pre-amp is disabled. Only your 'Volume' and 'Pan' controls would be controllable.

[Ken Smith]

Also, you should realize when in 'passive' mode, the pre-amp is disabled. Only your 'Volume' and 'Pan' controls would be controllable.

When Plugged in, the batteries are still running, active or passive. You CAN however take the batteries OUT of the bass BUT, if you engage the active, it will not work. In case you play only passive and never check your batteries, taking them out will help avoid and damage from possible battery leakage IF that would ever happen.

[Nick Foster]

Personally, I like active for the tone control. It's also good to know that the bass can function in passive mode. For some reason I was under the impression that the active/passive switch was only to be engaged if your battery dies during a performance and switching over to passive was just a temporary solution. Learn something new every day.

[Ken Smith]

Personally, I like active for the tone control. It's also good to know that the bass can function in passive mode. For some reason I was under the impression that the active/passive switch was only to be engaged if your battery dies during a performance and switching over to passive was just a temporary solution. Learn something new every day.

Intentionally, yes, the By-Pass was meant for emergency originally being that the bass was designed to be used with active controls but there is no problem using it in passive mode 100% of the time.

[Ronen Tat]

I think the push/pull design implies the initial intent to only use passive mode at an emergency otherwise a toggle switch would be more convenient, IMO.