Passive versus Active pickups

[The Ozzman]

How can you tell which is which when you are playing a bass or just looking at the bass?

[Valentin Zukovsky]

Passives don't require batteries. Usually battery compartments are in plain sight on the back of a bass.

I don't know if there are any definite distinctions aside from that. Passive systems tend to have much simpler control configurations, usually volumes for each pickup and a tone knob that rolls off high end. Sometimes they have the less common configuration of master volume, pickup blend, and the a tone knob. Technically you could just wire your pickups straight to the input jack on a passive unit and you'll get the purest(debatable) tone you can get with that system.

Active electronics usually have a lot of knobs as part of a preamp system to allow more detailed shaping of your tone. Though, that doesn't always have to be the case. Also, you can have passive pickups with an active onboard preamp.

[Tucson Bass Player]

I thought I was headed back to passive until I started playing my new Spector with active Bart's. Nice. Everything is really responsive. Just the slightest change in the pick up combo [front to back] and you can dial in any tone/sound you want. I seem to never touch my amp since I started playing this bass.



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[-G]

The great thing about active pickups is you can have an onboard EQ (even parametric) and they are usually lower noise than passive pickups. Active pickups are often times more sensitive too.

Some people do not like active pickups esp. the ones who prefer to play organically (limited use or no use of solid state electronics in the signal path)

Check to see if the bass has a bettery compartment on the back. You can tell the difference by reading the manual or asking a clerk also.