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Ask a Tech: Do I need a preamp?

A Best Bass Gear customer was building a bass and wondering whether they needed a preamp:

I am building a 5-string bass and want to put two EMG 40DC pickups in it. I see they come with volume and tone knobs, so do I need to buy a preamp as well? If I don’t need a preamp, is there an advantage to buying one?

This is actually a common question. EMG pups come with the components for a standard passive install. Yes, they are still active pickups, but just like pickups on passive basses their active signal feeds into a set of passive controls.

With stock components you will have a volume and a tone at your disposal for each pickup. When someone is buying 2 EMG pickups, the most common setup is a neck volume, a bridge volume, and a master tone configuration, but dual tone is also possible.

The stock controls are absolutely fine and work great. The volume is just a volume and the tone is passive treble-bleed type that only has an effect when turned down. The subtractive passive tone just removes the high frequencies, making it sound darker and wooly as you turn it down.

But the stock components do not have the ability to boost and cut equalize the signal with individual components of bass, middle and treble. You’ll need to add a preamp to have those functions. Some preamps offer 2- band, with just bass and treble. Others are 3-band that additionally have a mid-range. In other brands there are even 4-band preamps as well, with upper and lower midrange independently and separate.

The choice of whether to add a preamp, and how many bands of eq is entirely a matter of preference. If having an onboard equalizer is more convenient for you then using your amps eq, an eq pedal or other outboard gear then go ahead and add one to your bass.

If you want to tweak your sound directly from the bass, it’s a lot more convenient than walking over to your amp to get the EQ change. On the other hand, if you’re a ‘just set it and forget it’ type of guy it my not offer any specific advantages for you.

Sometimes simplicity can be better. If you want less knobs and switches to frantically check and re-check the position of before every song starts then install simpler on-board stuff like the stock EMG controls.

Do you have a question for one of our Best Bass Gear techs? Ask away in the comments or send them an email to sales@bestbassgear.com

4 thoughts on “Ask a Tech: Do I need a preamp?”

  1. Interesting article. ?is there a pre amp that would allow the passive sound of that bass. I have a Fender Performer Bass. Discontinued by Fender in the late 80’s. 2 vols,1 tone. The tone can give passive jazz tones(1-5) extended tones(5-10). BTX was it’s name. If you use round wound strings. The sound is like an active bass,but a little bass shy. Is there a recommended preamp. Thanx.

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  2. I have a Japanese Yamaha TRB 1005 J, and I would like to install a set of Soapbar Bartolini PUs in it. Will I also have to change the original Yamaha preamp as well with a Bartolini preamp or can I run these PUs with the Yamaha preamp, and what style Bartolini PUs should I choose ?

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