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Post subject: Active Pickups on Precision Lyte - Mushy
Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 7:04 pm
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I got a Precision Lyte because my Warwick $$ was killing my back. I gig with a GK 500w combo amp; small venues, and have noticed that towards the end of the night my sound get mushy. Is this a function of active pickups? I don't get this with the Warwick. I use fresh batteries in the bass.


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Post subject: Re: Active Pickups on Precision Lyte - Mushy
Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 10:37 pm
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I'd say it was hearing fatigue except you say the other instrument didn't have the same outcome. So I'm discounting hearing fatigue as the cause here. (I know the longer my band plays the louder it tends to get primarily due hearing fatigue. But you say the passive doesn't do this so apparently it isn't hearing fatigue.)

Older active bass preamps draw more current from batteries than modern design preamps do, however in even the oldest and most current hungry bass active EQ preamps a fresh Duracell or Energizer alkaline should last 30 to 60 hours easy before any noticeable degradation of tone and it will start to lower in output or distort. This particular preamp should last more into the hundreds of hours. (***I'm assuming here that you are changing batteries RIGHT BEFORE the gig. If changing days in advance you could have a faulty jack causing the battery to be constantly draining even when a cable plug is not inserted into the jack. The preamps are turned on and off by a 3rd jack contact. Since this contact is mechanical it can get stuck or fail to disconnect. This is almost always the cause of an active bass eating batteries. Repairing or replacing the jack cures this issue for a few bucks at the most. If changing the battery right before the gig this isn't the issue here either.)

THE MOST PROBABLE CAUSE IN THIS CASE: The extra lows and highs of the active bass signal (lows more so than highs) demands more power from the amp than a less EQ intense passive signal does and this is causing the amp to heat up more than with the passive bass. If it goes on long enough this excess heat build up could actually be causing the amp itself to decrease output! This volume decrease would be especially noticeable if the amp is going into clipping and it has some sort of built in DDT type compression designed to reduce output when clipping is detected. When this process happens turning the volume UP on the amp makes no difference. If this is in fact the cause of your "mush" the amp in essence could actually be turning itself down automatically in a self-preservation function which is exactly what some amps are actually designed to do. It protects the amp by reducing overheating and the speaker by reducing the clipped signal.

I have no other explanations for what you are experiencing other than a failing battery (which shouldn't be happening with a fresh one) or fatigued ears (which we discounted due it not happening with the passive). That leaves an overtaxed amp. There is an extremely remote possibility something is amiss in the active preamp but I doubt it as they usually work or they don't and they don't tend to get "mushy" with a fresh battery after less than 30 continuous hours, but instead just stop working completely or produce the same malfunction constantly. Active bass preamps do not tend to "get mushy" the more they are used so long as they get fed something around 9 volts. So I'm thinking since it sounds fine at first we can discount the preamp being the issue. We are left with the most probable cause being an overtaxed & overheated amp going into clipping which is triggering a protection circuit.

Remember that anything beyond about 12 O'clock on the amp's master volume is probably not where bass power amps should be set, this is especially true if the bass is boosted at all beyond flat. If you have to turn the amp up beyond half volume on the master, you should first flatten out the EQ and turn off any bass boost or "scoop" switches. See if more conservative EQ and keeping the master volume at 12 O'clock or less mitigates the mush developing late in the gig. Get back to us with the result!


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Post subject: Re: Active Pickups on Precision Lyte - Mushy
Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:55 pm
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Any update on the mushy active?


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