Another noobie question about Amps

[Mojo Marty]

Hey,

 

I'm a long time frustrated guitarist recently switched to bass, and I'm new to the HC Forums.

 

I have Schecter Diamond Series with Duncan Designed active pickups, and an old Cort Headless with passive pickups. Currently playing thru a cheap practice amp till I work my chops up.

 

Recently been looking at bass amps and noticed some have Active/ Passive inputs while others only have a single input.

 

I know the difference between active and passive pickups, but why the difference in inputs in some amps, what does the amp do differently internally and how important is it. Should it make a difference in my decision what to buy.

 

I thinking its not a really dumb question because when I asked the guy in the music shop, he couldn't explain any better than "you plug active pickups into the one that says active, and the "normal" ones into the one that says passive". Hardly enlightening.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Marty

[JeffBass]

An active bass can overdrive the pre-amp section of a cheap amp, causing distortion. A second "active" input buffers the signal so it doesn't overdrive your pre-amp, hence a cleaner sound which can be amp'd up with the master volume. Some amps have a GAIN and a MASTER. Turning down the GAIN will essentially perform the same function as plugging into the active input.

[Kindness]

The active input is padded to provide less gain. Just like JeffBass says, it helps prevent hot signals from unintentionally overdriving the preamp.