Hi everyone,
Didn’t see any discussion on this one so I figured I’d start it up. See what people’s opinions are on my head scratcher as well as mods people are doing to their basses to get different sounds (swapping pickups, neck, strap attachment posts, tuning pegs, tone knobs, etc). I have an Ibanez Geo sound gear gsr200 active. Took the tone knobs off to clean the dust out from underneath one day and when I put the knobs back on, the knob for the EQ punched the pot right off of the electronics board. Could try to solder everything back together and replace the pot, but dealing with that is not something I’m interested in. Looked for the phat eq2 to replace it, but apparently they don’t make them anymore or keep stock. I’ve heard that you can modify an active base to a passive. What are your opinions? Would it still sound good? Is that even possible, or just internet lore? Would you buy the EQ off eBay, or let a guitar tech hunt it down and install it for you. Too many options swirling around to pick without a plethora of opinions
I would just ping your local guitar tech and ask them about it if you don’t want to deal with it by yourself.
I agree with @jacq any competent tech should be able to replace the damaged pot for you. Going to passive is ok as well. Just need a passive tone pot. Too many to choose from. I love EMG so if you go that route you can get a set of PJ Geezer and you are all set. It’s very easy to DIY because it’s soderless.
Another option is something like the Fisman Fluence active system (or the countless similar ones out there) that allows you to switch between active and passive with a flip of a switch. Specifically you pull up on the volume knob and it disables all the active stuff and goes full passive mode.
This gives you a lot of versatility in terms of shaping the sound. Even if you only ever play in the passive mode, it becomes a case of "rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I have the Fluence system on my Spector and I love playing in passive.
I had it done, actually. My skills with a soldering iron have deteriorated since my ITT Technical Institute days and I didn’t want to try it myself. But yeah, the pre-amp I had was bad, so I had the bass converted to passive. It was a PJ bass, so I had them put in volume, volume, tone pots just like a jazz bass. It sounded great.
Most midrange basses with active EQ these days will have an active/passive switch. The only requirement is that the pickups be passive, really.
In this case, it’s not like the electronics were all that special - I would suggest either just rewiring it as passive (easy) or consider using it as an excuse for buying a new preamp and pots and consider an active/passive switch (a little more involved).
I looked into this with my Yamaha TRBX304 and IMHO it was just not worth the cost considering the TRBX504 has an active/passive switch and upgraded pickups and electronics for just a little more money.
I own both but when playing bass these days just use the TRBX504 in the passive mode mostly YMMV.