[hairman]

I've got a nice refund coming and will be buying a new bass. I'm looking for opinions of other bassists. I pick with my fingers, and have no intention of using a pick. I like the sound of active pickups better than passive, but they seem to pick up the sound of my fingers striking the strings when it comes to fast picking. I predominantly play metal, and there's lots of fast picking. How can I use active pickups, but not have the sound of my pick-hand fingers overpower the actual sound of the bass?

[junior01]

Do you mean the sound of the nail against the string? If so just cut them real short. If not...

Active pick ups do tend to be a little bit noisier than passive. But they also have that distinctive punch sound that just fit so well with metal. Just keep in mind that even if you changed your mind (which you don't seem you'll do and good for you! I also prefer finger picking when it comes to bass) with active PU you'll get pick noise instead of finger noise.

But there is a way to make those sounds disappear (well, sort of) and that's EQing. With the proper settings where you cut out the treble (or high frequencies) a bit you should be able to reduce those undesired sound.

Now to the original question: which one's better? Well it is really a personal choice there. As i said, active has that punchy sound that suit metal and rock in general but a passive with is low end can be just as good. The only important thing that you should keep in mind is: how good does it sound to you!

[hairman]

We play in "Drop C" tuning, so the strings have a little more slack to them, on top of my aggressive pick style. I wonder if there's some kind of pedal that might help filter out that finger slapping noise. Or maybe I just need to figure out a way to use it to my advantage...

[junior01]

Drop C!!! That must mean that your (what would be your) E string must be very slack... If that's the case then i'm afraid that tere is not a pedal out there that will filter that sound of your string hitting the PU. Well at least not one i'm aware of. Having said that, maybe a noise gate might do the trick but it is generally used to cut those humming sound...

Boss NS-2 (noise gate)

Have you considered playing in normal tuning? Or getting a 5 strings bass?

[mahrous]

*pokes junior and his Fender dog*

[expaceks73]

this is me being happy for how big of a tool youre being by playing with someone you dont like simply for the recognition

/claps

[Mierkov]

Have you considered trying just tuning up to D? I'm finger-style as well and I personally like D over C for sound and flexability with the finger sound, but its up to you.

[mandible]

I'm versatile. Fingering is not a big issue for me.