[Solved] Bass Question (Ibanez CTB3) - The J and P type pickups was the "answer"

I have an Ibanez "CT Series" bass that I got from a friend in 1997. I just tore it apart an refurbished it, but noticed a couple issues and have a couple questions for the bassists out there. This is a 4-string active pickup bass, which I did play for a bit when I first got it but I am not into active pickups (and especially batteries).

1. String guage? - I saw .035 - .095 often when searching, is this the standard set for a bass?
2. Tuners - Two tuners are missing the screws from the peg key! At first I thought this funny, but after cleaning it up I wanted to see if not tightening them would affect tuning and because I cleaned everything they simply fall off now (sad comedy for sure). Not sure if finding those screws is worth the effort, as it seems the same tuners are carried by StewMac for $14 a piece.
3. Active vs Passive - This is the "real" question for me, as I am not into active pickups, and assumed that was common for basses to boost the signal but have another friend with a passive bass that sounded just fine to me. The fact that the back cover has 6 screws is of concern to me, since I am not sure how long a battery can be left in place without issues if unplayed.

   At this point I am debating if a passive bass would be more suited to me, but since I already have this I may just deal with it. With a guitar, active pickups will typically give a harder attack, but lack in sustain, but I am not sure if active is preferred on a bass or not?

As above 45- 105, I use 45 - 110 because I sometimes drop my E to D... 
 
I put a set of Dimarzio passives into my Yamaha bass made a huge differance, sorry I don't have the model on hand but they were a set or J/P from Musicians Freind for around $100. 
My friend has the fancy version of my YAmaha with the active pups and mine sounds better overall. He gets to much string noise and it's bad for recording. I think of active as good for live but not so good in the studio..just my experiance. 
 
Replace the machine heads. Try Guitar Fetish for parts, they often have sales,,, they also sell Pups. I just bought a P bass PU from them for $30 and will install in this old Hondo Bass I have. Will report back if it gets a thumbs up. I put their GF Pups in my G&L ( soap bar humbuckers) and they have been great,,, I had to dunk them in wax however, so not top shelf but good sound..
 
http://www.guitarfetish.com/

The pickups in this guy are XJ2 on the bridge and XP2 on the neck (no sure who made them though). I am a diehard fan of DiMarzio's passive pickups and have a D-Activator set in my guitar. For now, I will see how these go and if I will take to playing it, but the actives are definitely unforgiving for how hard the strings are fretted (can actually pick up the metallic hit unless the treble/mid is lowered a lot). It is also a different style to play, so only been at it for a few hours.
 
I had an interesting day here, since I first went searching for screws (the ones which hold the worm gear to the key). Of course they are too fine a thread for a hardware store to carry, but it occurred to me on the way home that there is no need to ever disassemble them. I ended up epoxying all 4 using the screws to set them as they cured (2 at a time), and left the screws in the bottom two tuners when done.
 
While at Lowes the guy mentioned a local shop and since I was too lazy to make a 40 mile trip to Guitar Center for strings I gave him a call. I told him I hadn't set the bridge yet because I needed strings and he said to just bring the bass. Turns out this guy is a luthier, and makes acoustic guitars to custom specs from scratch. He had one he just bought back from the widow of a guy he sold it to 8 years ago. $2000 dreadnaught, but the craftsmanship on his stuff was stellar. Quite a character, and while talking to him he just strung the bass and set the bridge by ear. Then he shocked me when I asked him how much I owed him, and he just charged me for the stings.
 
I ended up lowering the bridge as much as possible after I got home, and been messing with it for technique mostly, but have a ways to go. The frets are low profile, so the technique of fretting it pretty much on the fret without creating the metallic hit is rather challenging. My left pinky isn't as strong as I thought is was either!

Active and passive pickups are both commonly used with bass guitars.  In my experience, it really depends on the styles of music you will be playing and the desired tone you wish to achieve.  Please note:  the choice of strings is very important when sculpting the tone of your bass.
 
Examples:  for an old school Motown sound I would suggest passive pickups and probably flatwounds, although old roundwounds will usually work just fine too.
For a modern slap tone, like Marcus Miller, it's generally active pickups and roundwounds. 
The above examples are generalizations because with good gear and a versatile preamp, you can pretty much get that "Active" tone with passive pickups.
 
 

I'm with Jim, not a big fan of active PU's, seems to be more nuance, and greater range of dynamics, with the passives. I've always found I've had to spend valuable time between songs in the set, to fine tune the tone and volume with actives, in order to get a workable sound that mixes well with the rest of the band.
Easier to use a pedal or two, a good amp, and you get more tone shaping options. Each to their own though, and I'm sure there are times when an active PU is the perfect choice for 'that' sound.

This is all I have ever needed.  Passive.  45-105 Ernie Balls.  LaBella Flats sound awesome as well.
Ampeg.  
 
Done.  
 

 
 

This is a catalog page from 1992, which looks like the only year it was made:
 

 
Some questions:
 
Are all the controls mounted on a single board or just the EQ?
 
What exactly are you trying to achieve?
 
How does the bass sound unplugged? If it sounds "challenged" unplugged, I wouldn't recommend spending much money upgrading it. With new (good) active electronics it will likely cost a couple hundred bucks for PU's (which can be active or passive) and a preamp. With new passive PU's and passive tone controls it could be a hundred dollars or so, though you can generally find perfectly nice PU's on ebay much cheaper, particularly for bass and especially if you're patient. I've bought brand new and/or like new PU's for like 30% of retail (and I'm saying 30%, not 30% off) on more than one occasion.
 
There's nothing wrong with or superior about either active or passive and there are both good and bad implementations of each. It's a "there's more than one right answer" kind of thing. All electric instruments are ultimately active, so it's just a matter of where the preamp/buffering/EQ is done - it can be done in the PU's and/or the on-board EQ as well as at the amp or direct input.

Thanks Drew, the CTB3BN is the model. For me this is my first experience with anything active, so I was more trying to make sure the controls were doing what I thought they did. It seems that they do, but the active part of it was throwing me at first.
 
I checked with SPAN last night and the bass EQ is a straight-up +/- 6 dB boost cut, which is useful since the signal is uniform in that region. The treble EQ also seems to be a +/- 6 dB but that region is not uniform so this wildly exacerbates harmonics - this part caught me off guard since the discrete harmonics thrown in that region rival my guitar. The treble EQ swung fully pulls harmonics from the floor (totally hidden) to well over the bass component. I can see its use for pre-processing signals prior to hitting an amp since it will mask a lot of improper technique. I honestly wasn't expecting a "big fat string" to throw such wild harmonics even on an open string thumb-plucked.
 
Unplugged it sounds fine, and a lot of the fretting (I tend to fret hard) doesn't get to the amp with the treble EQ at unity or less. I tend to leave the amp at lower volumes so was actually hearing my fingers over the amp previously, but jacked the amp up last night and the fret hits do not come through. I am slowly creeping the treble EQ up as I go since it is a good litmus test for getting proper technique down. Through the amp it does well, so I think a major portion is getting more familiar with it. I want to get some recording done with it this weekend, but overall I think there is nothing wrong or bad with it... just the player is a bit clueless so fumbling around .
 
The upside to this whole venture is that it builds up hand strength big time, and with strength comes speed, so this is actually rather interesting for its "guitar application" as well.