I've pulled the battery out of my Stingray and fiddled around with it as a passive instrument and still loved the tone, but I definitely feel that the way EBMM basses have evolved with their preamps (as opposed to it being an afterthought) is one of their greatest strengths. I consider the preamp, the pickup, and the wood to all be equal parts of the equation with these basses. Fender active basses, for instance, seem like you could just as easily pull the preamp out of those and have basically the same bass. Not so with EB's designs - they were built to be together.