Subthumper Posted July 25, 2015 Posted July 25, 2015 Hi folks, bit of a puzzler this. I have a warwick rockbass with active pickups and eq. The battery is only lasting a month, however I have conducted a few tests and found that the barrel Jack is ok and that the connections are correct and that no current is flowing from.the battery when the bass is unplugged. What I have found though is that the current draw is 100mA which I think is rather high. Looking at the pickups they appear very similar to EMGs so going by their figures I'd be expecting about 1000 hours of playing time from the battery. I'm suspecting a fault in the actives and yet the bass sounds great, both pickups, one pickup, eq, no distortion, nice clean full sound and no noise. I have a bass with an EMG jazz pickup, and an MEC P pickup and the battery lasts years. Has anyone else experienced this or maybe know if this is normal behaviour? Any info welcome. Thanks for reading Cheers Just Quote
PlungerModerno Posted July 26, 2015 Posted July 26, 2015 Are you leaving a cable plugged into it? Some preamps drain power when a cable is in the jack - it's the "on switch" on quite a few old & new designs. Quote
Oopsdabassist Posted July 26, 2015 Posted July 26, 2015 Yup that would be my guess too, always unplug the bass unless you are playing it. Quote
Subthumper Posted July 26, 2015 Author Posted July 26, 2015 Yes it's being unplugged between uses. Quote
HowieBass Posted July 26, 2015 Posted July 26, 2015 I wonder if the battery clip itself is the problem? Might there be a short within the clip causing the drain? Quote
3below Posted July 26, 2015 Posted July 26, 2015 Following Howiebass' suggestion, unplug battery and measure resistance between battery clip terminals. Also measure the current draw with each pickup disconnected in turn, then both. This will give some more indication where the issue lies. Quote
tauzero Posted August 3, 2015 Posted August 3, 2015 From experience and also looking at [url="http://www.talkbass.com/threads/how-much-current-does-your-bass-preamp-use.892831/"]this thread on TB[/url] I would say that that was a huge current drain, 10-100 times what you'd expect. I don't know how easy diagnosing the cause would be though, you might be better off just putting in a new preamp. Quote
Silvia Bluejay Posted August 4, 2015 Posted August 4, 2015 Is it an older Rockbass? You could have a look at this thread on the Warwick forum: [url="http://forum.warwick.de/showthread.php/3140-9volt-battery-dies-very-quickly"]http://forum.warwick.de/showthread.php/3140-9volt-battery-dies-very-quickly[/url] and [url="http://web.archive.org/web/20070806104704/http://www.warwickrockbass.com/news/46.htm"]http://web.archive.org/web/20070806104704/http://www.warwickrockbass.com/news/46.htm[/url] Quote
Funky Dunky Posted August 8, 2015 Posted August 8, 2015 (edited) This is what I've been experiencing with my Sterling S.U.B Ray4, although I don't even get a month out of a battery, I get about 4 hours. I emailed Brian Martin at Praxis and his diagnosis was that something is completing the circuit and causing it to drain. Maybe at the preamp, maybe at the jack. Thomann have had it back a month and still no word from them. I'll let you know when I hear from them - chasing it up today - and be sure to keep us posted on your RB. Edited August 8, 2015 by Funky Dunky Quote
Funky Dunky Posted August 8, 2015 Posted August 8, 2015 Just heard back from Thomann - it's been a short circuit between the jack input and the minus pole on the battery solder lug. They have fixed it, tested it, it's ok and it's on its way home to dad! Quote
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