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Battery powered amps


ardi100
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Hi,

I'm wanting to travel and play lots of gigs both in clubs and totally without power.

Can I power a regular setup with rechargable batteries?

Or are there any decent battery powered combos/tiny rigs that I could carry easily on a train?

It doesn't have to sound like a massive stack, just be heard with a decent tone. I was thinking of a Superfly (or something similar) and single 10 or a combo of some sorts.

Any ideas?

Oh yeah, it would be for electric bass, not the DB in the pic!

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Maplins and probably many caravan/camping and tool shops will sell you a 12v dc to 230 v ac invertor, which will enable you to run your mains powered rig from a leisure/traction 12 v battery. They often retail at between £20 and £30, for a 300 w unit.

Car and bike batteries do not like being fully discharged and recharged, but traction and leisure batteries are designed for that duty. You should get several seasons of use from one of the latter.

I have used a Maplins invertor with caravan battery and a 300 w Hartke head and also with a 120 w Hartke kickback combo, and the only down sides are the slight buzz (turn down the treble) and the weight (use a trolley, or a smaller battery).

There are units out there designed to run on batteries, but they are a minority interest so they will almost certainly cost you more than a s/h combo, invertor and battery.

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Thanks Mottlefeeder.

Is there a minimum ah ( I don't even know what this means!!) I need from the battery? Could I use one of the really small ones or do I need a larger one?

I was thinking a small battery and inverter with a tiny head and speaker on a small trolley could be pretty manageable.

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[quote name='ardi100' post='450544' date='Mar 31 2009, 02:41 PM']Thanks Mottlefeeder.

Is there a minimum ah ( I don't even know what this means!!) I need from the battery? Could I use one of the really small ones or do I need a larger one?

I was thinking a small battery and inverter with a tiny head and speaker on a small trolley could be pretty manageable.[/quote]

AH is amp-hours. A 100AH battery will provide 100 amps for an hour, or 1 amp for 100 hours.

So for low power use like you need, it's just a matter of how long you want it to last.

How powerful is the amp you want to use?

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Ideally you want to be using a Class D amp into a horn cab to get as many acoustic watts out as possible for as few electrical watts from the wall (or battery). If you could find the right inverter you could possibly then the rig from a load of Lithium Ion power tool batteries.

The PJB Briefcase is the only nice sounding battery powered bass amp I know of and it can manage about one hour off one battery.

Alex

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I'd probably need it to run for a couple of hours and then charge it. I'm not really sure. The scenario is a backpacking mini tour of Europe with some powerless, truly accoustic gigs thrown in. I usually play Double Bass for these but won't be taking it.

I was thinking along the lines of a really small D class amp (Crate powerblock is 150w into 8 ohms) and mini cab.

Edited by ardi100
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If you're looking to power the whole thing off a 12V battery, why use a 240V amp? You get losses in the inverter, and then more losses in the power stage of the amp.
Why not use a preamp pedal and a small car amp? Something like [url="http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/products/25/29/182/GM-3300T/specs.html"][b]this amp[/b][/url] would give you 150W into 4 Ohms continuous, and would draw 15 amps maximum. You'd want a 30 AH battery to play for 2 hours, which is pretty small as deep-discharge batteries go.

A

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[quote name='ardi100' post='450573' date='Mar 31 2009, 03:03 PM']I'd probably need it to run for a couple of hours and then charge it. I'm not really sure. The scenario is a backpacking mini tour of Europe with some powerless, truly accoustic gigs thrown in. I usually play Double Bass for these but won't be taking it.

I was thinking along the lines of a really small D class amp (Crate powerblock is 150w into 8 ohms) and mini cab.[/quote]

Good choice.

Assuming you're not using heavy compression or fuzz, an efficient Class D amp won't be taking more than 20W average from the power supply. Assume the inverter is 50% efficient, you need 40W from the battery. That's 4A max from 12 volts. So you only need 8AH for 2 hour sessions.

Add 50% for encores:

[url="http://uk.farnell.com/camden-electronics/bev120120/battery-vrla-ev-12ah/dp/1577879"]http://uk.farnell.com/camden-electronics/b...12ah/dp/1577879[/url]

edit: if I was doing it I'd do as Alien suggests, but note that a 150W amp isn't going to take anything like 150W continuous, so his estimate of how big a battery you need is very pessimistic.

Edited by bremen
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[quote name='Alien' post='450580' date='Mar 31 2009, 03:15 PM']If you're looking to power the whole thing off a 12V battery, why use a 240V amp? You get losses in the inverter, and then more losses in the power stage of the amp.
Why not use a preamp pedal and a small car amp? Something like [url="http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/products/25/29/182/GM-3300T/specs.html"][b]this amp[/b][/url] would give you 150W into 4 Ohms continuous, and would draw 15 amps maximum. You'd want a 30 AH battery to play for 2 hours, which is pretty small as deep-discharge batteries go.[/quote]

Yep, that makes much more sense. Small car power amp, preamp pedal and driving a midrangey 1x10" or 1x12". If you have an active bass you may even be able to skip the preamp pedal, I know my bass with the OBP-3 has enough gain and a low enough output impedance to do that. Have a look on PJB's site to what size battery they recommend. Don't forget you'll need a charger too!

Alex

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These suggestions are fantastic.

I love the car amp idea. I'll definitely check out that option.

Hopefully I will have an active bass (depends on Etihad's baggage allowance and my wife's frugality in packing), but preamp pedal could work.

Yes, I plan to take a bass and amp backpacking, probably stupid, but could be a genius! It's the compromise between wanting a summer adventure and having a mini tour while still having a holiday.

Am I just being naive about the whole thing?

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[quote name='ardi100' post='450927' date='Mar 31 2009, 10:16 PM']These suggestions are fantastic.

I love the car amp idea. I'll definitely check out that option.

Hopefully I will have an active bass (depends on Etihad's baggage allowance and my wife's frugality in packing), but preamp pedal could work.

Yes, I plan to take a bass and amp backpacking, probably stupid, but could be a genius! It's the compromise between wanting a summer adventure and having a mini tour while still having a holiday.

Am I just being naive about the whole thing?[/quote]
The Bill Fitzmaurice Omni 10.5 is a single 10 that punches above its weight - but we are probably talking luggage trolley rather than backpacking. On the other hand, why carry if you have the option to wheel?

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