Agent 00Soul Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 Does anyone have any experience with any battery powered bass amps? I am playing with an acoustic singer/songwriter of late and we've been setting up in places that often aren't near electrical outlets, including outside in the warmer weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 (edited) The PJB Double 4 can be battery powered with a portable chargeable laptop power supply. It's nice, but not a cheap option. Edited December 2, 2022 by Dan Dare 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 These are highly regarded but a bit more than I thought. https://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/roland-cube-street-ex-battery-powered-stereo-amplifier.html?source=shopping&sku=rolcubestreetex&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4aacBhCUARIsAI55maF3A78Qncqye7nWFvsDuwumL4UhoRVO1S_wgpzG_KwhokBbs9l0dGgaAl71EALw_wcB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Downunderwonder Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 AER are the kingpins. My cheap 'battery amp' was a collection of stuff to run a regular cabinet. BDDI into cheap and featherweight class D 12V amp. Unfortunately I made the mistake of letting the deep cycle deer spotlighting battery self discharge and sit for over a year, which killed it dead. I should have got a trickle charger for it. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mottlefeeder Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 A car stereo booster amplifier from a reputable brand will give you about 70w into an 8 ohm speaker and will run off a £17 12 volt battery for a couple of hours. Most are sensitive enough that you can plug an active bass into it and get almost full volume out of it. Unknown brands of far-east models may only give you about 10w, but anything badged as complying with CEA 2006 should give RMS power in the specification regardless of what sales have screen printed on the casing. My last two builds included the speaker enclosures, but you will get the general idea from them. David 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 The Phil Jones Briefcase can be battery powered (motorbike battery type) and will give you an excellent sound. https://philjonesbass.net/cms/index.php/product_bbc/ But to my ears the GSS 06B400 Mini Bass Amp with its dedicated 7S35V2 intelligent Lithium battery pack sounds better https://www.guitarsoundsystems.com/gss-06b400-mini-bass-amp-c2x15043753 https://www.guitarsoundsystems.com/gss-7s35v2-intelligent-lithium-battery-pack-for-guitar-sound-systems-mini-bass-amps-c2x18346407 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodwind Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 8 hours ago, Dan Dare said: The PJB Double 4 can be battery powered with a portable chargeable laptop power supply. It's nice, but not a cheap option. This is what I use for busking. The sound quality and portability is very seductive. There are caveats though - 1) The new double4 's can't be used this way as they now contain an internal transformer. So you will be limited to finding a second hand double 4 with the external PSU. 2) it's also getting harder to find an external battery pack that doesn't have some sort of current protecting circuit in it. Again the newer current protected models cut out when playing louder making them useless for outdoors. I wouldn't buy a battery pack second hand as it's impossible to tell what life it's had - rather than lasting hours, mine is now incredibly inconsistent for example. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Worth checking this thread too: 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Bay Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 14 hours ago, TheGreek said: These are highly regarded but a bit more than I thought. https://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/roland-cube-street-ex-battery-powered-stereo-amplifier.html?source=shopping&sku=rolcubestreetex&gclid=Cj0KCQiA4aacBhCUARIsAI55maF3A78Qncqye7nWFvsDuwumL4UhoRVO1S_wgpzG_KwhokBbs9l0dGgaAl71EALw_wcB I borrowed a smaller version of that and was very impressed with it. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent 00Soul Posted December 3, 2022 Author Share Posted December 3, 2022 Thanks everyone! Great stuff here that I didn't know about. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 9 hours ago, Woodwind said: This is what I use for busking. The sound quality and portability is very seductive. There are caveats though - 1) The new double4 's can't be used this way as they now contain an internal transformer. So you will be limited to finding a second hand double 4 with the external PSU. 2) it's also getting harder to find an external battery pack that doesn't have some sort of current protecting circuit in it. Again the newer current protected models cut out when playing louder making them useless for outdoors. I wouldn't buy a battery pack second hand as it's impossible to tell what life it's had - rather than lasting hours, mine is now incredibly inconsistent for example. I didn't know the newer one had an internal PSU. Shame. I'll definitely have to hang onto my older one. You're right about avoiding used battery packs. They do deteriorate and lose the ability to hold charge. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aalin Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 There is an interesting thread on Talkbass about that: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/diy-tiny-battery-powered-bass-amp-tutorial.1515245/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 If you're playing with unamped acoustic guitar, unmiked vocals and maybe a cajon (or bongos) The Roland Micro bass cube RX will easily be loud enough. It is tiny, light, sounds great and can run off six AA batteries. It has recently been discontinued after being available for the best part of a decade, but they pop up secondhand occasionally. I bought mine secondhand for £100 a few years ago. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tradfusion Posted December 3, 2022 Share Posted December 3, 2022 Not a bass amp but I use the Bose S1 powered PA speaker as a battery powered bass combo for unplugged trad and folk sessions, street gigs etc... to my ears it sounds great and lacks very little over a 'proper' bass combo... all the spec is here https://www.thomann.de/ie/bose_s1_pro.htm but basically its small, light, very well put together and has a 5ah rechargeable lithium battery pack that lasts about 4 gigs (8-10 hours playing time) before recharging... I mostly use it with an active Ukebass but have gigged it with regular bass'es too, active Stingray, Jazz etc and all sounded great... obviously we are talking fairly low volume stuff here but its got tons of headroom... I'm sure you could get a decent tone from any passive bass as well with a battery powered preamp pedal in line... not cheap I grant you but mine doubles up as half of a small PA system as well for pub gigs etc (singer owns a second one) so in my case it was well worth the price as it kills two birds with one stone.. 😊 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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