bass sale

[permagrin]

So I was selling a bass last night. I went to play it while the guy was on his way - no sound. I panic for a minute 'til I realize not only is it an active, but remember I left it plugged in overnight a couple days ago. Sure enough, dead battery, voltmeter at 1/2V. Can't find a new one, so I had to pull one out of another bass, voltmeter says 8.2V. All is well.

I'm playing it as the guy pulls into my driveway, no problems. He comes in, starts to play it, and after about 10 seconds it starts putting out a horrible noise. Trade the cord, the noise is still there, notice that the noise alters when touching one of the three knobs, the one that is a stack knob (thank goodness it wasn't my amp). This bass has been fine since I got it, no kind of problems, and this guy has just driven 45 min. and the bass decides to crap out. I feel like an ass.

So we open the control cavity to see if there's anything obvious, but with the preamp circuit and lots of rainbow colored wires, neither of us see anything that might be a problem. Put it back together, fire it up, noise is gone! BUT the top knob (midrange) doesn't work at all. Ouch. I can't believe the Murphy's Law timing, and I don't think draining a battery the other night could have caused the pot to go wacky, but I look like I'm trying to pull something on the guy.

Luckily the guy loved the blue burst and insane birdeye on the neck (it is a very pretty bass) and took it anyway, but I had to knock $70 off my asking price. Says he has a good tech. I figured that if I had to keep it I'd hafta take it to a tech, at some cost/time, etc., not worth my hassle.

But why couldn't it wait a day to start freaking out? or 15 minutes even?! Must be the curse of having traded away a great G&L for this thing in the first place. Good riddance.

[Minger]

Ouch. Kinda reminds me when the first time the battery in mine died - I was like OMG I THINK THE PICKUPS ARE DYING OR SOMETHING!

Yea, I was dumb.

Anyways, that sucks...I don't think dead battery has anything to do with pots; but I guess you learned never to leave it plugged in.

[nashvillebill]

8.2 volts is also dead, maybe not quite as dead as half a volt, but almost certainly there wasn't enough current available to run the preamp....

[calshands]

OH! I am new to electric bass and have been leaving my 86 Tobias Basic 5 string plugged in all of the time! Are you saying that there is a constant drain on the battery by doing this?

Thanks for your help.

[big evil robot]

yes, don't leave active basses plugged in.
plug in, play, unplug.

[spectorrebop]

I feel a little dumb asking this, especially after i actually posted asking if there was a problem with my passive bass because it went silent. I was wondering how long nine volt batteries usually last.

[nashvillebill]

How long they last? Well "it depends" but for a casual player, say you play at home a few hours a week, then play out a few times every month, a battery can last a couple months, give or take a couple months. Of course this is if you unplug the bass when you're not playing (you don't have to unplug between songs, or for reasonably short breaks, but certainly don't leave it plugged in for hours if you are not playing it).

I buy alkaline batteries, don't use cheapy carbon-zinc batteries.

[bassman314]

Originally Posted by spectorrebop

I feel a little dumb asking this, especially after i actually posted asking if there was a problem with my passive bass because it went silent. I was wondering how long nine volt batteries usually last.

depends on the bass, how often you play blah blah blah..

IME, a bass left plugged in 24-7 will last around a month, before needing replacement.

I try to unplug after a gig, or after rehearsal, and the batteries tend to last almost a year before needing replacement.

[Peter Squire]

Hmm, had to replace my battery in the SR5 for the first time the other day - about 3 months old. I don't leave it plugged in either.

[spectorrebop]

Indeed my guitar was deffinately over due for new batteries, a couple of months ago I was wondering why my guitar was silent. But hey, two years will do it to ya.

[Syeknom]

Originally Posted by Minger

Ouch. Kinda reminds me when the first time the battery in mine died - I was like OMG I THINK THE PICKUPS ARE DYING OR SOMETHING!

Yea, I was dumb.

I have a passive bass and I had the same problem, the sound kept cutting out and eventually went dead. I spent literally months freaking out trying to work out and test whether the amp had gone or my cable had died or it was a problem with my pickups.
After nearly getting to the point where I would have to send it back up country where I got it from (it was on warranty there) I found out it had an active EQ, and there was a battery in it. £3.50 later and it was back to normal.

I felt like such a tit.

[violatedppl]

After I had been playing for about a year all of a sudden my bass just died on my (1st bass squire Pbass) So I thought for some reason the pickups went out. (now that I know its kinda hard for passive pickups to just die) so I went down to gc a buddy of mine worked their. and I got a deal on a MIM jazz bass so I get home plug it in and nothing. so while I was their he hooked it up with some cables, so I try the new and old bass with the new cables and it worked . so I ended up spending $400 for a new cable, but I got a new bass sold the squire and now I am livin happily with it. sucked that it all came to being a crappy cable, so now I have enough cables to supply almost the hole band this will never happen to me again

[xshawnxearthx]

yeah my ray had a 9 volt in it for like 9 months before it died out. i played it everyday. gigged 12 times a month.

[ADbassman]

I've had the same battery in my Ibanez Musician for 2 years now and its still going strong.

[Brown Shark]

Originally Posted by Syeknom

I felt like such a tit.

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