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Average lifespan of V9 battery?
- Thread starter GeoTop
- Start date
In my MIA Jazz I have the Audere preamp. I like it because it will let you know when the battery is getting too weak for the preamp and time to change it. About every six months or so.
In my MIA Deluxe P-Bass it has an 18v preamp. I put two fresh 9volts in last September. Still going strong.
In my MIA Deluxe P-Bass it has an 18v preamp. I put two fresh 9volts in last September. Still going strong.
There was a time I used to change the 9v's every time I changed strings... But these days, it depends on how long I go between recording sessions / bigger gigs.
Just remember to unplug the 1/4" cable from your bass when your not playing (turn volume down on amp FIRST!) and you shouldn't have any issues.
Just remember to unplug the 1/4" cable from your bass when your not playing (turn volume down on amp FIRST!) and you shouldn't have any issues.
This. Batteries tend to put out full voltage until just before
dying.
I change mine once a year. Usually play the active bass about 30 minutes a day, everyday, and then for 3 hours twice a month at gigs.
Don't wait for them to go. As a gigging Bassist I learned the hard way:
Always unplug between sets and when finished.
Always use high quality Alkaline's - Energizer/Duracell.
Change 'em at 6 months - you can still use 'em in tuners, home radio's, or other appliances.
It is definitely NOT worth the embarrassment of a dead/distorting Bass onstage to save a couple of bucks twice a year.
Always unplug between sets and when finished.
Always use high quality Alkaline's - Energizer/Duracell.
Change 'em at 6 months - you can still use 'em in tuners, home radio's, or other appliances.
It is definitely NOT worth the embarrassment of a dead/distorting Bass onstage to save a couple of bucks twice a year.
on another note, don't be like my guitard/lead singer. He uses IEM which require a 9v.
He's an incrediblely cheap guy. He won't change the 9v in them until they go absolutely dead. Then he ends up switching batteries during mid song, causing either his vocals or guitar (or both) to drop out until he finishes the swap.
Aces...I know
He hates to carry more than one 9v as backup because of the price. I mentioned he should buy them in bulk cheaper per battery. Alas, to no avail. He had one spare that he had to use at the gig this past Saturday night. I said what if that one went out as well that night or it's a defective 9v? What would you do? I swear he looked at me like I was speaking Latin. He said "why would it be defective"? I said sometimes things are made defective and allowing for that occurrence is smart planning. His look to me was priceless.
Sorry for the derailment. Bottom line, I agree with everyone. Unplug when not using and always carry 2 batteries as backup, you never know, plus use alkaline batteries.
He's an incrediblely cheap guy. He won't change the 9v in them until they go absolutely dead. Then he ends up switching batteries during mid song, causing either his vocals or guitar (or both) to drop out until he finishes the swap.
Aces...I know
He hates to carry more than one 9v as backup because of the price. I mentioned he should buy them in bulk cheaper per battery. Alas, to no avail. He had one spare that he had to use at the gig this past Saturday night. I said what if that one went out as well that night or it's a defective 9v? What would you do? I swear he looked at me like I was speaking Latin. He said "why would it be defective"? I said sometimes things are made defective and allowing for that occurrence is smart planning. His look to me was priceless.
Sorry for the derailment. Bottom line, I agree with everyone. Unplug when not using and always carry 2 batteries as backup, you never know, plus use alkaline batteries.
I bought my Jay Turser last July. Batteries were already in it. I may have changed them once or so within a couple months of getting it. Since then, I haven't had to replace the batteries once. During the summer, I played an average of 20-30 hours a week for 10 weeks. When I lent the bass out to a friend last month, it had the same batteries in it, still running strong.
Im on 6 months and counting but had an active Washburn that needed 2 changes in 3 months, partially because I left it plugged in for 5 days haha.
Yup, my AmDlx-P has had the batteries in it since May of last year and still going strong after a couple of gigs a month and basically weekly practices.
I don't know if this has ever been brought up, so I'll ask, but do the batteries in the AmDlx 18V preamp tend to last longer than in the Fender 9V systems? I can't really get specific info on the preamps they are using in the AmDlx series. I'm just curious, as it might be about time to change my batteries on principle alone.
I have an active Ibanez bass and the 9v last years. I also have a Fender Squier guitar with active pickups and the battery last for years. Then I have my Warwick Corvette, and the 9v battery lasts 4-6 weeks before dying! Grrr. That's way too short of a time. I had the jack replaced, as there was a problem with it. Perhaps it was also shorting out, causing the battery to work 24/7? It would explain the 4 week life span.) I put in a Duracell alkaline and we'll see how long it lasts now.
How I love passive basses.
How I love passive basses.
This thread is a little old but I have just purchased a Deluxe Active Jazz Bass and therefore have become interested in how other folks monitor and manage the batteries in their active instruments. This thread turned up in a search on that topic.
I'm an electrical engineer by trade and I can tell you that the OP's question has no answer. Or rather, that while it does technically have an answer the average lifespan of a battery in all battery powered instruments is a useless piece of information for anyone here. You each need to know the expected lifetime of the battery in your own instrument. Not for your particular instrument exactly but for instruments that use the same make/model of active electronics.
A battery is like the fuel tank on your car. It is not rated in gallons of course but by the product of current and time. For small batteries the current is specified in milli-Amps and the time in hours so the battery will be rated in milli-Amp-hours which is abbreviated mAh. Consumer battery makers never (well, rarely) advertise this rating. They prefer to make snake-oil-salesman-like claims about how superior their product is to the competition and to their own batteries from last year. But if you dig for the technical information on their websites you can find charts and graphs and mAh ratings. The common and affordable alkaline 9V (or V9, does it really make that much difference???) battery is around 600 mAh. Lithiums will be more and more expensive, carbon-zinc will be less and cheaper. Alkalines are popular because they are widely available and give a good compromise between price and performance.
The key question now is how much current does your bass use? Just as the range of a car can be calculated from the tank size and mpg rating if you know your bass' current drain and the rating of its battery you can calculate the expected service life of the battery. My Fender uses very little current, 0.6 mA. That may or may not be typical. If I divide 600 mAh by 0.6 mA I get 1000 hr and that is the expected lifetime of a 9V alkaline battery in a current model year (2011) Fender Deluxe Active Jazz Bass. To estimate the number of days between battery replacements divide the battery life in hours (1000 in this case) by the number of hours used per day. If I use my bass 3 hours a day I could get about a year's use out of it (1000/3 = 333). If I use it 24 hours a day I get about 40 days use (1000/24 = 41). Remember that as far as the battery is concerned the bass is "in use" any time the amplifier patch cord is plugged into the socket in the bass since that is what switches the bass electronics on.
If you want to make the same calculations for your bass you need to measure its current drain. If you have a VOM you just set it up to measure current and clip only one of the battery connector's terminals onto the battery and connect the VOM between the other terminal and the unclipped battery terminal. If that sounds like Greek to you then you should get the help of someone who is familiar with using a VOM. Divide the battery mAh rating (~600 for an alkaline 9V) by the current to get the expected service life in hours.
If you would like to monitor the battery condition easily on a bass that uses the patch cord socket to switch it on you can do that with your VOM and a 1/4 inch stereo plug. Wire the VOM to the "ring" and "ground" contacts on the plug and then plug it into the bass. The VOM will then read the internal battery voltage. The voltage at which the battery should be replaced depends on the design of the electronics but Fender tells me that 4.5V is the absolute minimum and 5.5V is a better number. Since 90% of a 9V battery's capacity is used by the time it drops to 6V I plan to change mine at that point.
Yes, to be most accurate the battery should be measured with a proper battery tester. However in the case of my Fender which draws so little current there is not likely to be any difference between a VOM measurement and a loaded battery measurement. In fact the load a battery tester will apply to a 9V battery is so much higher than what my bass actually draws that the unloaded battery voltage measurement should be closer to the truth. That is a conjecture that can be tested by sacrificing a 9V battery to the cause of science and I plan to do that in the lab at work next week just for grins. However, if your bass draws more than a mA or two you may indeed need to use a proper battery tester and that would mean the stereo plug technique above could not be used since you cannot load the battery properly with the internal preamp in series with it and that connection is unavoidable when using this technique.
Unfortunately on many basses, my Fender included, the battery is behind a door attached with two screws. Measuring the voltage through the patch cord socket with a stereo plug is quite convenient and therefore much more likely to be done on a regular basis. Unscrewing the cover is inconvenient and not likely to be done often but you can rely on the calculated lifetime and just change the battery a bit more often than calculated to be safe.
Ken
my Warwick ProLine Vette, which is running @ 18v, seems to use batteries every 5 months..
it really depends on the draw of the preamp.. most preamp/active pickups have a very, very low draw.. if you're worried about it, keep a spare battery (or two) with you and swap them out before a gig..
it really depends on the draw of the preamp.. most preamp/active pickups have a very, very low draw.. if you're worried about it, keep a spare battery (or two) with you and swap them out before a gig..
The most Ive ever changed a battery is once every 4 months. They didnt really need changing, but was just doing that. Longest Ive had a battery in active bass is about 6 and half months. Sound had deteriorated a little bit, but still useable. I bassically plan to change the battery in my active bass now about once every 5 months.
It's a good idea to change batteries in your home's smoke detectors twice a year. My friend, the local fire chief, recommends doing that on daylight savings days because it's easy to remember (since you're changing clocks any way). If your house/apartment/condo is like mine, that means buying a big pack of fresh 9v batteries. If there is any doubt about your bass's battery life, why not change them on the same day. You can always recycle the (probably still fine) batteries into your tuner or a pedal or kids' toys or whatever.
Oh yeah... like everyone else has already said, unplug your active basses when you aren't using them.
In nearly two decades of playing (and much of that with active basses), dying batteries have never really been a problem for me.
Enjoy your Squier active V deluxe.
Oh yeah... like everyone else has already said, unplug your active basses when you aren't using them.
In nearly two decades of playing (and much of that with active basses), dying batteries have never really been a problem for me.
Enjoy your Squier active V deluxe.
