Batteries

[Robert Spencer]

I`m not liking the idea of using batteries in my Hohner A/E bass. Is there a way around that? Thanks & take care. Bob

 

[bassteban]

You could rewire it to bypass the preamp, but impedance mismatching between the bass & amp will likely produce an unpleasant tone; this can then be remedied w/a separate preamp in a pedal, rack or belt-clip unit, which of course need to be powered somehow... the rack or pedal routes allow for plugging in(to the wall for power), but I don't know if this *fixes* the issue for you. IIRC Wendler makes/made a piezo/magnetic PU-equipped bass w/o a battery-operated preamp; they're tight-lipped about how it works, though.

 

[line6man]

You could rewire it to bypass the preamp, but impedance mismatching between the bass & amp will likely produce an unpleasant tone

I wouldn't call it an unpleasant tone, the higher output impedance just means a greater loading effect from the parasitic capacitance of your cable, which results in some treble loss.

FWIW, The amp should have a high impedance input, it doesn't care what the output impedance of the bass is. There is no impedance mismatch.

This is of course assuming that this is a regular active bass.
Does the bass in question have piezo pickups or something?
If that's the case, there would definitely be some issues with combining super high impedance (capacitive) piezos with the relatively low impedance (inductive) magnetics and running the signal through a long cable run.

 

[Robert Spencer]

Yes the Hohner HAB-40 uses piezo pups. Guess I`ll learn to live with it. Thanks & take care. Bob