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Battery Drain with Active P'ups Forgetting to unplug
- Thread starter foulmouthbass
- Start date
I could never want that. I want to know my bass is on every second I’m onstage or in the studio. Of course, I remember to unplug if it’s active
Learned that the hard way.
I wanted to share one more hard lesson I learned--if you bring spare batteries to a gig (as you should), make sure they're wrapped in plastic or something similarly insulating, otherwise they can roam around loose in your gig bag pocket and if they touch anything metallic like the zipper, they'll discharge. Then you end up swapping in a dead battery that you thought should be fresh. Don't ask me how I know this. 
Oh, and unwrapped 9V batteries are a fire risk too, but fortunately I didn't have to learn that lesson. 
I use these Neutrik silent plugs. I even had some connector cables made with them for my wireless transmitter.
It is an ingenious idea, but it presupposes that the player will never orient his bass neck-upward while playing, or trigger the mercury switch through movement while playing. Things like that are why I'd never put a switch on a bass for that purpose -- I could just see myself accidentally hitting it while I'm playing, and then suddenly there's no bass sound.
I did that same thing when I was younger (minus the amp always being on). It was far more easy and convenient than having to pull the case out of the closet or out from under the bed, pull bass out of its case, and plug it in. That difference in ease and convenience made a huge difference in how much I played, because if I only had five or ten minutes, I could spend literally all of it playing. I attribute much of my speed in development to that.
Always being plugged in never hurt anything, as far as I could tell.
D
Once upon a time, I had all my basses outfitted with such a setup:
on/off switch between battery and output jack, coupled to a LED to show some kind of batterystatus and visual indicator.
My instruments are always in their case/bag when I'm not playing, which both keeps them safe from harm and solves the battery problem.
However, both my active basses are both active and passive depending on the position of the relevant switch. I'm not clear if the battery would run down if the switch were left passive mode and the cable were left plugged in.
Less of a concern for me since these two basses can operate in passive mode even if the batteries are dead. Nice feature.
Good luck!
However, both my active basses are both active and passive depending on the position of the relevant switch. I'm not clear if the battery would run down if the switch were left passive mode and the cable were left plugged in.
Less of a concern for me since these two basses can operate in passive mode even if the batteries are dead. Nice feature.
Good luck!
The off switch on my electronics (which is now removed) was not really an off switch but rather an EQ defeat.
It was Bartolini® MK-1. So the battery would have drained regardless. I discussed exchanging it with something with a proper off switch.
D
Deleted member 368008
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Yes, there are no 2 ways about it. The "active" basses are of much debate, like people talking about "active/passive" basses. There's a switch when you disengage the active EQ/Preamp on it and runs the passive pickups only. You can remove the batteries and leave that switch off, and then use the bass as a passive system, while no EQ will work at all, because usually it's the EQ system that runs through the active part. If you flick that switch to try to turn it on, it is muted and no signal, because there's no batteries.
But instead of hairsplitting/nit picking about what is active or passive, it's best to think like this, and keep this in mind:
If batteries are engaged as fast as you plug in it's an active bass, period.
No matter the pickups, or preamp/eq. EMG pickups just have to have batteries, and no switch will help there. But other systems, if a switch was connected to turn off and on the battery at the same time, a large thump or thud is heard in the signal chain, and can be hazardous to speakers and whatnot. Think of it just like any battery driven pedal. You plug it in to the input and then it's ON. No matter if the footswitch is on or off. Drains batteries still.
If you have - say - EMG pickups PLUS an active EQ system tone controls that will ADD treble and ADD bass you will drain more battery. Slightly more. I had my EMGs with just a subtractive EQ in there. But just because this, the EQ isn't passive in any way. The pots are 25K (not for passive work) and runs through the electric circuit too. Since EMG grounds/earths their signal chain in a certain way, the ground wire to the bridge ain't needed at all, and may be a advantages if you should get a schock from dodgy power grids, at "dump" venues. You may fry the pickups and electronics, but you yourself stays alive, and not being electrocuted. It works like wireless systems.
You could mod your bass to take phantom power, but that will be more trouble than it is worth. Way more. Remembering to keep a stereo cable with you all of the time plus additional break out box on the floor, and can't connect any regular cable in it for tuning up a bass (you have to resort to using clip on tuners).
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I wonder though, if it should be possible for folks like EMG to include that small LED anyway onto their sleek black pickups at the pickup frame, to use both as an onboard tuner AND signalling that the batteries are on and active. So you know. Wouldn't be that hard, and not rocket science. But still then, it will drain it more, or sooner. But since EMGs are about the most stingy ones on batteries, a few more mA wouldn't do that much harm.
Then you have the tuner thing solved, and does not mislaying the clip on tuner or lose it. Which I have done a few times. See, that's MY bad habit, but not unpluggin the cable. One bad habit is replaced by another... we'll never learn...
D
Deleted member 368008
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hen you end up swapping in a dead battery that you thought should be fresh. Don't ask me how I know this.
Hence using Lithium batteries are the best. They have the longest shelf life and will:
1. Not ever leak. Not ever inside the bass, or in the drawer, or case.
2. Not ever lose current, that's why they're used in smoke detectors. How should that turn out if they drained for no reason up there in the ceiling?
3. Can be disposed of in metal bin. Not containing mercury or any form of non "in nature degradable" material. Lithium resolves and disappears in nature. Eventually. It even exists naturally in rocks and stones. Not collected inside organisms either. So no special battery bin disposal is needed.
4. Can never run thermal runaway. I e catch fire.
However, differ this from ION-LITHIUM batteries, please, which are rechargable and can have all these liabilities above. As fast as you mix/blend some other chemicals into that, it's a hit or miss, and hazardous both to environmental, disposable, and thermal runaway. Ion-Lithium is definitely NOT the same as Lithium only. Quite the contrary. On cars, computers, batteries in all kinds of gear. Alkaline has all these liabilities too listed above...
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Deleted member 368008
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And depending on the bass form and design, very few stands fits and suits every plug or jack where it is located. But live, on stage, you just have to have it plugged in all of the time. But generally for me, whenever putting any bass in a stand (except when output jack is front mounted like on J or P basses) it gets in the way, you have to adjust it to stay clear of the bottom claw of the stand. Maybe modern basses such as Dingwall will do. Those pesky cables that are hefty made to can rock and tip the bass over, since they're strong enough to trip over and move things badly, I've done so with light bass amp heads too. They lightweigth switched stuff... especiall when using angled plugs. Straight plugs, you just accidentally remove the cable, but with angled ...jeez....
Late hour, tired, distracted, maybe drown'd all in Rhenish and the sleepy meade... I've left an electric instrument, active or passive, plugged in and on the stand. I'm pretty good at remembering on powered/actives, but it's still a PITA. I guarantee the bass in my living/den/TV room right now is plugged in and ready to grab and go when an impromptu "bass lesson" presents itself. The cord is over/undered and hanging on the upper horn so the Roomba doesn't grab it, but oh yes, if it's in my living room, it's passive and plugged in. I wish my actives had a manual "power off" switch. I can wish.
This Meazzi bass from Italy (this one from '65) has original active preamp and stock mercury kill switch which still works perfectly 58 years on...
I can totally understand that being a concern. I will say I've gigged the bass quite a lot and have never had it cut out while playing. It's pretty well calibrated that way.
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Converted guitar player, here and I when I was playing guitar (I switched to bass in '81), active electronics weren't all that prevalent.
So, shy of a wiring short in our guitars (or close proximity to an amplifier), we kept ours plugged in all the time.
The selection of basses with passive electronics is sparse ... unless one wants to spend thousands of dollars on each bass.
My SR300EB cost me 216 new in 2019. My SR600E was 669 new in 2021. Thank you for the heads up about having to lay out thousands on each one.
