Battery Drain with Active P'ups Forgetting to unplug

[Nino Valenti]

Could just put a on/off toggle switch to the jack wires...pretty simple

Then you'd have to remember to turn it on and off. LOL

 

[ashtray]

I always unplug, and wrap my cable, and usually put my bass back on the wall (at home) - though sometimes I’ll put it on the sofa if I think I’m coming right back. I don’t always return.

My only issue is my wireless setup. It’s so easy to turn it off, and fold the unit over so it’s flush with the body, and then forget that the bass is active. Most of my basses and guitars are passive, and the ones that are active I don’t really use much of the active feature - kinda “set it and forget it”.

I’ve left my wireless unit plugged in for weeks, just luckily not on any active instruments, yet.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

I was just thinking about this thread while at my studio this morning. My main bass, a 1983 G&L L-1000 still has it's original jack - and it was gigged a lot and even toured for stretches as long a 4 months.

You can surely do whatever U please but "saving wear and tear" on a $10 part is total blinker fluid level logic.

 

[bcbassman]

I do unplug my active basses as a rule but I also store all of my basses with the volume control turned down, so that it should use a minimum amount of battery if left plugged in.
I have one bass that eats a battery in 48 hours, plugged in or not. No fun at all.
I have to fix that one.

 

[badinage]

I was just thinking about this thread while at my studio this morning. My main bass, a 1983 G&L L-1000 still has it's original jack - and it was gigged a lot and even toured for stretches as long a 4 months.

You can surely do whatever U please but "saving wear and tear" on a $10 part is total blinker fluid level logic.

The output jack on an electric guitar is the typically the most wear-prone and failure-prone mechanical part on it.

My 2012 G&L USA L2500 uses a "barrel jack" that is a known problem spot on that particular era of that instrument. It's also known as a super PITA to replace. Mine is just a bit dodgy and and can cause crackles or dropouts if wiggled earnestly or if much lateral force is applied. I will end up having to replace it eventually, and I'm not looking forward to it.

I also don't understand the pile-on that goes on around here for shooting-down ideas by bullying for the status-quo. The idea that maybe, just maybe, the output jack-as-electrical-circuit-on/off is less than ideal for everyone is legitimate, IMO, and No, plugging-up and then unplugging one's bass every set-break is far from ideal in many circumstances. Sure unplug it for any planned extended period of non-use. I doubt anyone would say that's a bad idea.

 

[Artman]

27707110[/URL], member: 381549"]To all the "unplug because someone's going to trip over your cord and drag your bass onto the floor" scolders:

If your guitar cord is left where people are going to be walking on it, perhaps there's another housekeeping habit that needs to be learned.

You don’t have any way of knowing that.
Anybody can trip over a cable, even in a spacious and spotless room.
And…Stages are shared spaces. You have no control over other people’s levels of fatigue, attention, or coordination.

Edited for spelling.

 

[badinage]

Walk into my cord while my instrument is on it's stand and you've already walked into the instrument. My cord is not laying out on the "stage floor" (during down times) where anyone might be walking. I think I'll surrender attempting to advance this point since I'm missing something key here that will protect my gear from any stumblefolks on deck by simply unplugging it. Tks!

 

[Isaac_James]

The output jack on an electric guitar is the typically the most wear-prone and failure-prone mechanical part on it.

My 2012 G&L USA L2500 uses a "barrel jack" that is a known problem spot on that particular era of that instrument. It's also known as a super PITA to replace. Mine is just a bit dodgy and and can cause crackles or dropouts if wiggled earnestly or if much lateral force is applied. I will end up having to replace it eventually, and I'm not looking forward to it.

A pain to replace because it's hard to get at? Do you have to take other components out to access it or something? I've never been inside a G&L bass so I don't know what it looks like under the hood.

 

[mcnach]

I'll tell you why I do it: so I'll play more. In my home office, I have a bass in a stand an arm's length from my chair. In the morning I turn on the amp so that throughout the day (I work from home) if I feel the desire to play even one song, I'm literally two or three seconds from playing. And once I start playing, I tend to keep playing.

With an active bass, I don't have a problem forgetting to unplug when I'm done. The problem is that when the urge strikes to play, I need to bend over to grab the end of the cord off the floor, plug it into my bass, and then turn on the amp. It takes only 20 seconds more, but that little bit of friction is enough to stop 9 out of 10 impulses to play. And the thing that keeps me from being a better bassist isn't my gear, it is that I need to play more.

It takes oh sooo looong to plug the bass and turn on the amp, yeah...

 

[badinage]

A pain to replace because it's hard to get at? Do you have to take other components out to access it or something? I've never been inside a G&L bass so I don't know what it looks like under the hood.

The "barrel jack" in some G&L instruments is a known common-failure point. Getting one out often requires driving a easy-out into the 1/4" jack hole to unscrew the jack from the body wood. Some of them are in there pretty tight.

G&L Jack Replacement

 

[Stylee Mousse]

G&L wise this is where the L-1000 with the metal control plate wins the internets- no barrel Jack!

 

[badinage]

G&L wise this is where the L-1000 with the metal control plate wins the internets- no barrel Jack!

I think G&L dropped the barrel jack from most everything by the mid-2000-teens, because of the recurring problems.

 

[Snert]

I do unplug my active basses as a rule but I also store all of my basses with the volume control turned down, so that it should use a minimum amount of battery if left plugged in.

It will make zero difference what position the VC is in, the battery will drain at the same rate.

 

[WRM]

It will make zero difference what position the VC is in, the battery will drain at the same rate.

Yep. It's still "boosting" whatever signal is sent at the same gain/power.

 

[Snert]

Yep. It's still "boosting" whatever signal is sent at the same gain/power.

Not quite. As there is no signal, the only current draw is the quiescent or idle current.

 

[DaveParker39]

Regardless of the active circuit, if you do not interrupt the connection to the battery it will drain. Possibly very slowly, but it will drain. In the same way that a pedal takes power even when bypassed. It is still "ready to go" when you engage it, buffer or not.

 

[kgbeast]

Not quite. As there is no signal, the only current draw is the quiescent or idle current.

If we are still talking about a bass on-board preamp, in a few different preamps that I fiddled with it is completely irrelevant where the volume set or if a pickup even connected to it, the preamp draws the same current from the battery.
Bass preamps are rather simple circuits, not a class D amplifier. One with a miliiampere measuring multimeter can easily check. Plug a TRS cable in and measure the current between the ring and shield, spin the volume knob and see if anything changes. Active pickups also constantly draw the same current regardless if strings are there or not in a few different ones I have measured.

 

[Deleted member 368008]

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.

Yes, it would never work with Bill Wyman...

 

[Deleted member 368008]

If everyone just thinks like this it should pose no problem:

1. You have an external EQ/Boost pedal on the floor, instead, that JUST runs on batteries.
2. You plug it in and..ON the battery turns.
3. No matter how you press the footswitch for turning the EFFECT on or not.
4. You UNPLUG it from the input, and OFF the battery turns.

Just as simple as that. There's no fix there in the pedals with mercury triggers or sensors that senses no signal after an hour or two or turns it off. It has been like that for ages, and still are. People are still forgetting to unplug those pedals (Fuzz Face anyone?) so it's just a bad habit that must be practiced away. Look at old shredder stalwart Eric Johnson pedalboard... prior to the gig between soundcheck and actual gig...unplugges every cable that runs into battery only driven pedals...

Tube Screamer, Fuzz Face, Wah pedals input jacks is pulled out a bit...saves batteries, no doubt. Think of your active bass the same. No more, no less.

 

[Deleted member 368008]

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.

I've solved this "hanging-above-the-couch" bass thing with using Wireless system from Boss. That little package DO have a led that is connected, and shows that it sends. The transmitter resides at same place as TV remote controls, and if I forget to remove it sure is visible. Yes, it's an active bass too. It keeps the wires from going across the room to domestic hi-fi equipment and tv-set (where soundcard and laptop is hidden underneath and receiver of the wireless sytem). I have to recharge it now and then, but I don't mind.

THere is a certain flavor/veil added to the sound of wireless, but as the bass is active (EMG) it's an even wash, regarding dynamics and limiting. It's in the living room of a flat, so I can't crank anything to hear any pitfalls in active/wireless "sound" anyway. Practicing purposes only.

- - - - - - - - - -

No matter how you twist and turn on this active thing with disengaging the batteries you have your rear at the back. There's always an extra thing you have to remember. Simple as that. There's no 2 ways around it.

I'd wish that there could be some variants of the Neutrik jack system which just by flipping that switch at the jack removes the plug just enough to disengage the battery. So it stays in there a bit. Like the pedals above. But then you forget to plug it in I suppose...

- - - - - - - - - - -

Which leaves me another "wish" for rechargable systems. I know it exists for bicycles light. There's a couple of magnets attached to the spokes at the wheels and when it passes over the light receiver, it lights up. It flashes for a while, for to later on be charged, so it doesn't flash. So my thought is:

Why should it not be possible - remember EMG runs on MICROampere - to have double rechargable system on the active bass, that charges the batteries from the magnetism that is produced by the strings vibrating? So it recharges as you play? From the strings motion.No batteries ever needed. So it recharges the other system while using the first one.

Because remember one thing: Strings in kinetic motion produces energy.

Fringe benefit: it causes you to have to play/practice more...a win win situation.