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decent battery powered bass amp for backyard gig?

velobob

velobob

I enjoy the process
Jan 30, 2013
226
394
Carpinteria and Bakersfield, California
#1
Looking for a workable battery powered bass amp. Did a backyard gig recently....
Percussionist on a Cajon, one guitarist playing thru battery PA system and another guitarist thru a Yamaha battery portable amp. Me on bass thru a Fender 10" Frontman 25B (plugged in). It worked out fine, but can't help but think that it would have been WAY nicer to not have to run an extension cord across the lawn to power my amp.
Is there a worthwhile battery powered bass amp....not for practice, but for lowish volume gigging/busking?
 
#3
#4
How much do you want to spend and how compact do you want to be?

If you already have a suitable bass amp, I would suggest a pure sine power station. I bought a Jackery 300 to experiment with my GK 700RB/112 combo. The only difference I hear between running the amp on wall power and running it on the Jackery is it has a bit more hum on the Jackery. The hum is noticeable in a quiet room, but should be fine for a back yard gig. For context the original 700RB is rated for 225W into 8 ohms.

The Smallest pure sine Jackery is the 240.
Portable Power Stations with outlet - Jackery

I chose the 300 to ensure the old GK would turn on. Many old amps have a big surge when they are turned on. The Jackery 300 is rated 300W continuous and 500W surge. The 240 is rated 200W continuous and 400W surge.

Here is the thread I started for the Jackery: Battery-Powered Mayhem! (Jackery 300)

For super compact but relatively low volume, I would choose the Roland Cube Street EX. This amp is rated for 25W x 2 into a pair of 8s. IMHO it probably makes closer to about 13W total. I would not even consider the smaller Roland battery powered amps...although some people think they are great.

Roland - CUBE Street EX | Battery-Powered Stereo Amplifier

I believe the next step up would be the Roland BA-330. This amp is rated 15W x 2 into four 6s. Although it has lower power than the Cube Street EX, I think it's louder. It's about twice the size and weight of the Cube Street EX.

Roland - BA-330 | Stereo Portable Amplifier

If you need more volume, you can run two amps.

These two Roland amps run on AA batteries. I suggest getting Eneloops and a charger.

For pretty a big step up, you can consider various bluetooth speakers with instrument inputs such as the SoundBoks and JBL Partybox 310 :greedy:.

Shop Powerful Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speakers | SOUNDBOKS
JBL Partybox 310 | Portable party speaker with dazzling lights and powerful JBL Pro Sound

Here's a review: JBL PartyBox 310 vs SOUNDBOKS (Gen. 3) Side-by-Side Speaker Comparison - RTINGS.com

I think this review may be a bit misleading. They seem to strongly prefer the JBL and note that it has less compression artifacts. However, the measurement was taken with the JBL at 104dB VS 110dB for the Soundboks. I suspect if you dropped the volume of the Soundboks a bit, the compression would decrease, and it would probably still be louder than the JBL.

The next step up would be something like a Beacon or Big Foot from Anchor Audio.
Anchor Audio Beacon 2 | Portable Line Array Sound System — AnchorAudioStore.com
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I have played through the previous generation of Beacon and it was better than I expected, but :greedy::greedy::greedy::greedy::greedy:
 
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#7
If the Frontman 25B is sufficiently loud, the Jackery 240 would be way more than you need and it is currently priced at $219 (normally $246). I think you will be hard pressed to find a battery powered amp that will outperform the 25B for less than the Jackery 240.

Lowes and Best Buy sell a Jackery 290 for $249. 200W continuous/400W surge like the 240, but it has more capacity so it will provide power longer.

Jackery 300 is 300W continuous/500W surge. With coupons the current price is $251.

The Jackery 500 is a significant step up in size, cost, and performance. I thought the 300 was the best compromise for my needs. IMHO the 500 is to big and heavy for this application, but YMMV.
 
#9
Put the $$ toward a small, quality, inverter style generator (Honda, Yamaha) and a #10, 50' extension cord.
You can run a decent, small bass amp and small PA and get other use out of the generator.
 
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#11
lug said:
Since I already had Ryobi 40V tools, I just got a Ryobi 300w pure sine wave inverter. They run something like $100 w/o the battery. IRL, I'd use my Double 4 with a laptop battery but the Ryobi is useful for stuff that that needs pure sine wave.
Click to expand...

I'm a makita man myself and have been converting a number of household and other hobby projects to run on my makita batteries. Each battery is 18v at up to 15AH ( i don't buy less than 6AH).

Those two Rolands listed above run on 8AA batteries = 12v. With a $10 step-down and a $10 battery jack, almost anything that is native DC can be converted to run on your preferred power tool batteries. If it is native AC and only AC and you want to run DC, then that kind of wiring stuff is beyond me. It's not simple apparently.

I would like a battery powered amp so I can try busking sometime. When I do find an amp, it will become makita powered. Those two rolands at ~$500 (new and used respectively) are above my current budget and needs, but I'm not buying soon.
 
#12
Slevage said:
Put the $$ toward a small, quality, inverter style generator (Honda, Yamaha) and a #10, 50' extension cord.
You can run a decent, small bass amp and small PA and get other use out of the generator.
Click to expand...

Benefits of a generator notwithstanding, for the OP's purpose,

if he's gonna use a 50' extension cord, he may as well just plug into an outlet

instead of a noisy fuel-consuming generator that's parked right next next to it. :)
 
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#13
velobob said:
Looking for a workable battery powered bass amp. Did a backyard gig recently....
Percussionist on a Cajon, one guitarist playing thru battery PA system and another guitarist thru a Yamaha battery portable amp. Me on bass thru a Fender 10" Frontman 25B (plugged in). It worked out fine, but can't help but think that it would have been WAY nicer to not have to run an extension cord across the lawn to power my amp.
Is there a worthwhile battery powered bass amp....not for practice, but for lowish volume gigging/busking?
Click to expand...
Blackstar Super Fly might do it for you. It's a 12w guitar amp but Blackstar ok'd me to play bass through it. The drivers are the same as in the Fly 3 Bass.
 
#14
Marko 1 said:
Benefits of a generator notwithstanding, for the OP's purpose,

if he's gonna use a 50' extension cord, he may as well just plug into an outlet

instead of a noisy fuel-consuming generator that's parked right next next to it. :)
Click to expand...
50', 10AWG will have minimal voltage drop. An inverter duty generator is very quiet, especially 50' away. My comment assumes there is no outlet available at this gig or possibly other gigs. I've done many backyard parties running the whole band (no lights), using 2, 20 amp circuits and 2, 100' lengths of #10 extension cords.
 

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