Do all active basses have batteries?

[JLW]

This may be a stupid question I was just wondering.

Do all active basses have batteries?

 

[savit260]

Yes.

There could be some kind of odd ball out there with an external power sorce, but I'm not aware of any.

 

[Yell03SpecV]

There could be some kind of odd ball out there with an external power sorce, but I'm not aware of any.

Variax.

 

[GobBass]

Variax.

not necessarily.the variax has a 18v battery box on the back.

 

[Yell03SpecV]

not necessarily.the variax has a 18v battery box on the back.

It can be powered externally, which is why I mentioned it.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Some of the old Alembics were powered externally also.

 

[Yell03SpecV]

Some of the old Alembics were powered externally also.

Who was that one guy who had the 2 on-board preamp setup... that was awesome, and I believe he powered it externally as well (and wasn't one of the pre's an Alembic?).

 

[AmazingGracePlayer]

Solar/light powered active bass...... ..... ... nope.

 

[Yell03SpecV]

Solar/light powered active bass...... ..... ... nope.

It's not impossible.

 

[AmazingGracePlayer]

It's not impossible.

Yeah but if you play at like a disco ball or something, and there's no light, the bass won't work.

 

[Yell03SpecV]

Yeah but if you play at like a disco ball or something, and there's no light, the bass won't work.

Batteries can be made to charge, you know.

 

[vindy500]

haha imagine that oh crap my bass is dying, quick pass the torch!

 

[AmazingGracePlayer]

haha imagine that oh crap my bass is dying, quick pass the torch!

LOL

 

[ProfGumby]

For some reason I picture a bass with a solar panel pickguard.....

 

[A9X]

Some of the old Alembics were powered externally also.

Many of the new ones too. All the Series basses have an external PSU. There are batteries on board, but they get chewed up really quickly.

 

[Dincrest]

As a rule of thumb, basses with active electronics require batteries. The one bass I can think of that uses an external power source is a Lightwave bass, where you can power the electronics by plugging the bass into an electrical outlet.

 

[David Wilson]

some vigiers in late 80s ran off of external power supplies only.

 

[Nighttrain1127]

Just to set the record straight the variax used a 9 volt power source battery or otherwise. 6 AAA batteries at 1.5 volts per. But it still has to be powered and can use either onboard or external.

 

[steve4765630]

EBS heads have Phantom power and can power a 9 volt preamp through the instrument cable. Basically, you take out the battery and put this little "bridge" piece on the battery terminal. If you have an 18 volt preamp you're sunk. No battery, but still needs power. Alembic Series II's have a rackmount power unit to supply the bass with juice. I think they are 32 volts or something crazy like that.

 

[malthumb]

..... Alembic Series II's have a rackmount power unit to supply the bass with juice. I think they are 32 volts or something crazy like that.

Alembic Series I and Series II basses come with an off-board power supply. For older basses, it's a small floor box. For later models it is a rackmount like pictured below. My '87 Series I came with a floor box. My 2000 Series II came with the rackmount. Either box will work with either bass. The power supply enables stereo operation and powers LEDs if the bass is equipped with them. I'm pretty certain the boxes put out 18V, because each bass will work with two 9V batteries.

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Peace,

James