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Lakland Owners Group #51

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#201
RumbleBeeAL said:
Good question... I suspect the answer is No!

By design, the 1/4" jack on the unit operates as the power switch when a plug is inserted... The Push/Pull Volume knob simply bypasses the pre-amp's signals.

Therefore, if I am correct, if the caple is plugged in and the knob is pulled out, you would in effect be wasting the battery and not saving it.

We'll see what the experts have to say...
Click to expand...

I think you're right. I have a Warwick active bass and if it's plugged in it doesn't matter if I put it in passive or not, it still wears on the battery.
 
#203
250GBsOfAwesome said:
I've got a quick question. A couple months ago I picked up my first Lakland, a 55-02 and I love it. Best bass I've owned and I can't put it down. Now it's not my only active bass so I know you're not supposed to leave them plugged in when you're not playing, this is common knowledge to me. Here's my question. With this bass can I just pull out the volume knob and put it in passive mode and leave it plugged in? Does that drain the battery or not?
Click to expand...

In contrast to what everyone else says, the answer is yes. This is because pulling the volume knob up completely bypasses the preamp. However, on a xx-01, this won't work as pulling the volume knob bypasses the EQ section only.

I've tested this on my 55-02 on at least 2 seperate occasions, what I did was take the battery out, and leave the bass in Passive mode. When I plugged the bass in to play I did have a signal. To reiterate, I could play it with no battery, provided the volume knob was pulled out.

I think Dan Lakin said that that the passive feature of the xx-94/02 was intended more as a lifejacket in the middle of a gig incase of battery failure, rather than as another approach to tone shaping... Or words to that effect :)

Hope that helps.
 
#205
Luke.Walton said:
In contrast to what everyone else says, the answer is yes. This is because pulling the volume knob up completely bypasses the preamp. However, on a xx-01, this won't work as pulling the volume knob bypasses the EQ section only.

I've tested this on my 55-02 on at least 2 seperate occasions, what I did was take the battery out, and leave the bass in Passive mode. When I plugged the bass in to play I did have a signal. To reiterate, I could play it with no battery, provided the volume knob was pulled out.

I think Dan Lakin said that that the passive feature of the xx-94/02 was intended more as a lifejacket in the middle of a gig incase of battery failure, rather than as another approach to tone shaping... Or words to that effect :)

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

This isn't really a special feature of the LH3. AFAIK, it is completely typical for preamps with active/passive switching to operate without the battery installed. This is the case because the battery isn't needed and it's not part of a circuit, so there is no logical dependency, not a specially designed safety net. That safety net is incidental. While the battery isn't needed in passive mode, if it's there, it will be drawn from. Passive mode bypasses the preamp. It doesn't turn it off. It might as well, and it's effectively the same thing, but as far as the battery is concerned, it makes a difference.
 
#210
drpepper said:
This isn't really a special feature of the LH3. AFAIK, it is completely typical for preamps with active/passive switching to operate without the battery installed. This is the case because the battery isn't needed and it's not part of a circuit, so there is no logical dependency, not a specially designed safety net. That safety net is incidental. While the battery isn't needed in passive mode, if it's there, it will be drawn from. Passive mode bypasses the preamp. It doesn't turn it off. It might as well, and it's effectively the same thing, but as far as the battery is concerned, it makes a difference.
Click to expand...

So it will draw from the battery if it's left in passive mode with the cable in? :confused:
This is mind-bottling... :p
 
#211
Luke.Walton said:
So it will draw from the battery if it's left in passive mode with the cable in? :confused:
Click to expand...

Yes, yes it will. Learn fro my mistake on this one. Having your bass essentially die on you onstage is reeeally crappy.

EDIT: Before anyone even goes there, pulling out the knob and going passive is not a serious option, as re-twiddling all the soundboard knobs will take more time than popping in a new battery.
 
#213
Luke.Walton said:
So it will draw from the battery if it's left in passive mode with the cable in? :confused:
This is mind-bottling... :p
Click to expand...

Ha!

Yes. It doesn't make much logical sense from every perspective, and maybe someone who knows the whys of the wiring could explain them.

My stab at it would be this: The preamp has to have a "power switch" or it would be on all the time, and you'd have to change batteries every couple of weeks. A logical choice that ensures that the preamp is powered when the bass is being used is the cable being plugged in...can you think of a more fool-proof way of doing that? So that function is served. The active/passive switch's function is the remove the preamp from the signal path. Creating a second power switch, which I assume would technically be possible, would foul the economy of wiring for the single benefit of saving some small portion of battery life. If power switching were in the active/passive switch, it would be too easy to leave it on when the bass wasn't being used.
 
#215
drpepper said:
Ha!

Yes. It doesn't make much logical sense from every perspective, and maybe someone who knows the whys of the wiring could explain them.

My stab at it would be this: The preamp has to have a "power switch" or it would be on all the time, and you'd have to change batteries every couple of weeks. A logical choice that ensures that the preamp is powered when the bass is being used is the cable being plugged in...can you think of a more fool-proof way of doing that? So that function is served. The active/passive switch's function is the remove the preamp from the signal path. Creating a second power switch, which I assume would technically be possible, would foul the economy of wiring for the single benefit of saving some small portion of battery life. If power switching were in the active/passive switch, it would be too easy to leave it on when the bass wasn't being used.
Click to expand...

I mostly understood that :p
I have one more question (for now), will having the bass in passive mode draw less current (or power, whichever is technically correct) than having the bass set "flat" in active mode?

I ask because I've had my 55-02 for well over a year and I've only had to change the battery once and I would leave it plugged in, in passive mode, on a stand during a church service (after playing music), or whatever...

All this is too much for my brain to comprehend :help: :D
 
#216
Luke.Walton said:
I mostly understood that :p
I have one more question (for now), will having the bass in passive mode draw less current (or power, whichever is technically correct) than having the bass set "flat" in active mode?

I ask because I've had my 55-02 for well over a year and I've only had to change the battery once and I would leave it plugged in, in passive mode, on a stand during a church service (after playing music), or whatever...

All this is too much for my brain to comprehend :help: :D
Click to expand...

I think that many (most?) preamps are designed to go a relatively looong time (~200-250 hours playing time) on a battery. My programmable Sansamp DI pedal is supposed to go 100 hours on a 9V. That's cable-plugged-in time, not just time in the socket.
 
#220
Luke.Walton said:
I have one more question (for now), will having the bass in passive mode draw less current (or power, whichever is technically correct) than having the bass set "flat" in active mode?
Click to expand...

I think for the sake of this conversation, current or power both work fine :) but I don't know the technical details. I've wondered a similar things myself...if the draw is always the same or if it increases when "work" (as I see it with my lay-eyes) is being done on a signal.
 
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