Portable power, for PA or amps?

[hrodbert696]

Once in a while I come into a situation where it would be nice to have amplified musicians but in a situation where we can't plug into an AC outlet. For instance, tomorrow my church is having a service in a park, or my wife's library has a contingent in the town's July 4 parade. I don't have any kind of a set up to provide mobile power in these situations and was wondering how others have fared.

The one option I have had experience with was when I subbed on another parade gig with a Blues Brothers tribute band. They had a whole generator in the back of a truck pulling a trailer with the band on it. It worked, but was elaborate, noisy, and occasionally tripped a breaker, silencing the whole band from time to time except the drums and horns...

Just recently I came across these power inverters, that would draw juice from a car battery. Has anyone use them? Do they work? How long do they last, say if they're powering a PA for a singer or speaker (i.e. not a battery in a car on an alternator, but just a loose one)? Any problems? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NIG2FG/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I27VJU87YPDX0E&colid=2YQS9C89XQZIX

Other ideas?

 

[Dominar Turret]

A 100 watt car audio amp can belt out noise for several hours with the car off. Even though they are usually for subwoofers they are full range (few exceptions). Just need to figure out how to interface the two. Headphone amp seems easiest. I've often wanted to do it myself, but never had a need to actually do it.

 

[RustyAxe]

Check out Carvin's S600 ... I had the previous S400 with the extra speaker, and it was great! 3 hours on the internal battery, and would run all weekend on a deep cycle marine battery. Plenty of power, and sound pretty good. A friend's trio is using it now for outside gigs.

 

[WayneP]

A power inverter should work fine, but for a full band you’re probably going to need something more substantial than the one you linked. That company makes 3500 and even 6000 watt units, but they’ll cost some coin.

A good generator is probably better. Don’t know what power rating was of the one you used before, but Honda claims their generators are quiet. They cost even more than the high-end inverters, though.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

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[MrLenny1]

Try renting a honda generator 1000 watt
units are very quiet & portable.

 

[filmtex]

Try renting a honda generator 1000 watt
units are very quiet & portable.

I've done quite a few shows as a trio with one of these. They're quite and have enough power for us and a moderated PA. Worth a try anyway.