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Post subject: Jazz Bass Deluxe Battery Life
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 3:41 pm
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I have a question about the battery life for my Jazz Bass Deluxe. It uses two batteries but I'm not sure when they may need changing. What happens when the batteries are running low? Does the signal start deteriorating or do the pickups stop working altogether?


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Post subject: Re: Jazz Bass Deluxe Battery Life
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 5:44 pm
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Location: Albemarle, NC
When the batteries get weak the output will first get a little bit lower but still be relatively clean. If you are using compression you might not even notice it at this point.

Then once the batteries get drained more you'll start hearing some distortion creep in. The lower the voltage gets the nastier the distortion and the weaker the output both become.

Since you have a passive switch this isn't much of an issue as you can finish rehearsal or gig in passive mode if the batteries fade.

Early actives using a single 9 volt battery mostly had very short battery life usually measured in hundreds of hours. They also had no passive switch and were active only. This meant changing batteries more often than necessary to avoid mid-gig failure. The modern preamps and especially the 18 volt systems have significantly improved efficiency and you can expect a pair to last several thousand hours instead of a few hundred.

Of course the better the battery quality the longer they will last. I would always use fresh alkaline disposable batteries. The rechargeable ones aren't really a good solution in a bass preamp, as tempting as that might be. Also they should be removed if the instrument is going to go unused for a few weeks or more.

Sometimes people notice their preamps start to EAT batteries, going through them much faster than usual. This is often caused by a faulty jack. Instruments with active preamps often use stereo 3 contact jacks instead of a regular mono jack with the 3rd contact turning the power on and off. If the 3rd contact doesn't break the circuit as it should when the plug is pulled then the preamp stays on all the time and the battery goes dead in a week or three instead of lasting 3 months or 6 months. A clue this is going on is the battery is dead after a brief period of non-use and won't make any sound at all.


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Post subject: Re: Jazz Bass Deluxe Battery Life
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 9:09 pm
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Thanks for the info. Very helpful.

I have yet to notice any ill effect from draining batteries but I change them anyway after a certain time (like a year or something) Just to be sure things are working as good as they should.


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Post subject: Re: Jazz Bass Deluxe Battery Life
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:03 am
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What I'd do is write the date on the batteries the next time you change them and run them till they start to fade. Then you'll have an idea. The number of hours will vary depending on the freshness and quality of the batteries but should be thousands.


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Post subject: Re: Jazz Bass Deluxe Battery Life
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 6:23 am
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Good idea. Thanks


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