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Post subject: Emg pickups battery
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 12:10 am
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2018 4:15 am
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Hi I brought another USA e series orphan strat it has the 9 volt battery , how do I tell if the battery is flat , ok put it On your tongue and feel the tingle , ok ,,, but with the player ability how can I tell ,


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Post subject: Re: Emg pickups battery
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 1:29 am
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The best way is to check it with a multimeter - which is a must-have tool anyways, if you do any work on guitar electronics.

Other than that, I'd ditch (I mean of course 'recycle') any dubious battery and replace it with a new one. I'd not waste time looking for troubles with the active components only to find out later it's all because of a dead nine volter...


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Post subject: Re: Emg pickups battery
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 11:26 am
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Professional Musician
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Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 4:50 pm
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Location: Denver, CO, USA
The pickups will tolerate quite a bit of voltage drop without a noticeable change in tone or output.

Then one day you'll notice they're weaker and muddier. Shortly after that they stop working at all until you replace the battery.

When the battery is old and almost ready to be replaced, they can go from "fine" to "weak" to "dead" in the course of a gig.

Battery life can be 1000 to 3000 hours of playing time. (The preamps are on and drawing power whenever a cable is plugged into the jack, so if you leave the guitar on a stand and forget to unplug it, that all counts as "playing time".)

There are different types of 9V batteries. Carbon, alkaline, lithium disposables and a couple of types of rechargeables. They all wear out differently, and even among the same type different brands can wear out differently. (And if you buy a 9V from a dollar store, it may be ancient and almost dead when you buy it.) So it's hard to give a solid answer about how long your battery will last.

Letting the battery die entirely won't damage anything. So if the battery is under the pickguard and you aren't playing a showcase gig where you absolutely need the guitar to keep working, don't stress too much.

9V's are somewhat less likely to leak corrosive goo when they get old. But even if you don't play it enough to wear out the battery, it's probably a good idea to replace it once a year or so.


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Post subject: Re: Emg pickups battery
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 8:09 am
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strayedstrater wrote:
The preamps are on and drawing power whenever a cable is plugged into the jack, so if you leave the guitar on a stand and forget to unplug it, that all counts as "playing time".


Unless your guitar is equipped with a "mode" switch to bypass the onboard preamp for normal passive operation.


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Post subject: Re: Emg pickups battery
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 8:11 am
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Location: Athens, Greece
chromeface wrote:
strayedstrater wrote:
The preamps are on and drawing power whenever a cable is plugged into the jack, so if you leave the guitar on a stand and forget to unplug it, that all counts as "playing time".


Unless your guitar is equipped with a "mode" switch to bypass the onboard preamp for normal passive operation.

Mode switches are much common on basses than guitars.


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