I am really confused about batteries and Stratocasters.

Today I bought some new Square batteries and thought I would replace batteries for all of my guitars. I have a Japan Squire and a new Fender American Special HSS. I thought the battery plates were right being the neck and after removing the screws on the Japan Squire, I realized that the plates there are just to help hold the screws for the neck . So I removed the back plate where the springs for the tremolo are and there was no battery there either.??? So now I am thinking that perhaps that guitar doesn't have a battery?

(Sorry I sound like a moron, but I can't find anywhere on the internet where it says which guitars have active pickups and batteries and which ones don't)

I took off the plate on the back of the American Special a few months ago when I had to tighten the springs for the Tremelo when I changed to thicker strings and I don't remember a battery being there either. Are there no batteries on Stratocasters? I thought I read somewhere that I should leave my American Special unplugged to avoid draining the battery.

I also have a Fender Jazz Bass (Mexican over 15 years old) and I am assuming this guitar doesn't have a battery either. Any help on how to know this stuff would be greatly appreciated.

WoW, fifteen year old battery? I bet that looks like a nasty, cruddy mess, better find that one quick!

American Specials shouldn't have batteries in them unless they've been modded with any after market active electronics.

I found the battery in an old Cry Baby Wah pedal (over 15 years) and it actually looks pretty decent.

So the consensus is that Stratocaster guitars don't have batteries unless they have been modded in some way. Correct?

I also have the American Special with SSS configuration. No batteries, just plug in and rock on!

Fender guitars are passive electronics unless they are specifically fitted with an active component. Chances are if you have a fender guitar it has passive electronics unless it's something special or custom that has been modded in some way. That's been my experience.

Actually, Fender makes guitars that need batteries. For example, the Eric Clapton Strat needs a 9 volt battery. Active electronics.

I should have clarified that last bit....as far as I've seen, usually they are passive, active components are usually not standard from my experience. The eric clapton strat isn't your run of the mill strat you find hanging on the music store wall. Chances are if you pick up a strat the electronics will most likely be passive.

There are active pick ups that require batteries and passive pickups that do not. I can tell you that the American Special has passive electronics. it only needs batteries only if it has been modified to active pickups. Learning experience here. Rock on!!!

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Sweet! Thanks for all of your advice. I feel like I have a good handle on most things, but the battery thing was definitely not clear to me (as is obvious by my post). Rock on!

The Eric Clapton Strat has Noiseless pickups, which are passive. The active electronics affect only the mid-boost circuit, which requires a 9V power supply to work properly.

I have to disagree. I have a quite new Eric Clapton "Blackie" with Noiseless pickups and this "pre-amp" system. What happened the other day was, that I got a poor sound from my guitar - actually it can hardly described as a sound... First I thought that my amplifier was broken but when I changed the 9 volt battery in the guitar, the sound was back. I had the mid amp switch on zero on the guitar.

Looks like if you run out of battery, then no sound at all. I don't play gigs, so I don't mind but I think this should be noticed when you buy the guitar.

The batteries drain if you leave the jack plugged in. The jack turns on the preamp.

Make sure to unplug the jack after you've finished playing.

If you're so uncomfortable and worried about battery draining install a mid boost bypass switch.

Yes, thats the point... The preamp is always on when the jack is plugged in, even though you have the preamp level knob on zero.

What will happen if you take the battery out? One would think that "hey I'll play without the preamp feature" but what happens is that you can't play at all. That sucks. Would the mid boost bypass help on this?

Perfectly right!
It's the same with my American Buddy Guy Signature.
Yes, the battery is for the boost, not the pickups (Lace Sensor Gold in my case) but if the battery is drained, the boost will not let any PU signal through.

So: dead battery = dead guitar! No sound. If you're familiar with electronics, you can install a switch to bypass the boost, so that you have at least the passive signal from the PUs when the battery dies but I don't consider that necessary.
With the backplate off it won't take more than 30 seconds to change the battery.

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!