Average life of a 9-volt battery?

[kmark]

I know this might be a tough question to answer, but I thought I'd ask anyway...

What's the average life of a 9-volt battery used to power a StingRay? I've been using brand new Duracell batteries, hoping this will power my bass for as long as possible. I've had my 'Ray for a year now, and I'm on the second battery, and I may be looking at a third before too long. I do practice for about 30-60 minutes every day in my room, (what can I say, I love to play bass!) so maybe that's why it seems like I'm going through batteries pretty quickly.

Just curious how long you all are able to make your 9-volt batteries last.

 

[adouglas]

Do you unplug your bass when you're not playing?

Makes a big difference.

 

[Aussie Mark]

Just curious how long you all are able to make your 9-volt batteries last.

I make my batteries last longer by buying multiple EBMM basses, and rotating which basses I play.

 

[Musicman Nut]

I make my batteries last longer by buying multiple EBMM basses, and rotating which basses I play.

See that's the trick, save money on Batteries, buy more Music Man Basses, rotate and never Need a New Battery, good Call Mark.

 

[bovinehost]

Ben was playing one of my basses one night and it just went pffffft and I thought, "What the...." It was the BATTERIES.

This never happens to me!

I thought, "Okay, I'm selling that bass."

 

[Rick Auricchio]

Thirty minutes per day is 180 hours in a year; sixty minutes per day is 360 hours.

It doesn't seem surprising to me that a 9v battery dies after 360 hours of playing.

 

[Stoo]

( realizes it's been almost 9 years since I got my Sterling...and have never changed the battery.)

Er...um... It has been a little over a year since I last changed strings !

(hangs head and sheepishly goes to stand in the corner)

 

[Colin]

I wonder if we could phantom power a bass?

 

[MadMatt]

I wonder if we could phantom power a bass?

That would be a great idea...

My only question would be who is going to step up an convince the whole amp industry they now need to use XLR connectors and supply balanced phantom power. *insert buzzer sound here* I unfortunately dont think it'll work

That may be too much innovation for the music industry (BP's crew excluded, I know they fight hard for innovation in the industry)

 

[mfallmann]

... phantom power shouldn't be an issue withou XLR: use a stereo plug and get your power from the unuesd pole ... same system EBS uses for their amps/effects ...

the only issue might be that there probably is no 18V supply on the market; and what would be the costs for such a supply then?

 

[Jimmyb]

You could very easily rig up a power supply system using a pedal type of supply and a TRS lead, but to be honest, the cost and hassle of doing it would probably not be worth it.

 

[keko]

That would be a great idea...

My only question would be who is going to step up an convince the whole amp industry they now need to use XLR connectors and supply balanced phantom power. *insert buzzer sound here* I unfortunately dont think it'll work

That may be too much innovation for the music industry (BP's crew excluded, I know they fight hard for innovation in the industry)

I'm thinking about that almost for 20+ years...

But, we are talking here about musical instruments!
Usual musicians don't care much about high-tech, they just wanna simple and good sounding instrument for playing it, not kind of expensive tech-toy, or something...

Edit: batt. life for me aprox. 200 hours of use (I don't unplug the cable during the set break)

 

[koogie2k]

Wow....I went through batteries quite a bit. However, I put over 30 hours a week on them. Usually after two weeks I would change them out. It was mainly due to my heavy gig schedule with 3 practices in there for about 4 hours each. Warhammer is my main bass and I did not want to chance a battery outage during a show. It wasn't the bass I was worried about by no means....it was the batteries. I did not trust them after two weeks. My OCD I guess.

 

[danny-79]

Change mine about every 6 months needed or not.

 

[Rano Bass]

I change them every 6 to 8 months, its not a hard job to do.

 

[Bloodfist]

I change mine about every 3 months. I have to be careful though and use the same type of batteries, I don't want to change my tone

 

[Aussie Mark]

I wonder if we could phantom power a bass?

Alembic already do this I believe.

 

[shakinbacon]

You could very easily rig up a power supply system using a pedal type of supply and a TRS lead, but to be honest, the cost and hassle of doing it would probably not be worth it.

imho the only benefit of doing this is using low noise design which invariably uses more current.

The noise levels are pretty low as is, so I doubt many people would appreciate the difference. I like the idea myself, but I do think its too much of a hassle for most people.

 

[kmark]

I have been leaving my bass plugged in when I'm not playing it...I never even thought about that draining the battery. I'll quit doing that and see if it helps.

I can afford to buy new batteries periodically. I can't afford another StingRay...as much as I would like to.

 

[adouglas]

If you unplug the bass when not in use, your battery will last MUCH MUCH longer. Easily twice as long if not a lot more.

A long time ago I got into the habit of unplugging whenever I'm not actually playing, even during breaks. Mostly that's because I stepped on (or maybe tripped over) the cable one time...you can guess what happened.