9v Battery on my Valentine

[riverrick]

I'm a new owner of Valentine. Got in November 2016. My battery went dead in about a month??? Is this normal? Does it drain the battery if the guitar is left plugged in when not in use? Also I couldn't get any power to play the guitar. Once I changed the battery everything worked fine. The pickups aren't active are they? Lots of question here. Hope someone can help.

 

[John C]

I'm a new owner of Valentine. Got in November 2016. My battery went dead in about a month??? Is this normal? Does it drain the battery if the guitar is left plugged in when not in use? Also I couldn't get any power to play the guitar. Once I changed the battery everything worked fine. The pickups aren't active are they? Lots of question here. Hope someone can help.

The pickups are passive, but it has the active boost circuit so the guitar is active. Which means that it will drain the battery whenever it is plugged in, and when you don't have any power the guitar doesn't work. So don't leave it plugged in or you will drain the battery.

Pretty much any EBMM that has the boost circuit works this way - the Valentine; all the Majesty models; the JP 13, 15, 16; and the Luke III all work this way. The Cutlass doesn't have a boost, but it has a buffered output (levels the output so you don't get the typical volume drop on some settings like you do on a Strat) so it works that way as well.

I'm not sure what the battery life on the Valentine is, but on the Cutlass (which has a "buffered" output but not a boost function) it's supposed to last 500 hours. Someone with more experience will chime in.

 

[riverrick]

Thanks for the info John. Very helpful. I guess I won't be leaving it plugged in any more. Thanks again!!!