Cutlass low battery indicator.

[DougTundra]

Hello everybody,brand new to this forum.I just bought a used Cutlass and was wondering if there's any way to tell if the battery is getting low?Thanks.

 

[DrKev]

Welcome to the forum family, Doug!

When the battery gets low you will notice a little distortion on the output signal. It's like somebody mixed a little bit of overdrive behind your clean signal. The good news is that the battery lasts a really long time. If I remember right, the voltage is will have dropped to below 5.5 volts before the distortion is noticeable.

 

[Fusionman]

The battery will not last if you leave it plugged in all the time as that’s how it is activated. If it’s a used gtr install a fresh 9v.

 

[elvisdog]

also, congratulations. best s-style guitar I've ever played. prepare the honeymoon suite!

 

[DrKev]

And as if by magic, my battery gave up the ghost last night. I think I put it in last June. That time is shared with the Silhouette Special so it's not quite the seven months it seems, but I also frequently leave it plugged in over night. The average home player should gets six months with no problems, in my humble opinion.

So, low battery symptoms are: no volume drop, a little distortion that you'll notice on pristine clean sounds, but when I stepped on my distortion pedal, I got radio buried in the background noise, which was my cue to change!

Battery voltage measured 3.4V, which is pretty incredible. Most consumer electronics will give up the ghost long before that.