Active bass battery question

  • Thread starter Thread starter RAMI
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RAMI

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I have an active bass and I haven't changed the 9 volt battery in years. I also noticed in my last few recordings that my bass doesn't seem to sound as fat as it did in older recordings that I compared it with. I always thought that, if the battery's dying or dead, it would simply fart out or give no signal at all. Is it possible that a weak battery would affect the sound, even if I'm getting a "healthy" signal?

Will changing the battery give me back my low end?
 
wing a new battery in it, and see what happens??
hows the strings holding up? a new set never hurt noth`in...
 
AL P said:
wing a new battery in it, and see what happens??
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Yeah, I'm going to do that either way. I just don't happen to have one here, so I wanted to know if I should get my hopes up about the difference it might make.
hows the strings holding up? a new set never hurt noth`in...
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Yes, that's the other thing I was thinking. I've changed the bass strings way more frequently than the battery, but it still has been a while. Damn bass strings are so expensive. :(

Thanx man. :cool:
 
yeah, it will make a difference.
I was just out jamming and noticed my amp sounded like it was just farting the notes out. Bottom end punch sucked. I thought I was overdiving my speakers.
?
My buddy brought up about the battery, swapped it and it sounded much better. ;)
 
Dogbreath said:
yeah, it will make a difference.
I was just out jamming and noticed my amp sounded like it was just farting the notes out. Bottom end punch sucked. I thought I was overdiving my speakers.
?
My buddy brought up about the battery, swapped it and it sounded much better. ;)
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Cool. It's time to change the battery either way. But what you're describing is what I thought would happen., but it's not really farting out at all. It still sounds like a semi-decent bass, but it doesn't have the low-end it used to have.
 
Fark.... I haven't changed mine in forever.....

*adds 9v batteries to shopping list*

Thanks for the tip off...:D
 
i haven't changed my G-string for a while.

I still sound the same, but I'm getting itchy. :eek:
 
Funny thing about the battery. I used to use this guitar that was battery operated though I didn't know it. It didn't even occur to me that guitars might need them. Anyway, one day I was doing a guitar bit to this song and though I didn't realize it at the time, the battery was on it's last legs but the tone it gave was fantastic. It was really shraggy, like it had smoked 1200 fags and screamed all night at mating foxes. I hadn't managed to complete the bit when it stopped giving out a signal. I thought a wire may be loose {I've no idea why I thought that !} so I opened it up and that was when I discovered the battery ! Well, I went out and bought a new one, put it in and the signal was back. But it sounded so lame in comparison. It was powerful and clear and everything but it wasn't the same as the dying tone. All the settings were exactly the same. But there was a marked difference between one half of the song's guitar and the latter part.
RAMI said:
i haven't changed my G-string for a while.
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I went through a period of a couple of years where I regularly broke only G strings. It was weird, embarrassing and sometimes painful. In the end, a friend felt sorry for me and bought me a 12 string guitar !
 
You probably have your answer by now, but I know for a fact that changing the battery in stomp boxes does effect their sound, so I guess the same could be said for your bass.
 
RAMI said:
Yeah, I'm going to do that either way. I just don't happen to have one here...
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C'mon man, That's what smoke detectors are for.

edit; I bought a pretty nice Washburn bass at a pawn shop once really cheap 'cuz the battery was dead.
 
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I used break the A string on my basses trying to be hard enough to be heard in a band that had no real concept of being responsible for a good sound balance as a unit.
RAMI, don't throw the battery away, it may have some of Grim's magic tone!
I've not used an active bass or guitar so can't offer any real info or experience.
 
I always change the battery every time I change strings. But the answer to your question is, yes, the battery is probably robbing you of the low end. Low end takes more power to push, so that would go first. Some basses fart out, some just get really thin sounding. It depends on the circuit.
 
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