Active pickups

So I was playing at rehersal before our most important gig the other day. All of a sudden I became aware of signal loss and a clipping sound coming from the PA, got so worried I unplugged my bass and finished early. CHecked all the cables, etc. Thinking it cannot be the battery I had only changed it a few weeks prior, and that I may be up for a major. Took it to the guitar shop, and guess what it was the battery, it seems if you leave the cable plugged in the battery is still being used (huh?)

I didn't know that. Interesting. My bass is the 5 string version of yours I think, so I'll be sure to keep that in mind

btw how often have you changed your batteries since you got your bass?

evry few months or so, I have been play loads recently and left it plugged in, that is what killed the battery, lesson learnt, now I unplug after playing and between sets, last thing I want is it to crap out when playing a gig

Yeah, I haven't changed mine yet and I've had my bass for about half a year. Just realised that it's probably a good idea to keep a spare battery lying around for when my battery craps out . Never had any use for 9v batteries before...

I was at a show last night and one of the band's bass ran out of batteries on their very first song. Had to change to a passive. Not good for their opening song.

Also, thought I'd might add, I think I've heard that pedals are always using juice if they have an in cable in them as well.

Ouch. Now that's unfortunate. Still, at least it wasn't as bad as this

Hahahahaha!!! That's great! If that happened to me I'd probably just stay on the ground and keep playing.

oh dear what a shame ha haha hahahahhahahah

MetalJacob wrote:Also, thought I'd might add, I think I've heard that pedals are always using juice if they have an in cable in them as well.

That's true, unless the pedal is 'True Bypass'. Basically, in true bypass, when the pedal is switched off, the battery connection is detached so an electrical current can't flow. Most Electro Harmonix pedals are true bypass, for example. Boss ones aren't. Just look out for the phrase 'true bypass' in the pedal description; if it's there then you can leave your cables in that pedal without feeling guilty! (Although some pedals aren't actually true bypass despite the description )