Happy Jack

EDIT: I should point out that through the camera and then through my own PC the PJB Briefcase actually sounds way better than it seemed to me when I was standing next to it. At the time @Silvia Bluejay was standing behind the camera and was surprised that I was so critical of the Briefcase with DB.

What happens if you want to go battery-powered? I've invested a fair bit of time & money (nearly £200) over the last couple of weeks in experimenting, so I thought I'd best start sharing some of what I've learned. WHAT I'VE GOT I've ended up with two possible solutions: 1. PJB Briefcase (the original, not the 'Ultimate' version) powered by a newly-bought Lucas battery at the spec recommended by the PJB manual. This was easily found and cost £19.45 new through eBay. I've had the Briefcase for many years but I've always used it with mains power. 2. Hotone Thunder Bass micro-head (£87 online) powered by a hard-to-find BoxKing PowerBank (coincidentally also £87 online) running into an Embee 1210 cab. I already had the cab so all I bought was the micro-head and power supply. The head runs best off >1Ω and prefers 2Ω but this power pack includes a dedicated 18V supply running at roughly 0.5Ω. This results in slightly less volume, not quite as good tone, and occasional connectivity issues. Also, please note that the Hotone works significantly better when paired with a 4Ω cab (like this one) as opposed to an 8Ω cab. WHAT I'M DOING This is the first of three pairs of videos intended to give you a fair idea of the practicality of running off lightweight batteries ... volume levels, achievable tone quality, and so on. Pairs because each session includes both electric bass and double bass. Mind you, the first pair needed an intro and an outro (because I had to set up the plot and introduce the main characters) so that it's not actually a pair so much as four of a kind. My main aim is to show how these rigs sound in the real world, in my case rehearsing live with my bands in a small private woodland in the Chilterns. That sound can best be gauged if you have a 'vanilla' benchmark, so Silvie and I have started by recording solo videos in the studio. The plan is that the second pair of videos will be shot on Thursday evening in the woods with The Junkyard Dogs (using battery-powered guitar amp + battery-powered cajon), and the third pair will be shot on Sunday morning in the woods with Damo & The Dynamites (using acoustic guitar + acoustic cajon). How much of this plan survives contact with reality is anybody's guess. All sessions are without a vocal PA, so the overall volume level is automatically set at whatever the vocalist feels comfortable singing over. THINGS TO REMEMBER Obviously what I'm doing here is rather different from busking outside a bus garage or in a busy town centre, but these videos will hopefully give you at least some clue as to whether this is an approach that you might want to pursue. Secondly, these videos are not here to demonstrate what a superb bassist I am. I could have spent far longer preparing these videos by playing stuff over and over until I got the perfect take. Instead I've just laid down a quick & dirty take for each recording in order to concentrate on the real subject of the videos. One last thing ... the Briefcase is much heavier than it looks. For busking purposes I very strongly recommend that you use a trolley of some sort. You'll likely mess up your back if you carry it one-handed for any great distance.

Go with the one who smelled the least.

Is that the original NEMS ... the Brian Epstein one?

Emo Shoe Gazer

Damn! You mean I should have read his post before replying? Well that's just not the Basschat way ...

Ah yes ... white, the new black.

I use a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 with a valve-driven pre-amp stage. Reckon that might tick the boxes you describe.

Once it was enough to be a really good bassist. Then you had to be a really good bassist in a particular age range. Now you have to be a really good bassist in a particular age range who stands over 6' tall ... https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/serious-rocknroll-bass-guitarist-needed-inquiries-only-t1245035.html

Aaaaaargh! Not good. On t'other hand, there ain't no law says you can't use a stool on stage ... I used to do it all the time when my back trouble was bad, and drummers do it at every bloody gig. Also, in a bizarre way, your timing is excellent. There's plenty of time to get yourself sorted, back up & running before any gigs re-appear.

Damn! I rather wish I'd seen that sooner ...

And then there's the connectivity issue ...

The literature talks about 5W rather than specifying anything in amps or volts. The mains power supply produces 2A, if that helps at all? I could possibly have made a better job of reading your question ...

Fully charged on arrival. After the first bust-up the display dropped abruptly from four LEDs to two with the third one flashing. I recharged it fully before trying again. No similar issue after the second bust-up. Electricity is weird.

I've been rehearsing with both my bands out in the woods. It's been a lot of fun and a great opportunity to get back up to speed on DB, but some of the stuff we play simply won't work on DB and I need to play electric bass - with the covers band a good example would be Won't Get Fooled Again, with the rockabilly outfit an equally good example would be Summertime Blues. So here's the solution: Battery Pack --> DC-powered micro-head --> small bass cab. And it works, Well, it works but with wrinkles and I don't understand what's going on. Informed advice would be most welcome. First, the building blocks. Battery pack = https://www.woodbrass.com/accessoires-amplis-et-effets-pedalboards-boxking-rechargeable-pedal-power-supply-12800mah-p303438.html Micro-head = https://www.thomann.de/gb/hotone_nano_legacy_thunder_bass.htm Small bass cab = EITHER http://www.gigmaster.biz/gigmaster_soundworks_v4_008.htm OR https://www.db-bass.com/product-page/embee-1210 and that's where the fun starts. I started by using a https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sanyo-eneloop-Pedal-Juice-battery/dp/B007BZAGW4 which I already had knocking about. Great device with little to criticise except that it only has 9V outlets and the Hotone Thunder Bass needs 18V. Luckily anough, another useful device that I had knocking about was a https://www.andertons.co.uk/truetone-voltage-doubler-24v-or-18v-tt-tvd?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=surfaces&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpZT5BRCdARIsAGEX0znb8Zrf0UBw5NvtqH0LfHrsiBfeJ08HwI9rCH3nAbt0tfw828zl7WIaAkbjEALw_wcB The resultant rig was a little clunky to look at, but it certainly worked. The 9V doubled to 18V was enough to power up the micro-head but the sound from the Crazy 8 (which is an 8Ω cab) was distinctly 'farty' and lacking in 'oomph'. I do hope you're keeping up with all this technical jargon. So then we tried swopping out the Crazy 8 and using instead the EmBee 12/10 (which is a 4Ω cab). The sound was cleaner and louder, but still not quite there yet. The 'fartiness' was the sound I associate with too little power in the rig rather than too much, so the jury-rigged 18V DC supply was the obvious suspect. What the hell, in for a penny in for a pound and I ordered the Box King unit. [For the avoidance of doubt, I had of course also tried plugging the rig together but using the mains supply for the Hotone Thunder Bass. The rig sounded great with both the Crazy 8 and the EmBee 12/10. Not as similar to an SVT as the advertising would have you believe, but a really nice-sounding head which is easily enough to deal with rehearsals, perhaps even with winebar gigs.] The Box King is a more modern unit than the Eneloop, size-wise it is designed to fit underneath a Pedaltrain Nano so it doesn't take up valuable real estate on top, best of all it has a dedicated 18v/24v outlet running at 450mA plus a USB charging socket for your phone. It arrived this morning so I plugged it all together. The instant I plugged the Hotone into the Crazy 8 (1/4" jack to Speakon) the Box King died. It didn't melt or catch fire but all the lights went out and the power went away. Hmmmmm. Disconnect everything, switch on, all fine, plug back together. The instant I plugged the Hotone into the Crazy 8 the Box King died. Again I say, hmmmmmmm. Disconnect everything, switch on, all fine, plug back together, but this time I plug the Hotone into the EmBee 12/10. Everything works fine, the sound is much better, the fartiness pretty much gone. And thrice I say, hmmmmmm. Given my appallingly limited understanding of volts, watts and ohms I can just about convince myself that connecting the Hotone to a 4Ω cab will draw current much faster than connecting it to an 8Ω cab, and that the rapid drain could somehow trigger a thermal protection circuit of some sort ... but actually it's the other way around. My battery-operated micro-rig works better with the 4Ω cab than with the 8Ω cab. What am I missing?

Hah! That's exactly where I had this done:

The 'street price' is $1850. Sorry guys, but that's not a grand. You really should know that already. Fail.

Need a back-up band?

That would make sense ... they offer a flatwound string designed specifically for through-body stringing.

The original Fender Precision had through-body stringing, and that was over a decade before they got around to inventing roundwounds. I think there has been at least one through-body Fender in the catalogue for the last 25 years, and there are still plenty of us who prefer the sound (and feel) of flats. It seems unlikely that flats are as fragile as some are suggesting. IMHO

A-a-a-a-a-nd ... both cancelled.

I thought all the Scottish chancers lived in Aberdeen?