Yamaha BBEast - Active - Squeals Horribly when 9V dies - Any ideas?

[hairyhatman]

Hi all

I have a nice Yamaha BBEast Active 5er. Only thing is that when the battery dies it gives no warning and emits an ear piercing squeal through the rig. Happened twice on gigs and stopped the band and punters dead in their tracks. I'm paranoid on gigs now. I always put a fresh battery in there to be sure in but it gets expensive.

I also have a lovely early 80s BB1100s which just switches to passive when the 9V dies which is great. (Why couldn't they just keep that concept going?) Wondering if it might be possible to mod the 5er to do the same thing.

Any ideas on this would be appreciated brothers and sisters.

Merci
Al

I bet Nathan East doesn't have this problem. Wonder what he does!

Edited December 5, 2013 by hairyhatman

[flyfisher]

Sounds like the amp is going into oscillation when the voltage drops. Probably not easy to change without getting down and dirty with a soldering iron. All things are possible, but not necessarily worthwhile when a simple 'fix' like new batteries before each gig will do the job. You could still use the old batteries for practice and rehearsals.

As for Nathan East - maybe he doesn't realise that the bass his tech passes to him even has batteries.

[geoffbyrne]

A friend of mine with a TRB-6 has the same experience when his battery dies - I've heard it - funny too, as it's a completely different pre.

G.

[LeftyJ]

Both my TRB5II's had this too. It took me hours to find the problem the first time it happened! I did a full rehearsal with a slowly increasing squeal and had no idea where it could come from! Switched cables, tried a different amp, a different wall socket, but as I hadn't brought a backup bass, I couldn't switch basses. Back home I changed the battery and all was quiet again. Scared the living crap out of me!

[RhysP]

Both my Zons used to do this, but the batteries lasted for ages in them so it wasn't really a problem.

If the battery is regularly running out I'd be wondering why if it was my bass - do you leave the lead plugged into the bass for long periods when not playing?

[Maude]

Cheapest solution, get a pair of rechargeable batteries. One for 'normal' use and the other to go on charge overnight before a gig.

[Kiwi]

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1386337749' post='2298972']
Cheapest solution, get a pair of rechargeable batteries. One for 'normal' use and the other to go on charge overnight before a gig.
[/quote]
I had the same thing happen when going wireless. A rechargable battery was powering the wireless transmitter and the squealing was due to the noise of the battery dying, in exactly the way flyfisher suggested. So...

[quote name='hairyhatman' timestamp='1386270469' post='2298137']
Any ideas on this would be appreciated brothers and sisters.
[/quote]
...are you using rechargable batteries? If you are, maybe best to replace them with procells.

[stoo]

Battery level indicator LED?

[url="http://www.east-uk.com/index.php/all-products/bli-01.html"]http://www.east-uk.com/index.php/all-products/bli-01.html[/url]

[hairyhatman]

Thanks people. Don't know why but I just don't trust the re-chargeables. Could be wrong but someone told me they don't take the same charge as a Duracell. LED looks like a good option though. I just need to figure out where to position it so I can spot when its dying. (Maybe some ingenious hat arrangement!). I'll let you know how I get on.

Appreciate the advice peeps.
Al

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='hairyhatman' timestamp='1386533128' post='2301191']
Thanks people. Don't know why but I just don't trust the re-chargeables. Could be wrong but someone told me they don't take the same charge as a Duracell. LED looks like a good option though. I just need to figure out where to position it so I can spot when its dying. (Maybe some ingenious hat arrangement!). I'll let you know how I get on.

Appreciate the advice peeps.
Al
[/quote]

You need to check three things when buying rechargeables:

(1) Voltage - you want 9.6V nominal. Some rechargeable PP3s used to run as low as 7.2V nominal.
(2) Capacity in mAh - go for the highest you can find.
(3) Formulation - NiCd cells tend to fade if left unused. Go for NiMH, preferably the hybrid sort that come ready-charged.

[hairyhatman]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1386533565' post='2301202']
You need to check three things when buying rechargeables:

(1) Voltage - you want 9.6V nominal. Some rechargeable PP3s used to run as low as 7.2V nominal.
(2) Capacity in mAh - go for the highest you can find.
(3) Formulation - NiCd cells tend to fade if left unused. Go for NiMH, preferably the hybrid sort that come ready-charged.
[/quote]

Cheers fine fellow of Swindon. Appreciate it. Just looking at my Sony rechargeable. Says capacity is 120mAh. Any idea where that fits in the spectrum? Is that high or can I do better?