Powering amps away from 240v mains supply. Anyone used a 12v invertor?

[kwmlondon]

My guitarist has been talking about doing a gig at an open-air event which I like the sound of, but am wondering about how I'd power my bass amp. I've got a class D Markbass LMII and a spare 12v battery but does anyone have any experience of running an amp off an invertor for a couple of hours? I'll try to do the maths when I get home but if anyone's done something like this it'd be really useful to know. Cheers!

[nikon F]

if you get an inverter make sure its a pure sine wave  .and a leisure battery not a normal car battery.

[lozkerr]

2 hours ago, nikon F said:

if you get an inverter make sure its a pure sine wave  .and a leisure battery not a normal car battery.

+1 for both the above. A pure sine-wave inverter will cost a bit more, but you shouldn't get dirty mains voltage going into your amp.

 

And definitely get a domestic battery. Back when I used to mess around ditch-crawling in narrowboats, I learned the difference between domestic and engine-start batteries very early on. A chandler or motorhome supplier should stock the right type.

[Downunderwonder]

Outdoors, hunting and fishing type stores also carry deep cycle batteries. Figure on twice the capacity to avoid fully discharging as they last longer that way.

[Newfoundfreedom]

How will everyone else be powering their equipment? 

 

If it's an organised event surely there will be some sort of generator or power supply?

 

Decent deep cycle batteries aren't cheap. It seems like a lot of outlay for one event. 

[kwmlondon]

55 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

How will everyone else be powering their equipment? 

 

If it's an organised event surely there will be some sort of generator or power supply?

 

Decent deep cycle batteries aren't cheap. It seems like a lot of outlay for one event. 

No, nothing organised just a bit of a play along. I have no idea about inverters but if it means heavy investment in kit I won’t bother. Would rather hire a battery PA system or something. Really helpful comments though. Much appreciated. 

[Newfoundfreedom]

44 minutes ago, kwmlondon said:

No, nothing organised just a bit of a play along. I have no idea about inverters but if it means heavy investment in kit I won’t bother. Would rather hire a battery PA system or something. Really helpful comments though. Much appreciated. 

 

Unfortunately I think you might find it financially unviable unless you can borrow something and make do. ☹️

[kwmlondon]

1 hour ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

Unfortunately I think you might find it financially unviable unless you can borrow something and make do. ☹️

Yep. If we end up doing something outdoors I'll look into hiring a high-capacity 240v battery pack. We could run everything off one of those, no noise or anything. I've got access to petrol generators but they're all pretty noisy so not ideal but would have to do at a pinch. Could just put it out of the way.

Edited June 29, 2023 by kwmlondon

[deepbass5]

you also need to avoid small geny's where frequencies can be out ie not 50 Hz, I would say 5 KVA min. with good instrumentation,  and there could be issues stopping running out of fuel etc, a collapsing electrical field on a generator is bad news for electronics.   Don't think I have ever been happy playing of a generator.

I have always wondered what a center tapped to earth generator does for band gear, you can't test the output polarity etc as it shows as an earth fault on a martindale tester?  anyone on here enlighten me.