Running amp off a car battery?

Chris_J

Has anyone ever ran an amp off a car/leisure battery before?

I'm playing an outside 'acoustic' gig in a teepee in a few weeks and it occurred to me there might not be a socket nearby to run my amp.

A battery plus an inverter should do the job... Right!?

57Deluxe

Seen buskers in Guildford do it many times... You will need a trundle trolley though!

Chris_J

Cool. Hopefully won't be required but just incase you know!

ecc83

Chris_J said:

Has anyone ever ran an amp off a car/leisure battery before?

I'm playing an outside 'acoustic' gig in a teepee in a few weeks and it occurred to me there might not be a socket nearby to run my amp.

A battery plus an inverter should do the job... Right!

ecc83

Grr, lappy was dying... Get yourself to Maplin PDQ and you might pickup a cheap inverter. I have a 600W jobbie and that ran a 32" Sony FSTV and a freeview recorder no sweat.

Car batteries? Find a "Rock Bottom" type shop. There is one a few miles from me that does CBs at way under Halfords monies. Ok, maybe won't start a 3litr diesel Lanny at -4 but the drain you will put on it is piss all compared to a car. Should last years. OR! if you can find a friendly car breakers you could pickup a really good battery for 20quid or so.

Do NOT forget, 'inverter' derived mains is JUST as lethal as the home sockets deliver!

Dave.

uncledick

Be careful with this plan.  Although the actual drain is minimal, remember that the inverter will be pretty inefficient.  Cheap car batteries do not like this kind of load and you'd be lucky to get an hour's use.  A decent leisure battery would be a much better bet as they cope with being deep cycled.  If you 'must' go down the s/h route, I'd go for something commercial.

Chris_J

Thanks for the advice all!

Phil_aka_Pip

57Deluxe said:

Seen buskers in Guildford do it many times... You will need a trundle trolley though!

There's a guy who IIRC plays a black Strat, and sells CDs of his stuff, generally covers but the backing tracks are all his own work as well as what he plays live. He does a really mean version of Comfortably Numb. He is probably one of them that you mention. Have you heard him?

gubble

Phil_aka_Pip said:

57Deluxe said:

Seen buskers in Guildford do it many times... You will need a trundle trolley though!

There's a guy who IIRC plays a black Strat, and sells CDs of his stuff, generally covers but the backing tracks are all his own work as well as what he plays live. He does a really mean version of Comfortably Numb. He is probably one of them that you mention. Have you heard him?

I've seen that guy in Newbury a few times. He's rather good

DJH83004

Can  I just say, please make sure it is a true sinewave invertor, as some are not so, and approximate more to a square wave which is OK for TVs etc. which generally use switch mode power supplies, but not for amps i'm afraid.

ecc83

DJH83004 said:

Can  I just say, please make sure it is a true sinewave invertor, as some are not so, and approximate more to a square wave which is OK for TVs etc. which generally use switch mode power supplies, but not for amps i'm afraid.

I think you will be hard pressed to find other than "modified sine" inverters at any reasonable power/price point?

Probably have to suck and see, rectifier circuits do not pull a sine current anyway.

Dave.