Crowdster Owners: Battery Issue (or not?)

[Pietro]

Just curious.

Is it normal that my Crowdster seems to devour batteries compared to my regular acoustic.

In other words, every 3 or 4 months I kill a battery (Duracell ProCell).

Probably average of 5 - 7 hours a week it's plugged in max.

There is nothing else "wrong" with this guitar, so I'm prepared to live with this.

Or maybe i got a bad batch of ProCells?

Thoughts anybody?

[Briggs]

yep. same here. I just chalked it up to leaving it plugged in during sound check through the service but it goes throughout batteries a lot quicker than my guild ever did.

and it starts sounding wonky when the battery starts dying!

[pipedwho]

Same, but I usually leave it plugged in from arrival to departure, and at home while practicig. Feels like about 100 to 150 hours of use before it starts sounding funky. Hard to estimate exactly, because I may occasionally leave a cable plugged in overnight.

[Pietro]

Well, I guess it's not really a "complaint" per se. I mean, it would take 20 or 30 years for the battery usage to come close to the shipping back and forth to Tom if there were an issue.

Sounds like it just eats batteries, not just my experience.

At least it produces ludicrously high quality from those batteries it eats.

[tom]

that surprises me. in all the years we have been making these, this is the first time it has ever come up. i know the fishman stuff is way shorter. baggs claims many more hours than that. the guy i play with seldom changes his battery but i don't hover over him all the time.

our test guitars here never get them changed but they don't get left plugged in for any length of time.
it is a class a circuit so i am told it uses the same amount of juice whether you're playing or not if it's plugged in.

[Pietro]

that surprises me. in all the years we have been making these, this is the first time it has ever come up. i know the fishman stuff is way shorter. baggs claims many more hours than that. the guy i play with seldom changes his battery but i don't hover over him all the time.

our test guitars here never get them changed but they don't get left plugged in for any length of time.
it is a class a circuit so i am told it uses the same amount of juice whether you're playing or not if it's plugged in.

Oh, not complaining. It's worth it, man.

[pipedwho]

I do my fair share of accidental overnight runs, so it's hard to say what the real drain is. I could measure it the next time I change the battery. It's way longer than Takamine with a Cooltube pre (which goes through four double-A batteries in about 12 hours of continuous use). And my wireless kits only get about 10 hours (5 hours my second channel).

So battery management already needs to be under control with my setup. I change out the C+2 battery with every 2nd or 3rd string change anyway (every 4 months or so), so it's never been an issue for me either.

Although it did die once when I accidentally left the wireless cable plugged into it for a few weeks when I wasn't using it.

[Briggs]

Oh, not complaining. It's worth it, man.

^^^Totally worth it. The baggs I-beam in my guild would last a good year under the same circumstances. About 4 months with the crowdy. Cheap price to pay for the most fantastical guitar ever :cool:

[Pietro]

Any guitar that can do this is worth 4 or 5 batteries per year...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht3oukHn-tI

[paleolith54]

Just curious.

Is it normal that my Crowdster seems to devour batteries compared to my regular acoustic.

In other words, every 3 or 4 months I kill a battery (Duracell ProCell).

Probably average of 5 - 7 hours a week it's plugged in max.

There is nothing else "wrong" with this guitar, so I'm prepared to live with this.

Or maybe i got a bad batch of ProCells?

Thoughts anybody?

That seems pretty good to me, actually. My only other one with onboard stuff was an Alvarez that went dead within a few weeks whether it was plugged in or not, strange as that may sound.

[Pietro]

My only other battery-operated instruments are my Ibanez fretless bass and my acoustic, both will last a year or two with a battery. I must just get lucky with those.

Then again, the bass isn't used a lot, and the acoustic isn't used NEARLY as much as the Crowdster.

[guitararmy]

I have a Cobra with the Baggs X-Bridge that uses up the battery even if unplugged. I've resorted to only having a 9V in it when I'm actually playing it...

[tom]

on the x bridge, i believe it helps if you leave to volume down and switch off.

[guitararmy]

Thanks Tom. I'll try that....