Is this RISKY? axe 2 powered by a car battery/power inverter

wogs858

wogs858

Inspired
I have some gigs at the beach coming up. I have a little convertor that changes 12vdc to 115ac. It works but I'm a bit hesitant to hook up my axe to it. I'm just wondering if any of you electrically minded folk can tell me if I have anything to worry about.
 
Buy a really good powered battery backup that you would use for a computer system and plug your axe into that, so in case your battery dies on your car you have enough battery to power down gracefully. Otherwise don't risk it.
 
there was a cool you tube video of guys jammin their axe-fx plugged into their car while driving down the highway. so it has been done.......
 
scottburrow said:
Buy a really good powered battery backup that you would use for a computer system and plug your axe into that, so in case your battery dies on your car you have enough battery to power down gracefully. Otherwise don't risk it.
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Power down gracefully? When you turn the switch on the Axe off, you simply interrupt the power to it. And it stops. When you turn the switch on, power is applied and it starts. There is no shutdown process, graceful or no.
 
quonsar said:
Power down gracefully? When you turn the switch on the Axe off, you simply interrupt the power to it. And it stops. When you turn the switch on, power is applied and it starts. There is no shutdown process, graceful or no.
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Good point. I'm trying to pickup a furman power conditioner that has some kind of voltage gauge on the front.....not sure if that will help me keep an eye on things
 
quonsar said:
Power down gracefully? When you turn the switch on the Axe off, you simply interrupt the power to it. And it stops. When you turn the switch on, power is applied and it starts. There is no shutdown process, graceful or no.
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thats true quonsar. I figure it's better protection then the alternative, no protection.
 
Actually it would be really clean way to power the Axe, You just need to make sure you have enough DC amp hours to play for the duration. A couple of deep cycle batteries would do the job. The real question is what are you going to use for amplification and how much power does it consume providing your using the DC to power that as well.
 
Sixstring said:
Actually it would be really clean way to power the Axe, You just need to make sure you have enough DC amp hours to play for the duration. A couple of deep cycle batteries would do the job. The real question is what are you going to use for amplification and how much power does it consume providing your using the DC to power that as well.
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Good question. I've already played before using a little battery powered amp.It was ok but I really missed the axe and my scenes. They have a small PA system( battery powered as well). I won't use an amp, just straight to the board. The drummer just uses a cajon so It's not that loud and since Ill be near the PA speaker is not needed. Deep cycle marine batteries is a great idea!Thanks Sixstring! I can't see the axe using that much power. I thing I'll do a little test and see how long it lasts.

Thank
 
Inverters give you square-wave AC. It should work fine for this device, computers in general are very tolerant of "power quality" (as long as the voltage is in the right neighborhood, you're in good shapte).
 
power consumption on the axe is very small. manual says it's less than 40W. you can probably plug in and jam all night without worry.

I'd check how much the power amp you're planning on using will use - that's what will typically be the large power hog.

I won't worry too much about the axe - a 500W inverter should more than cover it - hell a 200W would more than do it, but from experience, I'd advise to give yourself some headroom to play with, esp for starting transients.

I'd also advise for looking for a true sine inverter - the waveform is less choppy
 
I know for a fact that your typical cheapo power inverter induces so much line noise into an amplifier that it renders them unusable for serious musical performances... somehow the amp's power supply filtering cannot filter out the annoying sound of the inverter. Even my modelers that are powered by wall warts aren't immune to the problem...

If someone finds a solution that is truly quiet, please share it here - I would be very interested!
 
AdmiralB is right. Most cheap inverters create a kind of square wave AC which is OK for some applications but full of nasty harmonics. A true sine wave inverter would minimize this, quite a few on the net to choose from.
 
POB said:
AdmiralB is right. Most cheap inverters create a kind of square wave AC which is OK for some applications but full of nasty harmonics. A true sine wave inverter would minimize this, quite a few on the net to choose from.
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I had already purchased a modified sine wave inverter before I read your post.(AdmiralB said it would work fine) I tried it out and I have to say that it sounds great.....just like I'm pluged in the wall.IN FACT I THINK THE AXE SOUNDS BEST OUT OF THE BACK OF A TRUCK:lol
I'm running FRFR and Ill be running FOH as well. So Far I have two thumbs up.
 
You guys are failing to see that crappy power is not going to make the axe sound bad... If the circuit has power, it's going to run. It's a computer, not a tube amp. The power in my house is terrible, makes amps hum like crazy but the Axe is unaffected as it is not subject to the regular flaws of noisy power being amplified through the signal.
 
jdolll said:
You guys are failing to see that crappy power is not going to make the axe sound bad... If the circuit has power, it's going to run. It's a computer, not a tube amp. The power in my house is terrible, makes amps hum like crazy but the Axe is unaffected as it is not subject to the regular flaws of noisy power being amplified through the signal.
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That may be true, but to use the AFX in a live situation you also need clean power for your amp system, otherwise it's still very noisy, no?
 
It's always a good rule of thumb - clean power's desirable when you can get it.

But if you're using SS amps with switching power supplies, it's probably not going to make any difference.
 
Radley said:
That may be true, but to use the AFX in a live situation you also need clean power for your amp system, otherwise it's still very noisy, no?
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As AdmiralB said most modern power amps won't have this problem. If you're just going direct FOH, you'll get all the noise the house system has.
 
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