Discussions ToneWoodAmp Forums Tips and Tricks
Start a new topic

Increasing Battery Life!

We get a lot of questions about short battery life. This is usually fixed by adjusting settings on your ToneWoodAmp!

I personally get around 7 or 8 hours of battery depending on settings and how I play.


Some things to consider:


  • Strumming with a pick is going to drive the TWA a lot harder than fingerpicking.
  • The Voltage reading you see on your TWA is a resting voltage (when not being played)

For example, if you read 3.6 on your batteries, and you start to strum, it may need to draw 3.8V if you drive it hard enough, causing the batteries to shut off due to signal peak.

Low battery indicators will trigger at certain voltages if they stay within a lower threshold for 30 seconds.

  • Is your battery setting on your TWA correct? 
In version 2.50, we have battery options in the Global Settings menu. Make sure your setting matches your battery type for an accurate low battery warning.

You can also adjust the DIM settings which will dim the screen sooner and conserve battery life.


The most common setting to adjust is the Master Gain % from the global settings. A lot of people tend to crank that up way too much expecting it to increase the overall volume of the TWA. That is not the purpose of the Master Gain. It is there to set the incoming signal level TO THE EFFECTS. It will increase the output volume of the TWA, but too much will cause clipping and feedback. I personally set my Master Gain between 5% and 40% depending on the guitar or pickup.


I hope this will help you adjust your TWA to conserve battery life. 


Please feel free to comment and contribute to this article with recommendations on how YOU save your batteries!

Duracell quantum batteries have been the best batteries by FAR.. They last me 5 times longer than others, don't know if it's cause it's not alkaline but man buy these instead!! For sure! Cheers
7E77BC20-098C-4A94-9C0A-8D6E4DA84D24-25758-00002ADC70A692F8.png 7E77BC20-098C-4A94-9C0A-8D6E4DA84D24-25758-00002ADC70A692F8.png
78.1 KB

I just ordered some to try out! Thanks for the recommendation. 

This will sound stupid and intuitive, but I convinces a friend to buy a TWA and he constantly complained that his pickup battery would drain "overnight" when he used the unit. Leaving the 1/4" plugged in will, on some pickups, drain it's battery. I told him to unplug the 1/4 from the endpin EVERY time you put the guitar down, print and read his manual, and buy rechargeable batteries and a good quality slow charger, and that fixed his issue. It's almost like leaving your engine running overnight and complaining about your mileage, but still.....

I hear this daily.

We do out best to make sure people know to unplug the patch cable from the preamp, but not everybody reads the instructions. :)

Telling ya! Duracell reds quantum no alkaline work for me way better then anything else I've tested. Like 5 times better! Haven't tried rechargeables yet! I go to Costco for $17.50 the sell a huge pk of (Red Duracell quantums) like 30-50 AA batteries ... No brain'a kehd. That should last a long ass time for $17.
Cool Jamie I'll give them a go! I live in Mesa AZ, so there are Costco's on every corner lol. I'll let you know how it goes! J.B.
Tell ya the truth Dave, it's kinda hard to believe ppl don't know by intuition that leaving the jack plugged in will drain the batt. Lol

It just depends on the guitar, I guess. 

I've got a few guitars with K&K pickups and external preamps, so I don't have to worry about unplugging when I'm through since I don't use the preamps with TWA.

My Taylor with the ES-2 is another story... About twice a year I forget to unplug it myself. lol.

Luckily, I've switched entirely to rechargeable batteries, so It's never an issue. 


Dave

TWA

I find the more guitars you've got the less often you have to change strings. Luckily on two of mine the battery is accessible on the side of the lower bout. But my LaPlant has an undersaddle pickup and in order to not to sacrifice sound, the lesser of the evils is done and the 9V velcro's to the inside of the guitar on the side of the upper bout - only accessible thru the soundhole. This means a screwup drains a $6 battery overnight and ya gotta loosen strings. I usually just unwind them to the point I can pull the pins, leaving the strings in the tuners - I'm sure this is elementary to you, but I always find this permanently affects the string's vibration as well as overall life. Dunno a way around that in the event of a forgotten unplug short of rigging an external battery....

When I'm working with those, I use a bendable claw tool to pull out the battery bag and loosen the E and A strings a bit to remove it. Those little claws are a lifesaver and can reach just about anywhere in the guitar saving you a lot of time. 

Awe, yeah. Cool idea!

...let,s not forget that we set the guitar initially at 50% volume. Try upping that to 75% and lowering the master gain (maybe 10% to 30% range). If things still sound good, you'll find battery life increases.

Dave,

just a question regarding this : 

Dave wrote: "My Taylor with the ES-2 is another story... About twice a year I forget to unplug it myself. lol.

Luckily, I've switched entirely to rechargeable batteries, so It's never an issue. "


You're talking about a 9V block battery here right? Can you tell me what you've found that fits? Thanks


Tony

Funny story about those 9V... They fit great, but they were some no-label Chinese batteries I purchased from eBay that no longer work

They held up fine the first two charges, but now all 4 of them will not hold a charge for more than half an hour. They're junk at this point.

Eneloops are still going strong, however! 

I bought an Energizer rechargeable that is too large, so, for now, I'm back to using Coppertops. 


Dave


Login or Signup to post a comment