Performance notes:
power checking; stage management and equipment checklist for rock musicians; Tool Box; Brief Article

By Rotondi, James
Guitar Player
February, 1998

Copyright 1998 Miller Freeman Publications

They're small, cheap, and they don't last long, but batteries are among the things a seasoned road musician learns to respect most. "Don't let your sound die over $2.39," advises Warner Hodges of Jason & The Scorchers. Like many pros, Hodges brings a voltmeter on the road. A voltmeter can be used to test speaker impedance, find shorts in cables, and check "continuity" in an electrical circuit, but it's also a boon for battery checkers.

"The voltmeter has saved my butt many times by telling me that a battery is ready for the garbage," says Hodges. "Every night before a gig, I check the power coming out of the wall and every battery I've got. If the batteries fall below a certain voltage, I replace them."

Batteries for wireless units and tuners should always put out the full nine volts. In some cases, however, decreased voltage in a stompbox battery can actually have a pleasing effect on the tone--Duane Allman reportedly preferred weak batteries in his Fuzz Face--but any voltage lower than 5.5 spells dead-as-a-doornail.

In addition, American wall sockets are designed to produce 117 to 120 volts, but they can vary anywhere from 100 to 130, which can have a marked effect on the way your amp sounds. "The worst thing is playing in some shithole that doesn't have enough power to run itself, much less the band," says Hodges. "We gigged at a club in Alabama where the whole damn place was run off one outlet--the beer coolers, everything. Before the end of the night, the monitors were on fire and people were dumping beers on them."

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