25 Jan 07
I am considering purchasing a 12V to 230V inverter to power my guitar amp outside : -
Inverter : http://tinyurl.com/2mt5vn
Guitar amp : http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/champ_12.html
My query is, will the guitar amp behave normally with this supply, or will the tone be affected.
I ask this because in specifications of the inverter it mentions that the output is 'a modified square wave'.
Thank you
Jim.
25 Jan 07
Originally posted by jimslyp69Did you know that this is a chess site!!??
I am considering purchasing a 12V to 230V inverter to power my guitar amp outside : -
Inverter : http://tinyurl.com/2mt5vn
Guitar amp : http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/champ_12.html
My query is, will the guitar amp behave normally with this supply, or will the tone be affected.
I ask this because in specifications of the inverter it mentions that the output is 'a modified square wave'.
Thank you
Jim.
25 Jan 07
Originally posted by Vladamir no1You're a pantload of help, Vladdy. Unfortunately, I can't offer anything much more helpful. Why don't you take it to a good shop? Preferably one where they sell good vintage guitars. They know all the best tricks (mostly to keep the old stuff from disintegrating!).
Hendrix maaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnn
25 Jan 07
Originally posted by jimslyp69Umm, considering your amp only draws 10-12 W, isn't 300 W a bit much? And how loud is it going to be outside? Not very. Is this part of some crazy stage setup?
I am considering purchasing a 12V to 230V inverter to power my guitar amp outside : -
Inverter : http://tinyurl.com/2mt5vn
Guitar amp : http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/champ_12.html
My query is, will the guitar amp behave normally with this supply, or will the tone be affected.
I ask this because in specifications of the inverter it mentions that the output is 'a modified square wave'.
Thank you
Jim.
25 Jan 07
Originally posted by PBE6Good idea. Problem being that I have the amp, but I don't have the inverter. I want to know if the inverter is any good before I buy it. The shop that sells inverters is a couple of hundred miles away. I suppose I could look for one hat sells them a bit closer.
You're a pantload of help, Vladdy. Unfortunately, I can't offer anything much more helpful. Why don't you take it to a good shop? Preferably one where they sell good vintage guitars. They know all the best tricks (mostly to keep the old stuff from disintegrating!).
Cheers dude.
25 Jan 07
Originally posted by PBE6The power OUTPUT is 12W. The power consumption of the little dude is 65W. Now, the lowest power output inverter that these dudes do is 150W, but I have other loads to drain the supply too. Also, it mentions that it is rated 300W continuous, so I want to err on the side of caution with regard to peaks. If ya know what I mean?
Umm, considering your amp only draws 10-12 W, isn't 300 W a bit much? And how loud is it going to be outside? Not very. Is this part of some crazy stage setup?
🙂
12 Feb 07
Originally posted by jimslyp69I just saw this post, I know it's a bit dated but there is one thing you didn't consider: Those DC to AC inverters don't give you a nice sine wave output, they are firty little duckers, like it's more like a square wave and unlikely to sound very good in your amp unless said amp is specifically designed to run on a square wave. Thing about square waves is this: take a sine wave, start adding odd harmonics and it starts looking more squarish. Now think about filters in amplifiers. Since the amp takes in 110VAC, nice sine wave, it has some filtering but not a huge amount. Now feed that same power supply 110V squarish wave, the higher frequency components are going to get through the power supply because it's designed to filter out 50 or 60 and double, 100 or 120 Hertz and not much higher than that. Think about a capacitor for a moment. If you put 60 Hz through a cap, it has X amount of impedence depending on the capacitance, usually about 1000 or more microfarads in these kind of power supplies. But suppose you put 600 hertz through, it now has one tenth the impedence to that 600 hertz signal as the 60 hertz one. That means that a lot of that 600 hertz signal is going to go straight to the amplifier which depends on getting a pure DC at whatever voltage, high volts for tube units and lower volts, 24 or so for IC amps. Now that DC will not be so DC anymore and it will be contaminated by all that square wave action of the inverter which presumable you want because you want to have portable power. Actually what makes more sense is to have a DC power unit that gives you real DC at the voltage the amplifier circuit needs AFTER the 110 volt AC conversion, say 24 volts or maybe 12 volts. So go after a car battery or two in series if it really needs 24 volts, and the amp will sound great. If you use an inverter, it will sound like an emergency siren or some such and will be useless to amplify a guitar or voice which are millivolt signals and need 50 or 60 db of gain, you would be feeding that to a dirty amp and all you would hear is the squeal of the excess square wave of the inverter, regardless of power rating. Now there are actual inverters that give a much better approximation of a real sine wave and they would make for a quiet amp but they are also a LOT more expensive because you have to essentially make a sine wave generator powered by a dirty pulse circuit but it can be done but it takes a lot more circuitry and therefore will be probably 5 times more expensive for the same power rating. Good luck on your effort though.
The power OUTPUT is 12W. The power consumption of the little dude is 65W. Now, the lowest power output inverter that these dudes do is 150W, but I have other loads to drain the supply too. Also, it mentions that it is rated 300W continuous, so I want to err on the side of caution with regard to peaks. If ya know what I mean?
🙂
12 Feb 07
Originally posted by sonhouseWow. Thanks for all that. I thought that it may have some bearing on the tone. Well to cut a long story short, I actually purchased an inverter the other day from ebay. This one said it had 'a modified square wave' which initially led me to think that the tone may be affected. Just how modified and how much like a sine wave the output is I don't know. I would need an oscillator for that I guess.
I just saw this post, I know it's a bit dated but there is one thing you didn't consider: Those DC to AC inverters don't give you a nice sine wave output, they are firty little duckers, like it's more like a square wave and unlikely to sound very good in your amp unless said amp is specifically designed to run on a square wave. Thing about square waves is t ...[text shortened]... probably 5 times more expensive for the same power rating. Good luck on your effort though.
It is an all tube amp that I am running. The result is that the tone is relatively unaffected, but there is a rather loud buzzing sound when the amp is turned on. However, when any metal on the guitar is touched (effectively earthing it) this subsides a fair bit. It is still noticeable though.
I am now considering purchasing a a noise reduction pedal. 🙁
Hopefully this will be the last thing I have to purchase from Ebay. Don't suppose you know much about Noise suppression do you 🙂
Cheers for your advice
Jim.
12 Feb 07
Originally posted by StarrmanThat's really helpful. It has more than sufficient power for what I am going to be using it for.
I think, considering your amp has about as much power as a a crippled rabbit, you'd be better off spending the money on a more powerful portable amp than an inverter for this one.
12 Feb 07
Originally posted by jimslyp69dont bother, buy a roland cube, you wont regret it
I am considering purchasing a 12V to 230V inverter to power my guitar amp outside : -
Inverter : http://tinyurl.com/2mt5vn
Guitar amp : http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/champ_12.html
My query is, will the guitar amp behave normally with this supply, or will the tone be affected.
I ask this because in specifications of the inverter it mentions that the output is 'a modified square wave'.
Thank you
Jim.
12 Feb 07
Originally posted by jimslyp69Yeah, the best noise suppression is to get a good power supply, its the feedthrough from the supply that causes noise. If you use a total DC power supply, unrealistically for instance, if you use 15 car batteries in series to get the 150 volts or so you need for a tubed amp, you would notice a whole lot less noise. All the noise in an amp is from the power supply in some way or other. That's why battery amps like the pig nose and other more powerful varieties are less noisy. The best thing for portablity is a solid state amp, you can use a 12 or 24 volt battery directly with no ac inbetweens. Problem with tube amps from a portability viewpoint is the high voltages needed for the plates of the tubes. So if you use a solid state amp it will be a lot easier to go portable. I was in NYC, near central park last summer and saw a jazz/swing group playing on the sidewalks and they had the best small battery powered amp I ever heard, forgot what the brand was but for busking, it was perfect, very quiet and the battery lasted all day on one charge, I am guessing about 40 watts or so but it sounded great and of course zero buzz because there was no AC involved, inverted modified square wave or not. "modified" square wave means they use some kind of filtering to *attempt* to make it more sine wavish. It still has many higher harmonics which will punch right through the 110 VAC power supply on a regular wall powered amp.
Wow. Thanks for all that. I thought that it may have some bearing on the tone. Well to cut a long story short, I actually purchased an inverter the other day from ebay. This one said it had 'a modified square wave' which initially led me to think that the tone may be affected. Just how modified and how much like a sine wave the output is I don't know. I w ...[text shortened]... Don't suppose you know much about Noise suppression do you 🙂
Cheers for your advice
Jim.