Replacement 9V Battery

[nicholaspaul]

I'm installing a preamp in a strat copy and am running out of room! It runs off a 9V battery but it wont fit in the cavity.
Anyone know of a replacement, smaller 9V battery? Can I use smaller ones wired in series?

[selectortone]

I have a Fender Strat with a preamp and the battery is located in the tremolo spring cavity. Theres a small extra rout under there for it but the standard cover still fits. Makes changing batteries easier too.

[loudthud]

There is a 12V battery that is the same size as a type N, about half the length of a AAA. It's used in some wireless door chimes. Expensive and hard to find.

[brymelvin]

I don't know of a replacement battery...but I use Seymour Duncan 18v actives that take two of them! What I did is cut a cavity where it's under the pickguard and adjacent to the tremcover in back. I added another plate of pickguard material on the back of the guitar. For one battery you wouldn't need to route all the way through ...just a cavity under the pickguard. Look for a pic of a replacement Clapton signature strat on Ebay you can see where the cavity goes. You would have to lift the pickguard to change batteries (just like the EC model) Probably why it uses an 8 screw vintage pickguard

[bkahuna]

What about 3 lithium coin cells stacked together?

[David Schwab]

How about one of these?

STEWMAC.COM : Battery Box

[jrfrond]

How about one of these?

STEWMAC.COM : Battery Box

Really the best bet. I've used these and purchased the template a long time ago. If you are going active, batteries need to be swappable relatively quickly.

BTW- it's really NOT all about voltage. It's about current delivery, and the smaller the battery, the less current it will deliver, and quit in a hurry. Hence, that 12V car-remote battery is O-U-T of the question. Anyone who has tried to operate a Line 6 Variax off of a 9V battery (despite the 9V clip installed) will realize this. I only use a 9V to troubleshoot these, but you'll get maybe an hour out of them tops.

[David Schwab]

I wish they had those battery boxes out in the 70's when I would have to loosen the strings, and remove all the pickguard screws on my Rick to get to the battery for the Hi-A preamp I installed!

If you are going to rout to fit a battery, you might as well make it easy to change!

[Mark Hammer]

There is a 12V battery that is the same size as a type N, about half the length of a AAA. It's used in some wireless door chimes. Expensive and hard to find.

Actually they sell them at the dollar stores around where I live. They aren't exactly the best quality 12v batteries, but then the majority of single FET on-board preamps don't draw all that much current, so you should be able to get reasonable life out of them.

The other thing that some folks do, although it can be a pain in the ass is use phantom powering via a stereo cable and jack. So, the power sits in a floor box, or perhaps a box mounted on the strap, and a stereo cable connects from the box, housing the battery, to the guitar. That way, once the preamp is installed, you never have to get in there to change batteries ever again. Exchaning one PITA for another, though, I guess.

[brymelvin]

yes those stewmac boxes are great: However on the Kramer strat I have the route for it would have come closer to the edge of the guitar than I felt safe...so I didn't use one and forgot about them...as I said mine uses TWO nine volts... would have brought the route all the way to the roundover route at the edge.

[jrfrond]

Actually they sell them at the dollar stores around where I live. They aren't exactly the best quality 12v batteries, but then the majority of single FET on-board preamps don't draw all that much current, so you should be able to get reasonable life out of them.

Sure, but we've come a long way since the Alembic Stratoblaster, and most preamps are now using something like a TL074, NJM4580, NE5532 or something similar, usually in an SMD package. These eat way more current than a small battery can handle. There ARE low-power devices available, but higher voltage and current just SOUNDS a whole lot better, hence the ±9V supply used by more than a few makers of preamps. Alembic, if you recall, offers the power supply with the 5p XLR.

[J M Fahey]

For onboard electronics I use TL062/064 a lot, with good results and low current consumption. You hear them darken somewhat if used at 100x gain (as in a distortion pedal), but up to 20X they perform well.
NE5532 are great but also power hogs.

[nicholaspaul]

Thanks for all the tips (Just got back from vacation...)
I think I'll try the doorchime battery - Duracell make one, I've seen them at drugstores. Is the voltage not the issue then, as long as it's higher that required?

If I were to use the coin cells linked together, would it be enough just to make a chassis that wires them in series?

Plan B is to dust off my router and get the StewMac box.

[J M Fahey]

Hi nicholas paul.
Funny thing is, we have been answering you in good faith, but don't know what you're actually putting in your Strat.
You can post the schematic (even a rough sketch) and probably we can guess better what it will actually "eat".

[nicholaspaul]

It's a Musitech Midbooster, built by John McIntyre in Canada. I could send a photo but it may not show much as the whole thing is coated in green paint or plastic. The whole board is about 2" x 3/4" if that indicates anything.