Feeding a 20W Guitar Amp Question

[Anonymous user]

Hi,

Although a bit odd, I was wondering if it's ok to use a back.ups like this one  with a small 20W guitar amp head. The amp is 120V / 2A and the main reason I thought about this is because I get too much noise here and I was looking for something I could use when recording. Has anyone done this before?

Thanks in advance, Ken

[Anonymous user]

I'd recommend against it. The BGE90M, like most other uninterruptible power supplies, has a modified sine wave output when running from its battery. This will likely introduce a lot of noise into your amplifier, and it may cause overheating of the power transformer.

While I don't know what kind of noise is causing the problem, it's possible that you might be dealing with a ground loop problem. The UPS won't help with that.

If you decide that you do need an uninterruptible power supply, most of the APC Smart-UPS products (750VA and up) have a true sine wave output when running from their battery (same as your electrical utility). These can safely operate just about any AC line powered electrical device.

[Anonymous user]

Hi William,

Thanks for the tip. It's not  60 cycle hum noise since I know how to eliminate this kind of noise and  it's not 'normal' guitar amp noise.  I'm aware that here in Brazil noise caused by plugging into electric outlets may vary from region to region even within the same city and since I'm moving to another place I had this idea that maybe some kind of power supply that feeds 120V would help.

I'll keep in mind of what you've told me about: ...  APC Smart-UPS products (750VA and up) have a true sine wave output when running from their battery (same as your electrical utility). These can safely operate just about any AC line powered electrical device. ...

Unfortunately it's not something I can do it right know since we don't have ready available products like this here, so probably in my next travel or even import of of these will be the next thing to do.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous user]

Certainly, I just wanted to be sure that all bases were covered.

I'd be very surprised to find that some APC Smart UPS models weren't offered for sale in Brazil. You might want to visit the APC Brazil web site or ask an authorized dealer to find out for sure.

If you can't find a Smart UPS or similar product, try looking for something like a line conditioner or noise filtering unit instead. These don't have the battery backup capability, but they can still filter out the noise that might be causing this problem.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Sure, thanks again for the extra tips, I'll check them all before going for a more extreme solution 🙂