Well, I knew it would happen sooner or later. I got an invitation today to play at a place I have played for about 10 years on a regular basis. The job would be outdoors. That sounds neat but here in Texas the heat is not very kind. The temps now range between 96-101 degrees with more humidity then is good. I turned it down. The AD told me their places have been approved for music as long as it is outdoors. Oh yea, I would have to wear a mask while playing. Just not my thing.

Deane

That's nuts Deane not to mention the gear would melt...
I'd just wait it out..

I would have turned them down, even when I was still relatively young and healthy.

Gary

I quit doing beach gigs last year.... the heat and hassles are just too much. I've played my keyboard outside a few times - hate the screens in direct sunlight. I am trying to avoid "exposure" now too. Just not worth it at present.

Yep, things are slowly opening up. Done a few outdoor senior living gigs, two more on the horizon. Er, we don't get Texas temps up here in the Great White North, though. The sun's just as pesky on the screen, though.

I did a wedding Friday, outdoors. Fortunately, the weather was perfect. I did insist that I be in the shade. The big problem was running a long extension chord to reach the shaded area. I’m always wary about the power reliability when a chord is 25’ long or more. So, all weekend I’ve been thinking about battery powered equipment ala Uncle Dave. However, that would mean I wouldn’t be able to use my Ketron module or keyboard. I was thinking that I could record tracks for playback on an Ipad and use the accordion mic’ed externally with a vocal mic into a battery powered amp. I have another wedding in 2 weeks and one in August. The August wedding will be in a park so, not sure if power is available. Has anyone been successful with battery powered equipment? Any other avenues that I could/should consider?
In keeping with the original question, I should add that the same kind of set up may be necessary for NH gigs in the near future.
Ciao, Jerry

Hi Jerry - I've used a Crate Limo amp (battery) on the beach for 10 years and had great success. I have played well over 100 weddings with backing tracks on an Ipod and a wireless battery mic on my sax. The amp only failed on me once (when I failed to let it get a full charge between gigs)...my bad. This rig has worked out very well for me on the beach and I always had plenty of volume - even in the few cases where I needed to "overpower" inconsiderate folks with boom boxes who thought they could disrupt the wedding... not with my Crate on the job they didn't.

Jerry my main Pa for senior gigs and medium rooms is the Marantz Voice Rover.. Blue Tooth, wireless mic, and effects for the mic inputs, wired and wireless. You can easily run a device via blue tooth or wired to play tracks.. The Marantz also has a built in player with USB or SD card..

Battery powered for 10 hours, or powered with 120 volts..240 watts with 120 v... 160 watts on battery (peak)..EQ on all channels.


I also have a power inverter in my car that connects to the car battery (4500 watts), that runs everything..

Deane I'm just curious... would the residents be outdoors too? Open windows? Or would you be on closed-circuit TV with the sound "piped in" to their rooms?

Yes it is hot here. I'm not a pro, but if I had any expectation of doing outdoor gigs, some kind of tent or canopy to keep the sun off of me and my equipment would be paramount. Maybe a power hook-up to run a strong fan, too!

Here's the way to do it! From a few years ago.

Personally I always disliked outside gigs
and have played many in my career.

1- heat heat and more heat
2- humidity
3- splashed by swimmers in pool
4- spilled drinks on keyboard by close dancers
5- glare on display
6- always hope you have a cover over you
7- rain storm in the middle of the gig have to make a run for it
8- getting to the poolside stage is always a pain in the butt

here is some pics of pool gigs.. I do not miss it at all.

We just stated playing again at an assisted living in the garden and the residents gather around the open window. We have some shade and start at 9AM so it's not too bad. On the weekend we do patio gig around 8pm when the sun goes down.

Hammer, please consider letting me sub for you! I am quite conformable doing Great American Song Book material, classic county, show tunes.... instrumentally or with vocals.

Buongiorno Jerr,

I've been using the Bose S1 Pro (battery powered) and a Flash Fish powered station for my KB, mixer and vocal processor. Works great!

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-FlashFis...1592399703&

Paul, Does the power station have enough juice to power the Bose as well, or is that why you use the S1 battery?
I had a unit like that Flash Fish years ago, but don't remember the power rating. Do you think 200 watts is enough to plug all your sources in at the same time? Curious, as I may want to do some shows on my sisters party boat... out on the lake, anchored a few yards from the dock seating of local restaurants. So much activity in this community revolves around the lake - new territory for me, but I like it.

Well, I know that's not YOUR laptop ... it's an Apple!

correct Dave ....it's the thought that counts..

Hi Dave, I have been using the S1 Pro battery and the Flash Fish power station to power up the KB, mixer and vocal processor.

I have tried the same set up with Flash Fish powering the whole system (including the S1 Pro) and it worked.

I also tried the same set up with my EV 12" speakers but the Flash Fish didn't have enough power. No big deal, I figure I'll be using the portable power station for lower volume stuff like outdoor senior events and restaurant patios. So far I'm very happy with this set up!
Good luck to with the move and the lake performances.

Thanks Paul, I have a strong lead for my first job up here on July 1st. Fingers crossed that it leads to more. Taking baby steps, but always in a forward direction!

Dave, just tested again my 30 plus year old power inverter.

Powered 2 Roland Cubes, Marantz voice rover, Edirol mixer, and G70.

Full power..

My inverter is 4500 watts (surge) and 2000 watts continuous.
18.5 amps.

Connected to my Buick, you can run the car or not and will last for hours..Also has a low battery warning.

You could carry a 12v car battery in a case and connect to the inverter., on the boat (The boat most likely has an inverter on board).

Also used a 50' 12-2 extension cord, and 6 outlet power strip with breaker.

How long is it safe to run on a car battery without the car running before you ruin your battery?

Better inverters have protection built in and as I mentioned, warnings. There are also level meters.

I have used the inverter overnight (at least 8 hours) without affecting the battery,.. Started the engine , no problem.

Good batteries are around 800 cold crank amps.. My example probably less than 5 amps... Do the math

When I used it with my old truck (you remember that), I used a second battery with an isolator for separate charging.. I also had that truck equipped with an altered alternator (81 amps)..

We don't DO math at the lake.

My cousin from up north, who used to do 2 gigs a day..said no one is hiring.

Then today a gig cancelled for heat and wind.

I’m guessing the live gig scene is changing....especially for senior gigs. As he said, maybe time to look at an alternate source of income

I'm on this page right now, it's an interesting thing.

But this picture kind of bugs me:



According to this, this battery makes as much noise as a petrol generator. So, I guess, it's just a typo, right? How careless that would be!

Sorry, I don't don't have a very mathematical mind, so that chart doesn't make sense to me, but I Flash Fish is working great for me. No noise at all.

Yes, I'd say so. I have a feeling these senior places will not want outsiders coming into the facilitates until Covid 19 is eradicated which is going to take awhile. By then the cooperation will be used to not paying entertainers and probably just stick with bingo and watching old movies for entertainment.

There is no noise generated by a battery connected to an inverter. My inverter was 2,500-watts, pure sine-wave and the length of time that you can run it is based upon ampere hours of your battery - not cranking amps - they are two entirely different things.

My boat batteries had a capacity of 650 ampere hours, which is enough to run all my gear on the boat, flat screen TV, 750-watt microwave oven, lights, freshwater pumps, laptop, S-950, Bose L1 Compact, etc... for about 3 days without running the batteries down below the 10-volt load level. Even at that, I could still fire up the engine and recharge the batteries, but it took quite a while with a 50-amp alternator.

As for damaging the battery, not remotely possible unless you run it down to flat dead, which would preclude the function of the inverter once the voltage gets below 10 volts. You would have to drag the battery way below 10-volts before the plates would begin flaking. No worries, Dave.

So, when you select a battery, select it by ampere hour rating - not cranking amps. Cranking amps only tell you the maximum amount of amperage the battery can provide under load, which is only for a very short duration. Ampere hours tell you the numbers of hours you can provide a specific amount of amperes and what is available in the battery capacity.

That's probably a lot more technical information on batteries than most folks would understand, but I know this stuff because I'm very old!

Gary

The Cold Cranking amperage is the Torture test.. An 800 CCA is a powerful battery You can be assured the higher the CCA the better amp performance (CA).

Standard battery is rated at 400 CCA, and amperage is considerably lower..

I just replaced my Buick battery with a 800 CCA, the amperage is 1000A

It was the best battery I could find at the time (I needed it immediately, So Advanced Auto got my money).

Up here in the North East it's all about those Cold Cranking Amps to get a vehicle started after it's been out all night or more in frigid temps ...

Thanks to all for the info. Been doing a lot of thinking, internet searching and researching. Going to have to total the amp requirements of my equipment and budget restrictions ... Ciao, Jerry

The Trojan T-105 batteries I used on my boat produced 225 Ampere Hours @ 20 hours.
this translated to 447 minutes of use at 25 amps draw. I had 4 of these on the boat rigged in a series/parallel configuration to obtain 12-volts. This provided me with 900 ampere hours of power, far more than any car or light truck battery could produce. To this, I paired another, 12-volt, deep cycle, heavy-duty marine battery of 250 ampere hours. With this system I could run my 3,000-watt onboard radar system for 10 to 12 hours with negligible voltage drop in the system.

Deep cycle batteries do not exist for cars and light trucks that I know of - they are primarily for marine, golf cart and big diesel engine, big-rig trucks. You run a deep cycle battery down to nothing without damaging the battery, then recharge it without experiencing plate flaking within the battery. A deep cycle marine battery could start a cold automobile engine and never have a draw-down problem. Most car starters draw from 60 to 100 amps at most. A T-105 battery could turn that starter over for 115 minutes. The best car battery would last about 10 minutes at 100 amps drain.

Hope this helps,

Gary

No jobs since Mid March, and got a few emails from the Senior dance clubs that I have been performing for over 15 years, the facilities are open but for other activities, as you know, Ballroom dancing is not social distancing, in one email, mention that may evaluate the situation in late September or October, and to be honest, I think wont be any ballroom dancing until a vaccine is available. So.....I guess I will be considering early retirement.....

Manuel

I'm sorry to hear that Manuel, and I think your right, senior jobs will not really come back until there is a vaccine, and that's going to take awhile. And by them, who knows what "climate" will be like.

Manuel your not alone,..use this time off to practice and improve your act, try new things, just in case when it's time to return whenever that will be.
good luck.

I just got home ~2 hours ago from an outdoor gig at a place where I'd played many times before. Also had one ~3 weeks ago. Both experiences reminded why I don't like outdoor gigs! I always insist on having a cover over me, and both places did provide that. For the first, we had a "mini heat wave" that week, with temps >90º (hot for NC in late May). I was sweating before playing the first note. Gig went well overall, good response, etc. but I was "wiped" more than usual for hours afterwards.

Today - another place had us (duo) for an outdoor event. There was a "chance of rain" today - which kept fluctuating on the weather apps/channels. We set up, played about 6 songs, then the downpour came - and I mean downpour - the tent/cover kept things mostly dry other than a bit of 'spray', and wet cables for any cables on the ground. I brought everything in my house to dry out just in case (in the A/C low humidity of the house).

I am thinking of not taking any more outdoor gigs!!!

Jim