Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I was asked if I could loan my mini to power a guitar amp for tomorrow. Is that doable? I searched the forums and the specs and can't find what the max continuous power is for the mini... Anybody know that can answer today??? Thanks

I am not tech support, but my guess is that it will not work. Hope someone with more knowledge will chime in, but here's my thoughts to reach that conclusion...
It would not have the power needed for high volume and it would not run for very long, certainly not the length of a wedding.
Battery rating on label is 14.8V, 8.8AH. That's 130 watt-hours.
If the bass amp is 50% efficient, then 130WH can produce 65w of sound for an hour. Or 30w of sound for 2 hours.
Bass amps generally need much more power than that. A friend has a 600 watt amp. Also, they run a relatively high duty cycle consisting of long high power bursts. I have read that the inverter maintains output under heavy load but reduces the output voltage. That will not work for an amp.
If you were just practicing in a living room, then at low volume I think it would be fine.

Thanks android. My friend is a sax player but he wants to play one song on a base gutiar. This will be outside with no power. He has a tube amp and a small solid state amp, I already told him that the tube amp would now work. Thanks for your reply...

It really depends on the wattage of the amp. In a modest venue a 50W to 100W bass amp should work quite well. On a big stage, with a 500W bass amp . . . no way.

There is also the intermittent nature of a bass . . . you're not playing 100% of the time at the amp's full power. VML can deliver 240W for somewhere around a minute, while the loud bass notes last a few seconds. So even with an efficient 250W amp, the average will probably come out under 120W and you'll be OK. Even if you overload the VML, it will just current limit and should keep on playing and just reduce the volume of the loudest notes. without distortion.

I would stay away from vacuum tube amps . . . they are "Class A" and not very efficient, so a 250W tube amp may draw 300-400 watts even when not being played.

Thanks Paul, yea I knew tube amps are power hogs. He is going to use a small 50 watt solid state amp that should be fine for what he's doing...