What AC power for pedals?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aaron Cheney
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Aaron Cheney

Aaron Cheney

Favorite Chord: C 6/9
I have a bunch of 9 volt pedals, each with its own power adapter. What a mess!
I'm going to get a single power supply for them all. I've looked at the "One Slot" adapter, and the "Godlyke" adapter, which both seem similar.
But then there's also systems like the Voodoo Labs pedal power thing, which is a lot more expensive. It also has options for 18v power and a "sag" feature that mimics a dying battery, neither of which interest me. So is there any other advantage of a "hardware" power system like that over the "adapter-with-daisy-chains" I mentioned above?

What do you guys use?

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Wish I could help ya Aaron, Back when I was giggin I only used one pedal....DynaComp. I just carried extra batteries. A lot of the gin joints where I played, you were lucky if you had enough outlets to power up the amps and PA without having a bunch of tacky extension chords runnin all over the place.


bd
 
The problem you might have with the "daisy-chain" is that different brands of pedals require different polarity. If your using all the same brand pedals you usually don't have this problem. Also, the daisy chain typically adds more noise.
 
Hmm... I'd only have four pedals, maybe 5. I wonder if the daisy chain noise would be substantially more than the voodoo lab pedal power type thing. What I'm after is to strap my pedals on a board along with the adapter, and then all I have to plug in is one plug for my amp and one for my pedal board.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
In my setup, I have only three effects an Overdirve/ Distortion pedal, a Compression/Sustainer pedal and a Graphic Eq pedal all the same brand. I have them in this nice little box thing that I bought BUT when I try to connect them the "daisy" way it just adds so much noise it just becomes unbearable if all three pedals are ON at the same time, bypassed there's no problem and the combination of any two created noise but not "that much". Anyways, the best way to go is a with the batteries (ALMOST NO NOISE) or a different AC adapter for each pedal (A LITTLE MORE NOISE THAN BATTERIES BUT A LOT CHEAPER). Just my input here, hope it helps,

Carlos
 
So is the advantage of the more expensive power supply system the fact that it supplies power just as if you had a seperate adapter on each AC line, and thus is much quieter?

Seems it would be easier to just ask Voodoo Labs, but you know what they would say....:rolleyes:

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
I don't know about the Voodoo Labs... BUT wouldn't it be cool if the owner of Voodoo Vibe owned the Voodoo Labs pedal power thing??!!! :D

Carlos
 
The thought had crossed my mind....

I know there's a pedal out there, made by Roger Mayer I think, called the Voodoo Vibe. It's like a roto-vibe pedal I think. What would be cool is if they emailed me and offered $100,000 for my domain name.:D

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
I've used the SKB pedal board before and was very happy. It uses that same idea as a daisy chain except there is little or no noise. Plus the SKB are very reasonably priced. It has a 9 volt cord for each pedal that comes through something sorta like a power strip.
 
I have the SKB pedal board and its power supply sucks deep..

When using a E-H BassBalls, a Boss TU-2 tuner and a Boss loopstation thru it it chokes: everytime I switch an effect I hear a big *POP* and the lights dim for a sec...

I'm looking for a better solution too... but not at a stellar price...


Herwig
 
Get a 9v DC adapter with a 500 ma (milliamps) or higher output rating, 750 would probably be more than you will ever need. These wall wart dc power supplies are not regulated, each pedal that is clicked on will lower the voltage a little due to the extra current draw. I measured one of the ones I use, (500 ma) it starts at about 10.5 volt and drops maybe .25 or so for each additional pedal. This is well within range for any 9volt pedal. Get the right connectors from Rad Shack (take the unit(s) with you to get the right ones), solder 'em on to some wires and splice to the output wires, observing polarity, of course. There should be a diagram showing the polarity on the bottom of each pedal. Don't worry that the pedal will say "....9 volts dc 300ma max" These wall wart things are internally fused according to their output rating, the pedal mfr puts that 300ma max in case their pedal takes a dump and acts like a short - a smaller adapter's fuse would blow sooner (maybe) than a larger one, therefore lowering their liablility a little. Trust me, I was an electronic tech for years, this issue is simple. There are a lot of misconceptions and superstition out there about electricity/electronics....if you listen to too much of it, you will go blind.

I have been using a single adapter with multiple pedals for years with no problems or noise issues...The two I use are just Taiwan generics I had laying around, probably left over from an old answering machine or something. I'm not sure where the noise problem mentioned above is coming from, it could be that it is an underpowered adapter, and the voltage drops too low when multiple pedals are on, causing one of the pedals to emit noise. Could also be a ground loop - make sure all yer nuts are tight...on the 1/4 input jacks, and all connectors clean. I would think that multiple adapters would actually be a worse potential problem for noise, since there would be like 4 power supplies emitting noise as opposed to one.
 
I run ten pedals on two separate boards. I got two of the One slot type adapters 'cause when I totaled up the amperage needed, one wasn't enough. All your pedals have a power consumption listed on them or the owners' manual. Just add them up and if it's less than 800ma, the one slot'll do it. Typically an analog pedal will use maybe 20ma while a digital pedal might use 150ma.
And they make adapters for reversing polarity but all of my pedals were the same so I suspect that the majority of pedals use this same polarity.

BTW.....I have no noise problems even with ten pedals.
 
I run 6 pedals.
1 has its own special PSU (12 AC(!), instead of 9V DC)
1 runs on batteries solely (vox wah)
1 has its own psu due to a different plug needed
and 3 are connected with a daisy chain and 1 REGULATED 9V DC 600mA PSU.

Not a big noise issue to me.
The one reason holding me back from getting 1 hardware psu like a VL Pedalpower 2, is that it's most likely not able to power the Tubefactor with 12V AC.

I tried a small electronic PSU (opposed to transformer based) with the same size as a Godlyke or Visual Sound OneSpot... no luck... it added more noise and some irritating 12kHz beep.
 
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