Powering Pedals

[Wishbone G]

Im building myself a pedalboard (well, converting an old laptop case to one). Was wondering if anyone can give me any recommendations for powering them.

If i just had a plug for each one, it would take up heaps of space, and I would probably get a lot of buzzing from electrical interference (im not savvy on that subject). Basicly what i need is something that i can plug into the wall, that the rest of my pedals can get power from, taking up minimum space, and with as little interference as neccessary.

I imagine it would be fairly simple, but ive got some pedals that I get the feeling need unique power supplies only available from the manufacturer, such as my Ehx Big Muff, and Dunlop Cry Baby. Any help on the topic would be muchly appreciated.

Incidentally, I need power for about 8 pedals.

[RF Scott]

you can get 'power banks' for such a thing, but the one i've used only powered 6 pedals - and all the connection lead things were the same.

[Chris]

as well as power banks you can also power pedals off of a boss TU-2 tuning pedal, and I think some other boss pedals.

[Doc Ascension]

you can buy "Power extension" cables, that basically allow you to daisy chain more effects pedals from one 9v adapter. LIke so:

[.'.]---------------==[ @ @ ]

Plug                   Pedal

[.'.]-----------+---==[ @ @ ]
                |
                +---==[ @ @ ]
                |
                +---==[ @ @ ]
                |
                +---==[ @ @ ]

I think theres an example of one on www.bossus.com but I ain't sure...

[David]

maplins or the guitar shops in town have adapters for 9v pedals, basically a box you plug into the mains, and it gives you the leads to power five pedals (boss ones, your crybaby, anythign that wants 9vdc using a 2.1mm jack)

most pedals will say they need 'insert manufacturers adapter here' when a standard 9v one will do fine

i am not sure what the muff needs, a lot of the ehx pedals use odd supplies, not sure what the muff uses

you can get some better quality adapters that use isolated outputs for all the different pedals, this stops problems like ground loops via the adapter, the dunlop dc brick and voodoolabs pp2 are two that come to mind as being decent units

for getting some more pedals supplied from one adapter, you can use daisy chains (this is what the tu-2 does) its basically a lead with a few jacks on it, which plugs into the supply, and connects more than one pedal to it

if you are using daisy chains or adapters, its always a good idea to check the current draw of the pedals, most adapters will give you a rating of however many mA (milliamps) the current draw from all your pedals added together (it should tell you the draw in the manuals) cant exceed that rating on the supply, as that will fry it (haveing more mA on the supply than you need is a good idea though)

David

[Compuphonic]

Two things you need to take into account are the voltage and the polarity each pedal requires.

Most BOSS pedals are 9v centre -ve

Try and get a regulated PSU as these will not fluctuate in voltage as the load changes (some of the cheap 9v adapters are a long way from being 9volts..

I vaguely remember the Cry Baby being centre +ve but it was a while ago I last looked..

Its not rocket science to hook up a couple of regulators and smoothing caps to a decent 12v psu to give you 9v and 5v outputs - although things start getting a little more complex if you need AC and DC or dual rail PSUs

Best check out your pedals and report back..

[Zippy]

Regarding your Big Muff, I got a ehx adaptor for my Small Stone cos I got a bit worried when a strange smell was coming from the the battery compartment when i bought an adapter from Maplin. Maybe had nothing to do with the adapter but I asked Bruce Millers, and although it took a while they got an ehx adapter for the Small Stone. If you've got the specifications it will tell you what adapter you need. Cost about 20. It's probably cheaper buying one of those power boxes but I felt most comfortable getting the proper adapter.

[David]

I vaguely remember the Cry Baby being centre +ve but it was a while ago I last looked..

the crybaby i have (normal GCB-95, a couple of years old) uses the 'standard' 9v center -ve supply like boss pedals

David

[Wishbone G]

I figure I can just have two plugs coming out of the pedalboard then for the Muff. Just a tiny inconvenience really

So on that note, can anyone recommend which of these power bank things you reckon I should buy.

Thanks everyone for the help so far.

[NARC]

I'm sure Dunlop do a half-decent one

[Wishbone G]

aye, a particularly expensive one that costs more than a half decent already made pedalboard

[Guest Gasss]

this is what you need to get

You can power over 12 pedals, get adapters for plug tip sockets and 9v battery attachments and it's completely silent.

[Wishbone G]

Ikaruga, does that thing you linked to not also need you to buy a bunch of "daisy chain" cables, or does it come with cables already?

I looked on the website and daisy chaining cables were all about 7 quid each, which would cost a whole bunch to power several effects. Any idea if it comes with cables already?

[Guest Gasss]

It doesn't come with the daisy chains, you have to order them and the barrel to plug tip adapters separately.

I needed to get two daisy chains and a couple of tip adapters. The whole thing came to about 40 but it was really worth it. I've saved at least that much in the year I've had it on batteries and crap adaptors.

[David]

one daisy chain will do for 5 or so pedals

the problem with that is that noise can be transferred via a daisy chain, and the more pedals you use, the more noise you are likely to get...

for decent power supplys, check out the Dunlop DC brick, VooDoo sounds pp2, visualsounds one spot, godlyke powerall, and i read about a new trex supply which looks very decent

i am not sure about the prices of those, or which ones are isolated or daisy chain style supplies

those are ones i know of people using (mostly via the HCFX) so i am not really sure what one is best value or whatever

i use a 30 one i got from RnB (Bruce millers and maplins both sell the same thing) which does me fine, probably not quite as good quality as some of the ones i mentioned, and isnt isolated or anything, but does the job fine for me

oh, i noticed you mentioned you are going to make it form a laptop case, just remember that laptops = solid gold for theives... i know of someone who had a pedalboard in a laptop case which got nicked (they left it in a train station, remembered a minute later and went back for it and it was gone...) just laptop cases standa out more for theives than a standard flight case or bag, though they would make a decent case...

David

[David]

http://www.burkey.nl/engels/flatliner%20engels.htm

this looks very cool, five 'normal' 9vdc outputs, one 12v output (for something like a line6 dl4) plus two outputs with variable voltage, one 3-9v and one 3-12v meaning you could starve a pedal off power to get the effect you can get with some fuzz type pedals and a dieing battery, plus a 1000mA ac out (which i think could run something like a digitech whammy - *i think*)

isolated supplies so no noise will be transferred between pedals, and it also lets you chain a couple of outputs together, to either get 18v output or double the current

i found this a few days ago and it looks rather cool, not sure about the physical size (in reference to a pedalboard) or the price though

edited to make a bit more sense

David