WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

[Empty Pockets]

So earlier today I did some low-volume jamming in my room...no excess noises, nothing out of the unusual. Solid tone with all guitars, the normal cables and the pedals I use.

Tonight I wanted to jam a little bit more before going to bed. I had a strange urge to play with the Boss DS-1 i had a forum bro mod a few years ago and see if i could find a use for it.

I disconnected my normal pedal board and plugged my 1-Spot power supply straight into the DS-1 since the 9-volt battery was drained and dead. I plugged in the cables and stepped on the pedal to make sure the light turned on. Looks good, I turned it off and hit the standby switch so i could dial in my clean tone before hittin the dirt.

My amp, with the volume knob on about 1 and a half, spits out a deafening and violent crackling shriek for a few seconds...then silence.

No signal passing through the pedal...tried both cables without the pedal and they work. Guitar works. Amp is sounding fine but crackles and pops loudly every time i touch it. The light on my DS-1 doesn't turn on anymore.

It's 1:12 in the morning and i don't have the energy to troubleshoot. I just wana see if any of you guys know what could've caused that noise. I think i might've just heard the death scream of a modded DS-1...

[some_dude]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

Maybe take the DS-1 to a priest tomorrow, so that he can burn it safely.

Jesus loves you.

[J Moose]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

More likely you heard the death scream of a one-spot...

Probably a good thing you only had one worthless pedal connected to it!!!

[Agileguy_101]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

Jesus loves you.

I think he really loves you, if you know what I'm sayin'.

[Empty Pockets]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

interesting. i'll test the 1-spot out and see what Jesus's real intentions are today

[GuitarStv]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

More likely you heard the death scream of a one-spot...

Probably a good thing you only had one worthless pedal connected to it!!!

Moose, have you had problems with 1-spots? I'm just curious because I've been using the same 1-spot for about six years now, powering between 8 - 10 pedals (probably between 400 - 500 mA) and it's working great. I know that some people have issues with hum and line noise with 1-spots, but you're the only one that I've heard consistently complain about them dying. Am I just really lucky, or are you doing something weird with them that causes the failures?

[GoldenVulture]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

Amp is sounding fine but crackles and pops loudly every time i touch it

This?

Maybe a valve has gone askew. A lazy Filament hitting your Cathode can have some awfull results, and cause awful noises and fireworks in the valve.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

Maybe take the DS-1 to a priest tomorrow, so that he can burn it safely.

Jesus loves you.

[J Moose]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

Moose, have you had problems with 1-spots? I'm just curious because I've been using the same 1-spot for about six years now, powering between 8 - 10 pedals (probably between 400 - 500 mA) and it's working great. I know that some people have issues with hum and line noise with 1-spots, but you're the only one that I've heard consistently complain about them dying. Am I just really lucky, or are you doing something weird with them that causes the failures?

I had a dunlop brick blow up last year in a similar fashion... smoked a bunch of pedals when it went south. Granted, it was a Brick and not a one-spot, but its still a daisy chain type power supply.

After that experience, I dunno man... I just don't really trust the daisy chains.

Why would anyone drop a ton of cash on pedals... buy a $250 dirt box and then use the cheapest supply possible? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Even if its $100 on average for a stomp and you've got a dozen of 'em that's $1200.

To me that's like buying a really nice guitar and carrying it around wrapped up in an old sheet or $20 gig bag rather then a hard case.

Granted that the cause of my particular failure was something a little outside of the norm but it was still VERY eye-opening, and wallet damaging when one pedal failed and basically wiped out my entire board because there's little protection there, and no protection at all with the one-spots.

[DankStar]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

I picked up a boss HM pedal recently. works great with a battery, but the power jack is screwy. I'm guessing it's that.

[GuitarStv]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

I had a dunlop brick blow up last year in a similar fashion... smoked a bunch of pedals when it went south. Granted, it was a Brick and not a one-spot, but its still a daisy chain type power supply.

After that experience, I dunno man... I just don't really trust the daisy chains.

Why would anyone drop a ton of cash on pedals... buy a $250 dirt box and then use the cheapest supply possible? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Even if its $100 on average for a stomp and you've got a dozen of 'em that's $1200.

To me that's like buying a really nice guitar and carrying it around wrapped up in an old sheet or $20 gig bag rather then a hard case.

Granted that the cause of my particular failure was something a little outside of the norm but it was still VERY eye-opening, and wallet damaging when one pedal failed and basically wiped out my entire board because there's little protection there, and no protection at all with the one-spots.

Most switched mode PSUs are designed to be fail-safe in case of damage to one of the regulating capacitors to prevent a current spike at the output . . . based on the fact that I can't find any occurrences on google of 1-spots frying pedals, I'd figure that this is the case with them. If you have a decent surge protector between the wall and your pedal board I'd figure that you're pretty safe. What the heck were you doing that caused your supply to blow and take pedals with it?

[ratherdashing]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

I had a dunlop brick blow up last year in a similar fashion... smoked a bunch of pedals when it went south. Granted, it was a Brick and not a one-spot, but its still a daisy chain type power supply.

After that experience, I dunno man... I just don't really trust the daisy chains.

Why would anyone drop a ton of cash on pedals... buy a $250 dirt box and then use the cheapest supply possible? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Even if its $100 on average for a stomp and you've got a dozen of 'em that's $1200.

To me that's like buying a really nice guitar and carrying it around wrapped up in an old sheet or $20 gig bag rather then a hard case.

Granted that the cause of my particular failure was something a little outside of the norm but it was still VERY eye-opening, and wallet damaging when one pedal failed and basically wiped out my entire board because there's little protection there, and no protection at all with the one-spots.

Equating a problem you had with a Dunlop Brick to all daisy chain power supplies is a bit of a stretch IMO. The design of the One Spot is about as different as you could possibly get while still being a power supply.

What your pedals are worth is irrelevant. Your power supply is going to perform just as well with a Klon as it will with a Behringer. The One Spot meets (if not exceeds) the needs of 99% of pedal boards. Buying an isolated power supply when you don't really need one isn't a smart investment; it's a waste of money. To use your analogy, it's like buying an Anvil flight case for a guitar that never leaves the house.

[J Moose]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

(sigh)

What someone spent on their pedals IS indeed irrelevant until all the magic smoke is let out and you've got $1000 of paperweights on your hands.

Honestly, I've posted about the specifics of the mishap many many times before... both here and on TGP. Go look it up. Not going to go through it again, but folks from both Dunlop and the company who built the faulty pedal (it was a prototype) were involved in sorting it out so thankfully my damages were covered.

Frankly I'm gonna stand by my opinion here... a daisy chain is a daisy chain.

If I had isolated grounds on my supply, only the one pedal would've flamed.

That was pretty well confirmed by all involved parties.

Furthermore, the daisy chain supplies DO NOT work for 99% of pedalboards.

If that was the case, then 99% of my four dozen pedals would be totally silent and work great with any sort of chained supply... be it a brick, one spot, Gator, or even a regular boss with a multi-plug.

But that's not the case...

Planet Waves tuner makes noise with a chain.

EH memory man Hazari makes noise with a chain.

Boss digital dimension chorus makes noise in a chain.

Synth pedal doesn't work with a chain.

Some fuzz pedals won't work at all off a chain... positive vs. neg center.

Do I need to go through my toy box one by one?

Not sure I need to go on here...

99%... yeahhhh... right.

Whatever.

[GuitarStv]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

(sigh)

What someone spent on their pedals IS indeed irrelevant until all the magic smoke is let out and you've got $1000 of paperweights on your hands.

Honestly, I've posted about the specifics of the mishap many many times before... both here and on TGP. Go look it up. Not going to go through it again, but folks from both Dunlop and the company who built the faulty pedal (it was a prototype) were involved in sorting it out so thankfully my damages were covered.

Frankly I'm gonna stand by my opinion here... a daisy chain is a daisy chain.

If I had isolated grounds on my supply, only the one pedal would've flamed.

That was pretty well confirmed by all involved parties.

Furthermore, the daisy chain supplies DO NOT work for 99% of pedalboards.

If that was the case, then 99% of my four dozen pedals would be totally silent and work great with any sort of chained supply... be it a brick, one spot, Gator, or even a regular boss with a multi-plug.

But that's not the case...

Planet Waves tuner makes noise with a chain.

EH memory man Hazari makes noise with a chain.

Boss digital dimension chorus makes noise in a chain.

Synth pedal doesn't work with a chain.

Some fuzz pedals won't work at all off a chain... positive vs. neg center.

Do I need to go through my toy box one by one?

Not sure I need to go on here...

99%... yeahhhh... right.

Whatever.

I have somehow missed your posts describing the incident. I also skimmed over the titles of all posts made by you and didn't see anything about pedals blowing. Did you post this a really long time ago or something? Maybe it got deleted in one of the forum purges?

Anyways, I'm not trying to bust your balls over this . . . I just think that you're giving bad information. What I'm hearing from you is "I blew some of my pedals because they were daisy chained and the faulty prototype pedal that I just plugged in killed all the rest. Therefore, all 1-spots are dangerous to use and can blow your pedals." The problem is not with the 1-spot (which you didn't even use) or even daisy chains . . . your problem is with whatever pedal you used and the person who sold/gave it to you.

Maybe just qualify your statement with something like: "If you use home made pedals, or pedals made by people who don't know what they're doing then daisy chaining can be an issue, and you might need extra fail-safes provided by XXX power supply." To blame something that's working just the way it's supposed to (the power supply), and isn't going to fry any normal pedal under normal use doesn't really make a lot of sense to me.

If you have noise issues, that's cool and a valid complaint. I know that daisy chaining certain pedals can cause hum (especially with line 6 and some EHX stuff), and I know that not every pedal will play nice with switching power supplies. That's the kind of useful information that I'm used to seeing from you, and can help people make smart decisions. I wouldn't say that noise is the norm with effects pedals while using a daisy chain though. FWIW, I've used the following pedals with no (or easily solvable) noise issues while daisy chaining with a 1-spot:

Boss PS-3 Pitch Shifter/Delay
Boss PS-2 Pitch Shifter/Delay
Boss CE-5 - Chorus Ensemble
Boss MT-2 - Metal Zone
Boss PSM-5 - Power Supply/Master Switch
Boss DS-2 - Turbo Distortion
Boss BD-2 - Blues Driver
Boss OD-2 - Turbo Overdrive
Boss PH-3 - Phase Shifter
Marshall VT-2 Vibrato/Tremolo
Marshall ED-1 Compressor
Dunlop 535Q
EHX Small Stone*
EHX Small Clone*
*I get some slight noise with these while running off of a daisy chained power supply, but get the same noise when running off of batteries so I figure they're just noisy pedals. BTW, you can get cheap adapters for the funny plugs on line 6 stuff (or for the reversed polarity found on some fuzz pedals) pretty easily.
SD Deja Vu Tap Delay
ProTone Lithium Chorus
Loop Master True Bypass Looper
Line 6 Echo Park
Line 6 Tap Tremolo
Tonecore Line 6 pedals that I've tried do add noise to a daisy chained 1-spot. You can get rid of this noise by using a second 1-spot (or other power supply of your choice) for each one of these pedals on your board.

[trevorus]

Re: WTF just happened?! (ampslosion content)

Moose, have you had problems with 1-spots? I'm just curious because I've been using the same 1-spot for about six years now, powering between 8 - 10 pedals (probably between 400 - 500 mA) and it's working great. I know that some people have issues with hum and line noise with 1-spots, but you're the only one that I've heard consistently complain about them dying. Am I just really lucky, or are you doing something weird with them that causes the failures?

I have had two die on me, and when they did, they surged voltage from 0-9v, and made all the pedals lights blink. I have my third one just new out of the box, and Visual Sound replaces them when they go bad, but it does get a little annoying to plug one in, and have your entire array of pedals blink in and out.