Pedal power supplies

[rspst14]

Hey guys, has anyone used the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2? I have pedals that require, 9, 12, and 18 volts DC, as well as one that requires AC power. Can the Pedal Power 2 handle all of these okay? Thanks.

Ryan

[Mincer]

Re: Pedal power supplies

What pedal needs AC power? Check out the Visual Sounds 1-spot. Voodoo Labs is very expensive for no reason.

[rspst14]

Re: Pedal power supplies

I have an old MXR Flanger that requires AC power.

Ryan

[some_dude]

Re: Pedal power supplies

The onespot won't do 12v and 18v.

The Pedal Power 2 won't do 18V.

The PP2 is probably your best bet, although it's pretty expensive for what you get.

Or, you could just get a One-Spot or Godlyke Power-All to run you're 9v stuff, and a powerbar and wall warts for the rest.

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Pedal power supplies

The Voodoo Lab is more expensive, but it'll be the last power supply you'll ever need to buy. I highly recommend it. It's dead silent, and does almost everything, including a variable voltage for a couple outlets to simulate a worn battery.
I just checked my instruction manual, since it was handy, and found out you CAN power an 18 volt pedal. The only downside to the PPII is that it may not come with every cable you need for your pedalboard. That means, you should find out exactly what cables you need, and contact their customer service around the same time you buy the unit, so you can finish your pedalboard with all the pieces you need.
They only give you one Line 6 cable, which is reverse polarity with a different size plug. Also, to do 18 volt, you need to tell them, so they can send you a y cord made for merging two 9V into 1 18V. They only give you 1 Line 6 cable and a few 9 volt cables. Find out what you need and Email them.

[some_dude]

Re: Pedal power supplies

How many pedals can you power off each 9v tap?

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Pedal power supplies

Does anybody use Dunlop's DC Brick? Looks like it powers seven 9-volt pedals and three 18 volt pedals - $69.99 at Musician's Friend.

Is there a big difference between this and the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power II? I'm just interested in clean 9 volt power myself.

I really like my Visual Sound pedals but continue to have weird problems with the One Spot - even had to send it back once, although I must say Bob at V.S. was really cool about it and "fixed it" pronto for no charge. It seems like I get noise unless all of the pedals are powered by the One Spot - using a separate adapter for one or more units gives me problems.

Chip

[some_dude]

Re: Pedal power supplies

What you're talking about is ground loop hum. The pedals are grounded to each other through the shield in your patch cables, and if they have two grounds to run to, they can create hum.

DC Bricks are supposed to be OK. I've heard they can cause noise if it's too close to certian pedals, but plenty of people have no problem with them. Just don't put it near your wah.

The Pedal Power 2's taps are individually isolated, which is really useful in the prevention of ground loop hum. I don't think the DC Bricks are, but if all of your pedals are powered off the same adaptor, it shouldn't be a big deal.

[rspst14]

Re: Pedal power supplies

I'm actually using the DC Brick at the moment. It works very well, and is much more reasonably priced than the pedal power. Unfortunately, it can't handle 12 volt pedals or AC-powered pedals. I have a Maxon analog delay that runs on 12 volts, so I installed a voltage regulator circuit across the input jack so that I could run it off the 18v output and have it dropped to 12 volts. I love those old AC-powered MXR pedals, but they're kind of a hassle to deal with unless you want to use a separate power strip.

Ryan

[Fresh_Start]

Re: Pedal power supplies

SD - thanks for the explanation. I should've figured that out on my own.

I'm going to email Dunlop about whether or not each lead/ground is isolated...

Chip

[midnite_man]

Re: Pedal power supplies

I'm running approx. 15 pedals on my board with two 1-Spot adapters and 4 daisy-chains. Very little line noise as I used George L's cable and plugs for connection, and since about 80% of my boxes are true bypass I couldn't ask for a cleaner signal. Except going straight into the amp, of course.

[midnite_man]

Re: Pedal power supplies

Does anybody use Dunlop's DC Brick? Looks like it powers seven 9-volt pedals and three 18 volt pedals - $69.99 at Musician's Friend.

Is there a big difference between this and the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power II? I'm just interested in clean 9 volt power myself.

I really like my Visual Sound pedals but continue to have weird problems with the One Spot - even had to send it back once, although I must say Bob at V.S. was really cool about it and "fixed it" pronto for no charge. It seems like I get noise unless all of the pedals are powered by the One Spot - using a separate adapter for one or more units gives me problems.

Chip

I had a similar incident with one of my 1-Spot's and emailed Bob about it. He had me send it back to him. They either fixed that one or sent me a new, and tested unit which ended up working fine and also n/c. They were very cool about it.
The 1-Spot isn't a bad little power source.

[rspst14]

Re: Pedal power supplies

I'm running approx. 15 pedals on my board with two 1-Spot adapters and 4 daisy-chains. Very little line noise as I used George L's cable and plugs for connection, and since about 80% of my boxes are true bypass I couldn't ask for a cleaner signal. Except going straight into the amp, of course.

15 pedals? Just out of curiosity, how long are the cables from the guitar to the pedalboard and the pedalboard to the amp? Do you notice a major difference in tone when going straight into the amp compared to running through 15 pedals that are all turned off? Any buffered bypass pedals in your setup?

Ryan

[some_dude]

Re: Pedal power supplies

15 pedals? Just out of curiosity, how long are the cables from the guitar to the pedalboard and the pedalboard to the amp? Do you notice a major difference in tone when going straight into the amp compared to running through 15 pedals that are all turned off? Any buffered bypass pedals in your setup?

Ryan

I put my two cents in on this one as well.

Boss FET buffered pedels rock.

Period.

I run 20' to my board, and 20' to my amp. For sh*ts and giggles one day I took out my Boss GE-7 and just left a true bypass pedal in there (40.5' of unbuffered cable) and my sound turned to muddy sh*t. The buffer inside the Boss does an excellent job of restoring my signal.

All I'm really trying to say is that although true bypass is good, in my opinion you NEED a buffered pedal in there somewhere to help restore your signal.

General rule of thumb is that you should have a buffer anytime your total cable length (including the little wires inside a true bypass effect) exceeds 20' you should have a buffer in there somewhere.

Ibanez pedals are supposed to have decent buffers now to.

The buffer in the new Dunlop wahs sucks, or so I was told.

[rspst14]

Re: Pedal power supplies

I put my two cents in on this one as well.

Boss FET buffered pedels rock.

Period.

I run 20' to my board, and 20' to my amp. For sh*ts and giggles one day I took out my Boss GE-7 and just left a true bypass pedal in there (40.5' of unbuffered cable) and my sound turned to muddy sh*t. The buffer inside the Boss does an excellent job of restoring my signal.

All I'm really trying to say is that although true bypass is good, in my opinion you NEED a buffered pedal in there somewhere to help restore your signal.

General rule of thumb is that you should have a buffer anytime your total cable length (including the little wires inside a true bypass effect) exceeds 20' you should have a buffer in there somewhere.

Ibanez pedals are supposed to have decent buffers now to.

The buffer in the new Dunlop wahs sucks, or so I was told.

Yeah, that's a very good point. A lot of people mistakenly think that anything other than true bypass is unacceptable. A well-designed buffered bypass system should have no loss of tone, and it can help preserve your signal with longer cable lengths. Boss, Ibanez, and Maxon pedals all have very well designed buffered bypass systems. Based on my experience, pedals that will suck your tone include old MXR pedals, the new Dunlop pedals, and most wahs. In this case, true bypassing these pedals is a good idea. An even better idea is to use a true bypass box if you run a lot of pedals. This allows you to go straight into the amp by bypassing all the pedals at once and sending the signal from your guitar to the bypass box, and into the amp. I'd like to figure out a way to wire up the effects loop on my Classic 50 to be foot switchable. If I could get that rigged up, I could go straight into the amp, and not have the added cable length of the pedals in the effects loop, because the loop would be totally bypassed. I typically run 15 foot cables in the effects loop, so that's 30 feet worth of cable that could be removed from the chain if I could figure out how to wire it up. I know it can be done, I'm just not sure exactly how. That would be a very useful mod though...with that setup, I could theoretically run 100 pedals in front of the amp and 100 in the effects loop, and I'd still be able to bypass both and run straight into the amp with nothing but one true bypass box in between.

Ryan