Powering pedals

[St_Genesius]

What are the real world differences between the various power bricks out there -- Pedal Power 2, BBE Supa Charger, Dunlop DC-Brick, T-Rex Fuel Tank, etc? These are all well established companies, and what seem to be very similar, if not identical, feature sets, but the prices vary by as much as 40%.

I have a Visual Sound One Spot right now, so I'm familiar with both its strengths and weaknesses. I'm trying to understand the differences between the more advanced powering options. For instance, what is the goal of user-adjustable sag and how might I know whether I need/could use it?

 

[Bludave]

Re: Powering pedals

I use a one spot. I have 3 boards that I use with different amps. All 3 are set up pretty similar. I have a CE2, DD3, TS9, Wah & tuner. All powered with a One spot. I think I paid 25$ for it. I know have all my boards powered with them. Never really experienced any problems with them so I have never investigated anything else. I know they won't power some of the more exotic pedals like 18v vrs 9, but I don't use any of those.

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Powering pedals

I use a one spot. I have 3 boards that I use with different amps. All 3 are set up pretty similar. I have a CE2, DD3, TS9, Wah & tuner. All powered with a One spot. I think I paid 25$ for it. I know have all my boards powered with them. Never really experienced any problems with them so I have never investigated anything else. I know they won't power some of the more exotic pedals like 18v vrs 9, but I don't use any of those.

I never had a problem with the One Spot either until I got 2 EHX pedals. For some reason when I powered both a Big Muff and Holy Grail it sounded really bad. Some times it works great, other times it introduces noise. I ended up going to a Voodoo Labs brick power supply and I have had no noise.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Powering pedals

I have a One Spot right now. It works fine, but the daisy chain design is pretty inelegant. I'd like to move to a system where each pedal has its own cable. I'm trying to find ways to neaten up my board.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Powering pedals

I'm a big fan of the 1-spot. If daisy chaining certain pedals causes noise with it you can always buy a second 1-spot and power the noisy pedals individually for less than the price of the more expensive power options.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: Powering pedals

Nuther One-Spot user here. Been using it for years.

My G-System also has the ability to power 9V pedals. I used that for a while, but went back to the One Spot because I put the G-Sys brain up on top of my head for shorter loop cabling, so that removed the option for it powering my floor-based pedals.

 

[Jessie's ghost]

Re: Powering pedals

I made a pedal board once that used six "C" batteries in series to power everything that took 9 volts. The batteries ran to a terminal strip, cascaded down one side, and left the other side for connecting a custom-length power lead for each pedal. From there it was a trivial matter to terminate each lead with the connector I needed (as they weren't all the Boss type), or to reverse polarity as needed. A little project box with a footswitch and an LED housed the terminal strip and let me turn the power off globally and see its status at a glance.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Powering pedals

i have a dunlop dc brick. all isolated outputs, and 3 18v outputs also - which is cool cos i have a couple of 18v pedals. I blew up a cheaper multiple power supply before getting this one. The dunlop runs nice and cool, and it can be powered by any wall outlet in the world (its not like im touring overseas or anything but its nice to know). Isolated, regulated outputs are great if you are using a univibe or morley wah pedals. Circuits that use opto sensors seem to be very sensetive to power supplies. Mainly i chose it because it has seven 9v outs and 3 18v outs and its built like a tank. Some power supplies will only give you 9v outs, some have 12v as well etc ..... so whatever you get, juts check your pedals and see what kind of power they will take and also, whether the plugs are centre negative or centre positive. A lot of fuzz pedals will only take center positive (which will short the circuit if you try to run them).
I have also got an adapter that runs up to 2000 milliamps, but chaining power to pedals seems to build up noise (like the 1 spot). The only thing the 1 spot has over cheapo power supplies is that it is regulated- but your pedals will not be isolated.
So - yeah, its definitely worth shelling out the extra bucks for a dedicated, isolated power supply such as the voodoo, dunlop or t rex. It just comes down to which one has the right outputs for your pedal selection.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Powering pedals

Another happy 1Spot user here.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Powering pedals

Thanks for the on-topic reply.

All of my current pedals are 9v, though most of them don't specify a mA rating, so I'm not 100% sure what my needs are there. One of them requires a battery clip adapter and two require 1/8" miniplug adapters, but the One Spot is able to power them all, so I'd guess -- possibly wrongly -- that any of the bricks would be up to the task, but I imagine it would be smart to allow for some non-9v growth in the future.

i have a dunlop dc brick. all isolated outputs, and 3 18v outputs also - which is cool cos i have a couple of 18v pedals. I blew up a cheaper multiple power supply before getting this one. The dunlop runs nice and cool, and it can be powered by any wall outlet in the world (its not like im touring overseas or anything but its nice to know). Isolated, regulated outputs are great if you are using a univibe or morley wah pedals. Circuits that use opto sensors seem to be very sensetive to power supplies. Mainly i chose it because it has seven 9v outs and 3 18v outs and its built like a tank. Some power supplies will only give you 9v outs, some have 12v as well etc ..... so whatever you get, juts check your pedals and see what kind of power they will take and also, whether the plugs are centre negative or centre positive. A lot of fuzz pedals will only take center positive (which will short the circuit if you try to run them).
I have also got an adapter that runs up to 2000 milliamps, but chaining power to pedals seems to build up noise (like the 1 spot). The only thing the 1 spot has over cheapo power supplies is that it is regulated- but your pedals will not be isolated.
So - yeah, its definitely worth shelling out the extra bucks for a dedicated, isolated power supply such as the voodoo, dunlop or t rex. It just comes down to which one has the right outputs for your pedal selection.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Powering pedals

1 spot here too. No problems.

 

[thespricket]

Re: Powering pedals

I also use the 1spot. Probably the most inexpensive solution, and I've never had a problem.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Powering pedals

So...any of you guys using the 1Spot?

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Powering pedals

So...any of you guys using the 1Spot?

lol . . . I think that so many people are recommending it because (unless you're having some kind of specific trouble with it for some reason) it's cheap, quiet, effective, and really eliminates the need for an expensive power box. Is there some reason that you're so fixated on paying more for pedal power?

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Powering pedals

Neatness. The daisy chain form factor won't allow me to run the cabling the way I want to.

But honestly, my reason has nothing to do with my question. I wasn't asking for a recommendation, but rather for a clarification of the differences between the various boxes. It's like if I asked "What are the real world differences between fullsize Pickup Trucks -- Dodge Ram, Toyota Tundra, Nissan Titan, Ford F-150, etc?" and the answers were all "I drive a Prius. It's awesome."

I'm not discounting the awesomeness of the 1Spot -- or the Prius, for that matter -- but I already know what it does, and how it differs from the entire class of power bricks. What I'm trying to wrap my head around is how the features of the various bricks compare to each other.

lol . . . I think that so many people are recommending it because (unless you're having some kind of specific trouble with it for some reason) it's cheap, quiet, effective, and really eliminates the need for an expensive power box. Is there some reason that you're so fixated on paying more for pedal power?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Powering pedals

Neatness. The daisy chain form factor won't allow me to run the cabling the way I want to.

But honestly, my reason has nothing to do with my question. I wasn't asking for a recommendation, but rather for a clarification of the differences between the various boxes. It's like if I asked "What are the real world differences between fullsize Pickup Trucks -- Dodge Ram, Toyota Tundra, Nissan Titan, Ford F-150, etc?" and the answers were all "I drive a Prius. It's awesome."

I'm not discounting the awesomeness of the 1Spot -- or the Prius, for that matter -- but I already know what it does, and how it differs from the entire class of power bricks. What I'm trying to wrap my head around is how the features of the various bricks compare to each other.

yeh, that makes sense. I guess I misunderstood what you were asking.

With that said, I really can't give any helpful comments since I haven't used any of the bricks/blocks.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Powering pedals

i have a dunlop dc brick. all isolated outputs, and 3 18v outputs also - which is cool cos i have a couple of 18v pedals.

Based on my experience and a bit of Googling, I don't believe the PB's outputs are isolated. If it works for you, that's great but when I tried one on my board, it hummed like nobody's business.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Powering pedals

As for the differences

• Isolated outputs
• Multiple voltage options
• "Sag" feature simulates battery voltage under load. It gives dirt boxes a little extra squish.
• Design & component quality affect size / noise

If all you're looking for is power and you don't need isolation, a basic supply like the One Spot works great. The next step up would be something like the Dunlop Power Brick that has multiple voltages. The PP2 is the top of (non booteek) heap with isolated outputs, sag, etc.

 

[Franknfilms]

Re: Powering pedals

The supa charger is rock solid, I couldn't be happier with it. This only downside I could think of is that it is huge, much bigger than the dc brick, so it might not work for some pedal boards.

 

[andrizzle]

Re: Powering pedals

Didn't read all the posts but if you're going for quiet DON'T get a One-Spot... Had one for a while and after adding a couple pedals (probably 6 in total) I started getting some crazy noises. You really get what you pay for with those things. People rave about them though and I wonder if maybe it's where I live. But if you're planning on gigging with it I'd give that a second thought. You'll be in some real trouble if they've got a lot going on at the venue power-wise.

THE BEST is the Pedal Power II... silent, lots of options, can power things that require 18v and all kinds of craziness... Also easily mountable if you're using a Pedaltrain

I also have a smaller board that I use a Fuel Tank Jr. on. Used to use the One Spot on it... it has some classically noisy pedals on it:

Echo Park, Verbzilla, TS, and a Phase 90.... SO much noise using the One Spot... NO noise whatsoever using Fuel Tank... Can't beat <$100 for a GREAT power supply.

If I was only using 5 pedals on my main rig I'd be using the Fuel Tank there too.