Power Supply for pedals question

Gear
1

So, I am looking at power supplies for pedals, 9V centre negative blah blah.
I notice there is a lot of variability on the mA output varying from small up to 2A for a single plug supply.
How important is it to match to your pedal before you are at risk of frying components?
eg: the Joyo Wah 2 pedal from various vendors wants:
DC 9V Negative Centre 500mA
or
9V DC, 800mA, Max 1A (1000mA)
or the box says 18mA (IIRC)

I am using it on my usual 9V power supply can’t remember the mA output but it is different to all of those.
Is this something to worry about?
What am I missing?

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2

The current rating on the power supply is how much it can reliably deliver without overload.

The current rating on the pedals is usually its power requirement. As long as it is less than the power supply can deliver you are ok.

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3

Great explanation- thank you

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4

Supplementary question, does a higher rating have any impact on the performance of the pedal-less/more noise etc?
Or alternatively would a separate power supply rather than a daisy chain reduce noise?

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5

Make sure that the individual channels are well isolated from each other (if you are going for a multi-channel power supply). Especially modern digital pedals are sensitive to that, and some less expensive power supplies can have less than perfect isolation, leading to a lot of noise coming from the pedals (and not just white noise either).
In other words: don’t go cheap on the power supplies if you have digital pedals!

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6

For some pedals, performance is linked to voltage. Usually, those pedals can be driven using different voltages, 9V or 12V for example.
There are certainly people on here more knowledgeable about power supplies for pedalboards, but I found this short article that seems to have the main information available:

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7

Currently i am using a 9v plugged into a daisy chain.
Using just pedals there is no noise.
If I add the Zoom bfour to it I get a lot of noise, depending on where I put the wah I can get noise also
Would a 2nd power supply like the one below partly solve this?

s-l1600
s-l16001600×1062 63.3 KB

I didn’t see the link when I posted- I’ll look at it now

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8

Thanks mate, that answered the question nicely :slight_smile:

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9

Yeah, @Krescht 's link should give you a lot of pointers.

Daisy-chaining can get you hit a current limit at some point and also requires all of the pedals running on the same voltage. The zoom probably needs more (!?)

A good multi-channel power supply might be a solution for you, also considering that you only have one on the board then (=weight reduced) and only one main going to your board.

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10

According to Joyo, the Wah pedal uses 18 mA, which shouldn’t be all that much :slight_smile:

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11

Yeah this had me a bit stumped

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12

The Zoom is 9V as well. They indicate that it needs a 9V 500mA power supply or 4 AA batteries.

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13

I run the Zoom with separate power to the board.
I will experiment with additional supplies now

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14

Thanks guys- very helpful

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15

If you’re looking for a decent power supply for a pedalboard, the Harley Benton Powerplant ISO are pretty decent for a fraction of the price of other power supplies.

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16

Yes, they are… unless you have a digital pedal amongst your pedals. I had a HB power supply and my UAD pedals started making very weird noises. A (much more expensive) Strymon Ojai fixed that :smile:
(Which is why I recommend not scrimping on the power supply; otherwise you buy twice :wink:)

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17

Pedals are a very tricky things. Always :laughing:
Some really do weird stuff with my Sire active bass :dizzy_face:

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18

This is a crucial bit of advice. Always use quality power supplies.

Over the weekend I was setting up the new Genzler 4 On The Floor overdrive on my bass board which is only that and a Keeley Bassist Compressor. While the Keeley ran fine with a proprietary 9v from a different pedal the 4 On The Floor did not. It produced a very high pitched whistle or whine.

Once I swapped to one of my One Spots it worked like a charm. All 9v power supplies are not created equal. FWIW although they’re more costly I’ve never had an issue daisy chaining when using a One Spot or one D’Addario offers.

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19

I just want to reiterate what some have said: this is not the place for bargain basement deals. This is a buy once, cry once scenario at its purest.

I learned that lesson a long time ago. I built my own computer and decided to skimp on the power supply. Rookie move and I should have known better. Two months later that power supply blew and took out a bunch of components. Specifically the most expensive ones. That’s how it will always happen: the most expensive ones will be the most damaged.

If the power supply blows on the pedal board, it can and likely will destroy the pedals attached to it. Pick your favorite pedal on the board. That is the one that will be killed first.

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20

Yes. Plugging the wrong connection into a pedal can turn it into a really expensive brick.

I like the TrueTone 1Spot Pro power supplies. Reasonably priced, all isolated connections and it uses a switching power supply. So, you don’t have to worry about mA available on individual connections. The switching power supply adjusts to give each pedal what it needs.

You do still have to make sure you’re using the correct voltage.

Having said that, you should be fine just putting the Zoom on its own power supply.

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