Pedal Board power supply advice

[WillMbCdn5]

I use a couple of pedals with my MIK D'angelico EXL-1 . Empress Para EQ and a Catalinbread Talisman plate reverb. I am thinking of making a nice small compact custom board using some hardwoods I have around. I might add a loop pedal into the mix .

There seem to be a vast array of power supplies around and I was wondering what is a good reliable small supply to power just a few pedals some of them seem like overkill for my modest needs.

Will

[sgosnell]

At home I use an off-the-shelf (off ebay, actually) 9V wall wart. Pedals don't pull much current, so almost any of them will work. Out, I use a 9V 5400mAh LiIon rechargeable battery. I don't know how long it will last, but certainly longer than I can play, probably 8 hours or more. I think a standard 9V battery in a battery case with the proper tip would last for a gig. I have one of those for use with just my HOF mini reverb pedal, and a 9V rechargeable battery in that will last all day. I don't use the wall wart out because you never know how many outlets there will be, and the batteries don't introduce any noise, which you can get from a faulty ground in an AC outlet. The only AC I use is for the amp. YMMV. Oh, and you do need either a daisy chain cable or multiple batteries. You can get a daisy chain cable off ebay for almost nothing.

[marcwhy]

Cioks.

[Jabberwocky]

Get one of those USB 5V to 9V converters. You can get a rechargeable power bank and power your pedals off it. Portable clean power.

Eg, Ionic Audio - 5V USB to 9V DC Converter | Ionic Audio | Reverb

[Frank67]

If money is not the primary issue, the absolute best (IMHO) is the Gigrig modular power system. It is super light, super small, highly flexible, installs very cleanly on the board, is extremely powerful and of the highest quality with respect to isolation and clean power. Sure it costs more than Voodoolabs or similar solutions, but it also is a lot better.

[Ray175]

Once you start adding pedals - a looper here, an eq there, maybe a volume pedal - you can find your power block dosn't have enough connections. I currently use the Mooer Micro Power which is quiet. It's light so if you are not going to fix it firmly to your pedalboard it can move easily. No problem for me because it's housed in a dedicated bracket beneath my pedaltrain. For a more heavy duty box, maybe look at mxr - built like a brick sh*thouse

[newsense]

For future proof against expansion, ideally you want each of the outlets to be regulated individually, otherwise switching on one pedal could reduce the voltage to another pedal. I use this one:Artec, which despite its sophistication, is reasonably low cost ~€50. Some of the other pedal supplies out there seem unnecessarily costly by comparison.

[mad dog]

Godlyke PowerAll daisy chain. I have both the 5 plug and 10 plug versions. Used a very well regarded brick type power supply for years, sold it when I realized the Godlyke product was just as quiet, completely trouble free, much lighter. Never used the OneSpot product, about which I've read some reliability/noise reports.
MD

[TOMMO]

I recently switched from running my pedals with batteries to a power supply. Since I didn't want to spend much money I chose the Truetone One-Spot. It's inexpensive, has all the required adapters and stuff and I found it to be noise-free:

[guido5]

I use a Donner DP-2. Decent clean power reasonable price.

[Meggy]

It could well be overkill, but I never regretted getting my Decibel 11 Hotstone Deluxe - proper isolated outputs, and enough with decent current draw capabilities that I can power several digital units in addition to the analog ones with lower power requirements. Never have any issues with noise, is reliable, has coped with whatever changes and expansions I've made to my setup. The initial extra outlay now seems trivial.

[jorgemg1984]

I have not yet tried them, but the new Strymon power supplies seem excellent.

[Rhythmisking]

I used to use the BBE Supacharger. Reasonably small footprint, very high quality toroidal transformer and dead quiet. It has 200ma per output which is way more than most pedals need (most all pedals use <100ma) and the outputs have switchable voltage levels. Some pedals will give you more headroom when run at a higher voltage (best to check with manufacturers specs first though...).

Everything worked perfectly until I got a Strymon El Capistan delay (awesome tape emulator delay). That pedal requires 250ma minimum which went unnoticed by me. It seemed to work fine for a while but then started misbehaving. I thought it was broken so as an absolute last resort I read the instructions and discovered the amperage deficiency. That led me to get the Strymon Zuma power supply, which is big, blue, sexy, and expensive. It has 500ma per output available.

A good, solid, quiet, filtered power supply is going to be MUCH better in the long run than a One Spot or any wall wart type power supply.

[feet]

consider how much you want to expand, how future proof you'd like to be, and double check the current draw of the pedals you have and the ones you're likely to add. i used a one spot for a while, but i don't remember if it had enough juice for some of the higher draw digital pedals, like your talisman. i seem to remember it struggling a little with those, but it was plenty fine for most analog pedals. also, consider if you want this to be a permanent thing, a modular thing, or if you want to run pedals at 12v or 18v, as well.

that said, for three or so pedals, i'd either cheap out with a one spot or godlyke (assuming it'll handle the current draw) or maybe something like the trex fuel tank jr or one of the rechargeable battery ones, if i didn't want to spend a lot but needed reliability with a little flexibility for the future.

[339 in june]

Palmer has not yet been mentionned, so I'll mention it
Because it's what I use and it works fine

[neatomic]

voodoo lab pedal power(2) or iso 5 are industry standards..they have isolated outputs for no hum..those daisy chain type adaptors draw off each other and create hum..not good

voodoo lab! you'll never look back



cheers

[MikeTT]

Get one with individually isolated outputs. I have a Burkey flatliner, this unit has separate transformers for each output, it's heavy but if you play live it's no waste of money IMO.

And I'd also think about potential pedals you plan to add, and take their current draws into consideration. Especially the newer digital pedals (like Strymons) need a lot of current and not all PSU can deliver this much current.

[WillMbCdn5]

Goodness me ! Thanks for all the info !! . I think my budget just increased to ensure I get something with properly isolated outputs and a little more futureproofing than I had initially planned . The pedals were not cheap and are going to be with me for a good long time so no reason to cheap out on a power supply. My current pedals both claim to have sub 100ma draw so not terribly demanding . Empress even has a power supply compatibility chart. I can try VoodooLabs and Trex locally so that seems like a good place to start.

cheers

Will

[feet]

i personally use a t rex fuel tank jr, chameleon and a voodoo labs pp+2. all three are quality units so far as i can tell and have been quiet and trouble free for a few years now. though both are probably overkill for your needs, the chameleon has 12/18v options (i like running pedals at 18v if possible) and the voodoo labs has a few higher draw outlets and a good old fashioned 3 prong outlet, so i can plug in my tube pedal with its giant wall wart.

were i starting over again, i may consider a strymon.

one more thing to consider is how and where you'll mount the thing. under the board is traditional but they are a bit large and heavy, and require a bit of clearance for all the cables, so account for that, wherever you put it.

[neatomic]

the catalinbread plate reverb pedal is going to run better at 18v than 9v...i have their echo-rec pedal and it sounded stifled at 9v...it came alive at 18v...huge difference.. i suggest you get a power block with at least one dedicated 18v option

many of the manufacturers of more complicated newer echo and reverb pedals suggest using 18v over 9v...

luck

cheers

[WillMbCdn5]

Thanks Neatomic I will look into that

Will

[feet]

if it can be run at 18v, i'll do it. it generally sounds better to me. overdrives and boost have more headroom and seem a little more ampy. reverbs and delays aren't as dramatic but i still do it. i like my belle epoch at 18v, but it is a little resource hog.

in lieu of a supply with an 18v out, you can get a little adapter thing that will take up two spots to give you 18v (which isn't a huge issue if you daisy chain or only have a few pedals), or you can get a little adapter thing that'll take your regular 9v and bump it up to 12v, 18 or whatever. godlyke makes one, xotic does to, to name two. the downside to that is that it's one more thing to buy, a touch expensive for what it is and they can be noisy. i got a couple from godlyke and had to send one back because it introduced a high pitched whine at certain voltages.

[Burrellesque]

I use a Cioks DC5.

Isolated outputs - 9V 12V and 18V. Very compact unit.

[Woody Sound]

I recently switched from running my pedals with batteries to a power supply. Since I didn't want to spend much money I chose the Truetone One-Spot. It's inexpensive, has all the required adapters and stuff and I found it to be noise-free:

I've been using this too, and it's worked perfectly. Certainly not a high-end power supply, but it's so cheap that if you don't like it, no big deal. If you DO like it, that's quite a deal. (Assuming you only have 9V pedals.)

[Spook410]

It's never simple.

You have to look at how many amps a pedal draws and the voltage (18V, 12V, 9V). Then you look at how many amps a given output from your supply will give you. If you have an output for 9V, 100mA (milliAmps) then that output won't work for a pedal rated for more than 100mA. However you may have another output on the supply that will because it's higher rated. Loopers and multifx boxes can draw a lot of power. A Pigtronix Infinity is 18V, 300mA. So if you want to handle that you'll need a power supply to will keep up. Sometimes you'll have a pedal that requires it's own supply because you don't want to support something other than 9V. So you have to add up number of outs, voltage needed, amps needed, and expansion before you settle. Not hard but a necessary step.

I like the VooDoo supplies. They aren't overly expensive, offer isolated power, flexible outputs, and have been reliable for a great many people for a long time. They also have a decent under pedal board mount kit available.