Power supply for pedal boards

[rnrloser_IX]

Does anyone have a good suggestion for a power supply for a 6 pedal pedal board?

[mr dave]

depends on the kind of pedals you have.

the Boss TU-2 tuner doubles as a power supply for your pedals if you buy an additional daisy chain cable. pretty certain there are other straight up power supply pedals as well.

the other option is to invest in an industrial strength power bar and a handful of 9v adapters.

[+81]

You could go for the One-Spot daisy chain or isolated power supplies such as the ones made by T.Rex and Voodoolabs.

[Farfisa]

One spots are nice, saving money and outlet space... why not get one? It might be better to get isolated power supply units after you have one of those giant Kevin Shields pedalboards.

[rnrloser_IX]

Yeah, I was thinking about the one spot, you can power a decent amount of pedals with it. The only thing is a fair amount of people said it was really noisy, and the pickup I use for my guitar already picks up any electrical buzz in about a 30 mile radius, so I'm still trying to keep the background noise down a bit. Are the one spots actually noisy or are the people using it just stupid and can't figure out the source of the noise?

[Farfisa]

I use a onespot and I haven't noticed any weird buzzing... and I power 5 pedals with it.

[+81]

I think it's really a matter of what pedal is in the chain when it comes to buzz. Some are weird and demand an isolated source to play nicely. When you have something that requires a something besides 9v center neg. than you'll need something besides the one spot. That aside, one-spots are great. I use one to power 8 of my 9 pedals.

[mr dave]

i'd never heard of 1 Spot prior to this thread but it sounds like an awesome little product. $35 for a combo pack to power 8 pedals!!! hell yes! i would have loved to have a pair of these for the old jam room.



as for the buzzing - as +81 said above pedal placement in the chain matters, same with the cables you use and their length. what kind of guitar are you using with a super buzzy pickup? i'm assuming strat style with single coils and no options to toggle between two to cancel out the hum. on the other hand if you already have something with humbuckers then the issue isn't the pickup and more likely to be wiring.

try this for an easy test to find the biggest source of buzzing. setup your rig like normal then pinch/shake the cables gently as you check through the full line. there will likely be a weak input jack or cable end somewhere along the way. if it's due to corrosion it's a simple fix - fine grade sandpaper wrapped around a pencil, just stick it in there and give it a few spins and it'll be shiny as new and the connection will be cleaner. if it's wire based then you'll have to open the end of the cable and work on your soldering skills, it's not a complicated circuit but at the same time if you've never soldered it's easy to turn it into a silvery mess.

the other option is to try shielding your cable connections. this is more for the kind of buzzing that's due to radio interference but again, super simple fix, if you don't mind looking totally paranoid. tin foil and it works. just use a square foot of the stuff to wrap each end of your cables and input connectors. it's a little unsightly but it will cut out significant amounts of radio interference.

[rnrloser_IX]

Thanks for the insight on the one spot, i think I'll give that a whirl. But the set up i use has a lot of gain into it and the pickups i use, (Gibson p94 in the bridge and Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates in the neck) are really strong so they'll pick up things like fluorescent lights, computers, and other electrical devices. I know the connections are all good, but to clean the inputs and connections, another alternative to sandpaper is the little green scrubby pads used for dishes, not sure what they're called. Good call on the single coil Mr. Dave and thanks for the advice to cancel out outside noise. Does anyone know of good instrument cables that are reliable and clearly transmit the signal other than monster?

[mr dave]

good call on the scrubby pads (not sure what the real name is but i'm sure i know what you're talking about).

as for cable you can buy shielded instrument cables but they're normally about double the price of a standard line. you'd also have to replace you're whole signal chain to really make it worthwhile. unfortunately Monster pretty much dominates that market and in turn just marks up the price of their goods rather than actually increasing the quality of what they were when they started out. they're not bad cables and definitely deserve their reputation, but you also used to be able to get a foot for just over a $1.