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singlepup · . Joined: 10 Dec 2010 Posts: 4200 Location: San Diego

I am looking for a power supply for my pedals. My last pedal board was powered, and since then I have just used individual power adapters. Starting to get into pedals again. I'd like to have room for about 8-10. Never bought a power supply before.

Do I need isolated power, or can I just get something cheap? Mr. Black doesn't seem to think it's necessary:
https://www.mrblackpedals.com/blogs/straight-jive/7475792-you-want-the-truth-you-cant-handle-the-truth-more-than-you-need-to-know-about-power-supplies

What do you all think?

NickS · Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2017 8:52 pm Post subject:

Whether you need an isolated supply depends on whether you are using it to power more than one pedal, which I guess you are, and the type of pedals. For example, if you'e going to be using a standard negative-earth (-ground, USAers) Boss-type pedal with some of the Line 6 pedals that have a bridge rectifier on the input, or a germanium pedal with positive earth, you will be in trouble. I have a multi-out that drives all my Boss-type (OK, Boss and Behringer) pedals but I have a separate PSU for the Line 6 pedal - which also takes more current.

George · . Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 20953 Location: UK

My T-Rex Fuel Tank didn't stop noise with my germanium boost. Guess it wasn't truly isolated, but it's great for all the voltage options. Also some pedals from the likes of Strymon have an incredible draw so they benefit. As far as other noise in the effects chain goes, I haven't really noticed a difference.

Centre negative pedals like Maxons can come off any other daisy chain, you just need a polarity swap cable between the chain and the pedal, which costs a couple of quid.

On the whole, not sure how important they are (or how important it is to have a "good one") on most rigs, except for being a reliable piece of kit.

Bacchus · Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2017 9:16 pm Post subject:

I recently got an MXR Iso-brick and I'm very happy with it. Cheap for the amount of power it puts out, reasonably versatile, and it's nice and quiet.

Downside is that it uses it's own power supply rather than a standard iec, which might be a point of failure in the future.
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daftsupernova · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:41 am Post subject:

I was looking into isolated power because my Super Ego was the source of some weird noise when I had it chained up with the rest of my pedals but then I figured I could just use the (tremendously big lol) power supply that came with it. The rest of my pedals are powered just fine, and I've got two digital reverbs, two digital delays, a digital flanger, pitch shifter, EQ pedal, and a fuzz lol, OneSpot really fucking comes through. I'll probably just buy an extra OneSpot just for the Super Ego alone since its so small.
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singlepup · . Joined: 10 Dec 2010 Posts: 4200 Location: San Diego

Thanks all. Seems like a nice MXR or Voodoo Lab would be lovely, but I can probably get away with a cheap Joyo or the like. I am using mostly Boss-style pedals. I have no problem whatsoever using an additional PSU for the occasional "special" pedal. Really solid advice ITT.

aen · Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:09 pm Post subject:

I've always been a onespot man, and I do pedals for a living.
Most bricks are hunks of shit. Load dependant voltage, shared outputs that are sold as isolated, etc. A friend of mine worked on the road crew for Tallest Man on Earth a while back, and called me just about every other day with a Voodoo labs disaster. The more I looked into it, the worse their reputation became. Just not reliable. I've also seen SEVERAL of them shit the bed at NAMM.

Recently one of our dealers sent us a "onespot pro" which is their brick. THE FIRST AND ONLY TIME a brick has held up to the demands of a gang of Dwarfcraft Devices. The isolation is true, and the voltage is steady.

so, in my professional opinion, get you some onespots, be they brick our daisy chain.
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Ankhanu · . Joined: 10 Nov 2009 Posts: 2968 Location: Nova Scotia

I’ve been using a OneSpot with 8 parallel adapter. No isolation, but noise hasn’t been an issue for me yet... but if I have a noisey pedal later, I’ll likely either use its adapter for it, or grab another OneSpot to power it, if it doesn’t come with one. It’s currently powering a Bass Soul Food, Bass Big Muff, Sub n Up, Alter Ego x4, 30ms, Joyo flanger, Trinity2, and PolyTune. It handles all 8 pedals engaged just fine.

OneSpot Pro sounds tempting
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singlepup · . Joined: 10 Dec 2010 Posts: 4200 Location: San Diego

Wow, interesting. Daisy Chain plus an extra PSU or 2 will probably work for me then. Thanks for the insight. You guys just saved me a bit of cash.

One Spot users, have you heard of Snark? I have one of their PSUs. Supposed to be even quieter.