Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: HTH AMPS on April 21, 2007, 05:30:56 PM
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I usually prefer batteries for any distortion effects but I tried a power supply with my Digitech DM pedal and it was noticeably tighter in the bass end and chunkier overall.
Anyone got a preference on batteries or power supplies? (or is it just Eric Johnson and me who can tell the difference) :?
:twisted:
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I've noticed some companies say their products sound better with batteries but I think this may be due to power supplies adding mains borne interference to the signal. I can't say I've noticed much difference myself. On the Eric Johnson thing, I was in a guitar shop a while ago and they were selling a particular brand of batteries, advertising them as the ones he prefers, I had to buy some of course :lol:
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I had to buy some of course :lol:
haha you tool - i take it all your pedals sound a lot better now? :P
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^
Only the ones with EJ's batteries in :wink:
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There are more and more batteries made for musicians that have a 'sag' designed into them which some people prefer. Some people prefer the reliability of a power supply, even though it's proven that you get a lot of noise with your power which cannot be cleaned inexpensively.
I prefer batteries, just plain ole Duracell; but I rarely use more than one pedal at a time. If I had a pedal board, I would probably use a dedicated power supply, like a Voodoo Labs, with a very good power conditioner such as Panamax, Monster Cable, or Richard Gray's Power Company.
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I had to buy some of course :lol:
haha you tool - i take it all your pedals sound a lot better now? :P
it's mostly old fuzz pedals where you can notice the difference with battery types - it's fairly easy to hear the difference between a Duracell versus a cheapy.
:twisted:
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it's mostly old fuzz pedals where you can notice the difference with battery types - it's fairly easy to hear the difference between a Duracell versus a cheapy.
If it's a digital based pedal, then it's definately PSU time.
For fuzzes, particularly germanium based ones an old zinc carbon battery thats on it's last legs sounds best to me.
For most other pedals it dosn't much matter to my ears, though having had noisy PSUs in the past at least a battery allows you to predict the interference issues.
If you check out some of the DIY pedal sites, there are a few dying battery simulators around. When tweaked they can produce a lot of useful tones.
For those of you in and around London, Poundland sell good quality alkaline PP3 batterys @ a pound for 2 (sometimes for 4). 90% of the time theyre maxell or panasonic. At that price I can actually afford to run a Boss DD-6 on batterys
Rob...
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Get a DC Brick, no changing of batteries needed and it stays powered constantly.
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for my boss DD-6, powersupply is a MUST. It eats batteries in around 6 hours.
For my boss HM-2, the power jack is rusted out, so a powersupply does not power it at all. Batteries sound okay with it, but once they start losing power, the pedal starts sounding aweful. Completely unusable.
Question for ya guys... i have an ibanez power splitter cable, basically splits one DC box into 5 ends (Ibanez DC5). Will this sufficiently supply 5 stomp boxes? Or do i need something like a dc brick?
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On the face of it this topic appears to be madness, however there is definitely some science behind it.
A perfect power supply will deliver a constant voltage regardless of the current delivery. Most pedals run on 9 volts, and this delivered either by a battery, or by a mains adaptor, which is often unregulated.
A new 9 V battery will deliver around 9.5 volts when new, but will quickly drop to under 9 volts, and gradually run down over its life span. However, batteries have one major advantage; they have no AC component, and thus will not inject noise into your pedal. Batteries also have a significant impedance which will drag down the voltage at higher currents. Most pedals draw fairly low and constant currents, so power supply sag is not so much an issue here.
Many mains DC converter are unregulated and will deliver much more than 9 V when lightly loads. An unregulated 9 V supply rated at 100 mA will deliver 9 V when 100 mA is drawn, BUT will deliver much higher voltge at lower current draw, perhaps as high as 12 Vs!. Additionally, a small amount of AC ripple might be present on the supply rails.
The AC ripple is not a problem on many effects pedals eg those that use OP amps as these have an inherantly high power supply rejection ratio, so are oblivious to a small amount of ripple on the power rails. However many single ended effects, eg Fuzz faces, and many germanium treble boosters are very suceptible to power supply noise. A poorly smoothed DC supply will inject significant noise in these type of pedals (although many Fuzz Faces don't have DC adaptor sockets as they are ground +ve).
Furthermore, for many analogue pedals the supply voltage can have a significant effect on the overal sound of the pedal. Higher voltages will provide more headroom in analogue pedals, and this be particlarly noticable in distortion pedals.
There are several regulated power supplies on the market (which use 3 terminal reguators) eg the Voodoo Labs pedal power, but these are more expensive than unregulated supplies.
So what's the point of this post? Well when comparing batteries with a DC mains adaptor make sure you are comparing like with like. An old battery delivering 8 volts, will almost certainly sound different to an unregulated power supply delivering 10 V in a distortion pedal. From my experience it is the variation in voltage that makes the difference.
From my experience of adding DC adaptors to battery nonly pedals, building pedals and listening to various pices of equipement, I tend to prefer pedals run on new batteries oir from a DC adapotor, although I can see why some people prefer to run their pedals of older batteries.
Also bear in mind that pedals that are buffered and not hard bypass, such as BOSS and Ibanez pedals, can sound bad when OFF with a low battery. Not good.
The other day my band members and I were listening to a two TS-9s that we had converted to TS-808 spec using either an NOS JRC4558D or a reissue JRC4558. All three of us were convinced that the NOS JRC4558D sounded better. However, just to be 100% sure we swapped the batteries over and low and behold the reissue JRC4558 now sounded better. Thus we concluded we should get out more!
Hope this is helpful.
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^ somebody's taken/taking physics
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^ somebody's taken/taking physics
... and building his own amplifiers!
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Allways a power supply for me.
When playing live I use low end gear, with dodgy tone, so the lack in quality of increase in buzz really makes little difference (Although I've never noticed it anyway)
And at home I put practicality way over buzz avoidance - Why pay for batteries if you're just jamming/practicing?
For studio use I'd perhaps reconsider, however, my studio expierience is super limited, so makes little difference.
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Due to the size of my gigging pedalboard, batteries would be a big pain in the arse for me, so i use a good quality, regulated 9v power supply.
Never had a problem with noise or tone loss etc :)
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There are more and more batteries made for musicians that have a 'sag' designed into them which some people prefer. Some people prefer the reliability of a power supply, even though it's proven that you get a lot of noise with your power which cannot be cleaned inexpensively.
I prefer batteries, just plain ole Duracell; but I rarely use more than one pedal at a time. If I had a pedal board, I would probably use a dedicated power supply, like a Voodoo Labs, with a very good power conditioner such as Panamax, Monster Cable, or Richard Gray's Power Company.
so you'd need a power conditioner in addition to the voodoo labs? i thought it already had noise-removing circuitry? though i guess a dedicated unit for that is better.
this is a cool thread, by the way. :drink:
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What about rechargeable batteries...?
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What about rechargeable batteries...?
A definite no-no.
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What about rechargeable batteries...?
A definite no-no.
Yes yes!
http://www.award-session.com/ansmann_power.html
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What about rechargeable batteries...?
A definite no-no.
Yes yes!
http://www.award-session.com/ansmann_power.html
It says there that the rechargeable battery only gives out 8.4v, and this will drop as the battery starts to wear out.
Surely a pedal receiving 9V of power from a supply, or from a fresh battery, would sound 'better' than 1 thats not receiving the full 9-volts?
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I think its more of a money thing, especially with a few pedals being used constantly.
I`d rather just get out there and rock!
Power pack FTW!
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I think its more of a money thing, especially with a few pedals being used constantly.
I`d rather just get out there and rock!
Power pack FTW!
amen!
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To answer a previous question, no you don't need a power conditioner with a Voddo Labs Pedal power. All the vcoltage output sare regulated (as well as being ground isolated and short circuit protected).
Rechargable batteries tend to "die" very quickly, and will obviously happen right in the middle of a solo!
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To answer a previous question, no you don't need a power conditioner with a Voddo Labs Pedal power. All the vcoltage output sare regulated (as well as being ground isolated and short circuit protected).
The VoodooLabs is crazy expensive (200 EUR) but it's the only one that has "drag" potis and can operate +ive tip and -ive tip pedals at the same time. The Fulltone SoulBender has inverse polarity and it's been driving me crazy.
The VL also has corroidial transformer which seems to be the best weapon against AC hum.
Still not keen in investing half a used GH50L in pedal power, but might have to be ...
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To answer a previous question, no you don't need a power conditioner with a Voddo Labs Pedal power. All the vcoltage output sare regulated (as well as being ground isolated and short circuit protected).
Rechargable batteries tend to "die" very quickly, and will obviously happen right in the middle of a solo!
ah, thanks.
i also agree about rechargeable batteries dying very quickly.
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and then you recharge them again - and they don't leak cadmium into the sea coz you dont chuck them in a bin so they cant poison land fill sites and the little fishies and worms - and - and - come on dudes - PDT_002 - the also have that sag everyone loves built in.
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i also agree about rechargeable batteries dying very quickly.
Thats Lithium Ion batterys considerably more useful than the old NiCad ones.
Theyre not perfect but for stuff like digi cameras I have found good Li ion (fully charged) to last longer than a set of new alkaline AAs
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^ true.
i have metal hydride ones (supposedly more environmentally friendly than ni-cd, and don't have the "memory" problem)... and they're a bit cr@p. in our remote controls, they die out extremely quickly.
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the only pedal i notice a difference with is my dunlop[ gcb95 crybabu
on power it tends to amke the sound muddy i dont get why so i use batterys and its much more natural sounding.
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the only pedal i notice a difference with is my dunlop[ gcb95 crybabu
on power it tends to amke the sound muddy i dont get why so i use batterys and its much more natural sounding.
My mate's synth is the opposite - On batteries it sounds awfully dead and muddy, so he even plugs it in when he plays gigs.