'MA' question

[Slartibartfarst42]

I'm sorry if this sounds like a really stupid question but my knowledge of electronics is zero. I'm looking for a power supply with a right-angled jack for a Mark Tremonti Wah pedal that is completely silent (the power supply, not the pedal). I see lots of these online and you'd think they all do the same thing but I notice that they all seem to have different 'MA' ratings. I've seen a Panasonic  with a 350MA rating, another that looks the same with a 500MA rating and I've seen others at 1350MA. What is this and what difference does it make to its performance in supplying power to my Wah pedal? Finally, I seem to find loads of power leads with straight jacks but very few with angled jacks so if you have any links, that would be cool too  :D

Thanks

[Dmoney]

its the power rating of the supply in milliamps.

Your wah will draw a certain amount of current... as an example... 20mA
Now in order to power that, you need a supply rated to deliver over that power (you don't want to draw the maximum rated power out of your supply at all times or it will run hot and probably not like you much and then blue smoke will come out and thats when power supply heaven is calling).

So, you need to find out the current draw of your wah (probably in a manual) and you need a supply to handle that. If you're running a pedal board from a DC supply you need to work out the sum total of current draw by all the pedals hanging off a supply and work out the means to deliver power appropriately.

Any of those supplies you've mentioned can give you enough power, 1350mA is probably overkill.

for pedals, I use a Palmer PWT05 and each out put gives 120mA, which is enough to run a couple of pedals on.

[Slartibartfarst42]

In that case, it sounds like my power supply issues are easy. Most of my effects are in the Quattro and that runs direct from the mains. Other than that, I'm only using the Wah and a Pitchblack. I was going to just use a daisy chain at first but they all connect 5 or 6 pedals, which seems a bit excessive when I only use two. As a result, I was thinking of just running the wah from its own power supply and leaving the tuner on a battery for the time being. If I get a noise gate too at some point, I can always add a daisy chain extension to any power supply I buy. Anyway, it seems likely that something of 500MA will easily power even 3 effects.

[Dmoney]

500mA is more than enough.
I think palmer give an average pedal draw as 20mA, but in reality it can be a lot less. I'd imagine complex digital pedals draw more power.

after a less than 5mins googling...

I went here http://www.morleypedals.com/downloads.html
found the Tremonti Power wah. It draws 12mA
A Boss NS-2 (as an example gate) is 20mA
And I think a pitchblack is 35mA (When active)

So that would be a total of 67mA being pulled through the supply. So 500mA is still way more than enough.


EDIT: it's also worth saying... getting a good supply is important if you don't want to end up with noise getting into your pedals. For a long time I only used batteries because I hated the noise induced in my signal by running my pedals off a wall wart and daisy chain.

[BigB]

In that case, it sounds like my power supply issues are easy. Most of my effects are in the Quattro and that runs direct from the mains. Other than that, I'm only using the Wah and a Pitchblack. I was going to just use a daisy chain at first but they all connect 5 or 6 pedals, which seems a bit excessive when I only use two. As a result, I was thinking of just running the wah from its own power supply and leaving the tuner on a battery for the time being. If I get a noise gate too at some point, I can always add a daisy chain extension to any power supply I buy. Anyway, it seems likely that something of 500MA will easily power even 3 effects.

The current draw really depends on the circuit, can range from less than 10mA (simple fuzz circuit) to 200+mA (digital delay / modulation). You'll find a lot of useful infos here : http://stinkfoot.se/power-list

About the power supply unit itself: it has to be at least very well filtered to avoid ripple noise, which rules out most standard adaptors. I've AB tested the boss PSA 230 and the cheaper Thomann equivalent and the difference was huge.

wrt/ daisy chain, the boss PSA (500mA) can technically provide enough current for a basic pedalboard (ie: a tuner, a couple dirtboxes, a wah, an analog modulation and a small analog delay) but you rapidly have issues with bad grounding, hum, weird noises etc. 

Now if it's only for a pitchblack and a wah there shouldn't be any problem (and that's an understatement). Also the pitchblack has a power outlet that can supply up to 200mA (if it's own power supply can provide that much current itself, of course). Note that your wah itself shouldn't need more than 20mA (the Bad Horsier is stated at 12mA, the PWA I & II about 5mA, and most wahs - Vox, Cry Baby etc - eats even less current, sometimes under 1mA).  The pitchblack itself will eat much more current.