Aaargh - pedal board catastrophe

[herbychimp]

Hi all,

I haven't managed to post in a while due to work commitments and flued-up children. However, 10 days ago my band played at party and one of my greatest gear related fears took place .. my pedal board died. For a long-time I just had a set of assorted pedals kicking around the floor but back in February we had an extended series of practices & gigs so I took the plunge and purchased a pedal train jr. I had figured out that it was just about big enough for my current collection and so I took to youtube to research the best signal chain order. Rightly or wrongly this is what I ended up with.

Guitar > Dunlop wah > compressor > Boss graphic > Wampler pinnacle > Boss chorus > EVH phaser > Egnater rebel.

I also have a T-Rex reptile & TC electronic mini HOF in the effects loop.

All this seemed fine earlier in the year and I would have added a noise gate if there had of been room. Exactly what happened I am not sure but having checked all the connections (patch leads / power cables) I still couldn't get a sound if I switched any of the pedals on from the chain in front of the amp (FX loop fine) so I ended up going direct to the amp all night long and wondering what the f*ck I had done.

As I tried each pedal one by one (by taking the others out of the chain) none of them seemed to work so I suspect that the problem lies with the power supply. It is here that I skimped the most because rather than opting for a Voodoo Labs unit I plumped for the much cheaper Joyo 2 power supply. However the power supply is still all lit up by it's blue LEDs and visually shows no sign of being damaged or having had a meltdown (unlike me) I am really not sure how to diagnose where the problem lies. I realise that I can put a 9V battery in each pedal and therefore test each one individually but I wondered if there is a better way of testing the supply unit itself? Given that it was less that 6 months old I would not have expected it to fail but it does seem to be the only common factor.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to proceed? To be honest, I am so p*ssed off at the moment that I am thinking of reverting to one of those Sansamp fly rigs to keep things super simple but then I do love the Wampler ..

cheers,

Stef

[Dave Sloven]

(1) It's your power supply if pedals aren't lighting up.  The Joyo power supplies have a bad rep for reliability. If the pedals are lighting up then it is a faulty instrument cable or jack somewhere, or a dead pedal that is not true bypass in the chain

(2) You only need the one 9V battery to test all of them out

(3) I recommend the T-Rex Fuel Tank Chameleon for this board.  I have one under my PT-JR.  I bought Pedaltrain's Universal Bracket UBKT-1 to install it, but it is really just some shaped metal straps, some screws, and some velcro.  That said I bought the same kit for my PT-2 as well because it was easy.

This is what it looks like under my PT-JR



Videos on this power supply:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgJLx3cL9JQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XY-5KfLn6E

Unlike some power supplies it is switchable 115V/230V.  It has a standard kettle lead

Each isolated output provides 300mA @ 9V DC, 220mA @ 12V DC, or 150mA @ 18V DC (there is only one 9V/18V outlet).  It can also provide 12V AC

[CommonCourtesy]

Might be dodgy patch cables or link cables from the power supply.

I recommend the T-Rex fuel tank stuff too, I have the Junior version (only 5 isolated outputs - don't use many effects) and its been a reliable workhorse since, have had it for about 4 years now and never had any issues with it. Voodoo labs is also very good but slightly more expensive I think? I wouldn't scrimp and use those cheap ones as the power source can be unreliable, you get noise and stuff like that. So it pays to get a good one!

[Dave Sloven]

I have the Junior version under my PT-2, which has quite a few pedals on it but they are all 9V DC and have a low amp draw.  I use it on my bass rig.  Pedals on it are a TC Polytune, Crybaby from Hell, T-Rex Mudhoney II, TC Rottweiler, MXR Custom Modified Badass O.D., Way Huge Swollen Pickle, Boss LS-2, Boss NS-2, and an MXR Bass D.I.+ ... it has no problems running all of those with only five outputs.  The two Boss pedals both have a 9V power out, and I think I have a couple of 1-into-2 or 1-into-3 cables

[CommonCourtesy]

If I was a bigger pedal user (which I probably won't be) I'd go for the main fuel tank, the blue one? Like yourself I could power 2 pedals off a single output if I needed to, the only "effect" I use is a tubescreamer, and that's usually always on if I'm on the red channel. The other two pedals are a tuner and noise gate. Less is more for me, and I like to keep my signal chain nice and neat, and short!

[Dave Sloven]

The green one is the most versatile one.  I think for that reason it is the most popular for people with bigger boards now.  People with less power demands tend  to go for the Junior because it's cheaper and that's all they need.  It is also more compact.

[CommonCourtesy]

I guess I'd use that if I joined a function band and I'd be needing choruses/delays/wah and other sort of modulation effects.

The Jnr fits snugly in the corner of my board, so they got that right there.

[Alex]

Try a battery, see if you get some pedals to work.

[herbychimp]

Massive thanks for all the advice - I will be testing all pedals tomorrow. I know that I shouldn't have skimped on the power supply but to be honest I really wasn't sure whether I would get the use out of the board so I took a cheaper option - never again! I will also check to make sure that all of my pedals are the standard 9V - I don't want to make another mistake and get something that isn't quite so suitable. Will post back when all tests are done.

cheers

Stef

[Dave Sloven]

If you can afford something that can provide 18V, I'd do that.  You can get 18V from the Fuel Tank Junior but only by combining two outlets with a voltage doubler cable.  That leaves you with another three 9V outlets.  The Junior 9V outlets are 120mA, whereas the Chameleon gives 300mA.  In practice I find that what this allows is a longer daisy chain from one outlet.  Most of my pedals have a low current draw.  I think the highest on my board (probably the ISP G-String) is still under 50mA.

[gwEm]

I have the fuel tank chameleon too. I got it second hand. It was still a bit pricey, but its great. No regrets there.