is 9 volts=9volts=9volts?

[morroben]

I have a ZVex SuperDuper that runs on a 9 volt battery. Actually, it runs forever on a 9 volt battery. Surprisingly so. Nonetheless, I'd like to add wall wart power to it so that I can leave the input plugged in without eventually draining the battery.
I know that I have other effects with wall warts and there are different plugs. Is that just a proprietary thing? Are they doing the same thing, just with their own plug? Can I install any of these type things on my ZVex without problems? Will any wall wart that gives 9 volts do the trick? Seems like it would but I figure I should check.

[Gothma]

Hi morroben,

There are a couple of things you need to watch out for. The most important is that the connection is the correct polarity. Some are tip positive and some tip negative. Now a decent pedal should have a diode fitted so that no damage will be done if the wrong polarity power supply is used but it's much better not to test it

The other thing is that the supply needs to be able to give the required current but as you say the pedal works for ever on a battery that's not likely to be a problem.

I'd just check the polarity and give it a go.

Oh yes a really cheap unregulated supply might put a lot of noise into the signal as well.

Hope that's helpful.

Gothma AKA Andy R

[beep.click]

Originally Posted by morroben

Will any wall wart that gives 9 volts do the trick? Seems like it would but I figure I should check.

You'd think, wouldn't you?

I've come to the conclusion that some pedals are just picky. I was getting weird noises last weekend, using three REGULATED wall warts. I got it all to work by using ONE wall wart, on one pedal -- ran the other two pedals on battery.

Curiously, seemed like the weird noise was related to two of the wall warts, which were identical. The noise only appeared when I turned a pedal on... BUT, the offending wall wart didn't have to be plugged into THAT PEDAL. If the wall wart was plugged into ANY pedal in the chain, the noise would occur.

Similarly, I've plugged regulated wall warts into pedals and got noise, and the noise has gone away when I switched to an UNregulated transformer.

PUNCHLINE: you can't get away from trial and error. Things that should work, don't, necessarily.

[Noodler]

Does having a wall wart plugged in to a pedal, with no power to the wall wart at all still bypass the battery and stop it from draining? It would be easier than unplugging the inputs all the time.

+2 to what the other posters have said. Even some regulated 9V supplies can be not so clean.

Just watch some other pedals like EHX Electric Mistrss, old Big Muff. Not sure on polarity of those and they have a different plug, can come with their own unique power supply. Some Line 6 gear will die if not powered correctly, even when it "should" be OK, like in a daisy chain with plenty of mA. Some T-Rex pedals run at 24V, etc. People do report less noise if you use the propritary PSA especially Behringer stuff, but I've always gone Radio shack Regulated 9V centre neg for most.

Are you talking about putting in a barrel adaptor where there wasn't one before?

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by beep.click

Things that should work, don't, necessarily.

I got a 1 Spot and was really expecting to be amazed, given all of the positive remarks and such.

...Well, things just didn't go very well. The first problem was using it in conjunction with a bulletproof old Arion PSB-06 (which would be enough, if it was capable of pushing more than 400mA). As soon as 1 Spot power was mixed with Arion power, it got really noisy. And the 1 Spot on it's own was noticably noisier than the old Arion.

...So the 1 Spot got relegated to my mini board, figuring that it would be fine just powering 3 to 4 pedals. Sadly, no dice. It was fine with just a trem and delay, but when I added my Holy Grail to the mix, a high frequency whine was added to the signal (along with a bit of hum). When I tried to add in a Tube Driver (with it's own separate power supply), the hum was so loud that it was unbelievable.

If you're using older pedals, the noise problem can be increased because of filter caps that have dried up, or were undersized in the first place. A really easy fix for older pedals is to push up the size of the filter cap(s), add one where there was none, and even add a small series resistor prior to the cap, to shunt more hum. I had a pair of Muffs that were noisy as all get out, and a 470uF cap in both of them shut them up really well...

[11 Gauge]

Originally Posted by Noodler

Does having a wall wart plugged in to a pedal, with no power to the wall wart at all still bypass the battery and stop it from draining?

If it's wired up correctly then it should, because there's a contact in the jack that disconnects the battery when the adapter plug is inserted.

It's an easy test - just fire up the pedal with the battery in it, and then insert the adapter plug (with the adapter unplugged at the wall), and you should lose power.

[Noodler]

Originally Posted by 11 Gauge

If it's wired up correctly then it should, because there's a contact in the jack that disconnects the battery when the adapter plug is inserted.

It's an easy test - just fire up the pedal with the battery in it, and then insert the adapter plug (with the adapter unplugged at the wall), and you should lose power.

Thanks, so that means not having to unplug the inputs of all my Boss pedals anymore since they're daisy-chained, which was a real pain. I thought it might be a case like with some radios and things that even when they're turned off the battery still runs down overnight.

Cheers, 11 Gauge, you're great to have around.