The Steel Guitar Forum

Any experiences/opinions on power supply's for pedals. Good price, glitches etc?

The Cioks supplies are really nice but not cheap. I have a DC5 and it is a sturdy, quiet, well-designed, low-profile unit with a lot of power and features given it's tiny size. Anything guitar-related that has the word "voodoo" in the name makes me cringe, but I haven't heard anyone complain about the Voodoo Labs supply other than that they don't fit under low-profile pedal boards.

I really like the Decibel 11 products. As far as something that you can purchase in a store or online. I like to tinker so I make my own . It's definitely cheaper to buy ready made if you want several isolated outputs .

When I contacted Strymon concerning a single power supply to power three of their pedals (these units have a higher output demand than most),Voodoo Labs was the brand that they recommended.

Thanks guys. Good input. I'll let you what I end up with.

David Nugent wrote:When I contacted Strymon concerning a single power supply to power three of their pedals (these units have a higher output demand than most),Voodoo Labs was the brand that they recommended.

strymon has their own power supply for sale now.

play music!

There are really two problems I see with the multi-port power supplies. When you get into the higher "regulated" voltages, 12,18,24, some of these power supplies "will not" output accurate regulated voltage. For example: 25.6V, 23.8V, 25.4V ,23.6V---IS NOT--accurate 24 volts. Therefore-- devices designed to run off of accurate 24 volts regulated will not operate correctly from sloppy voltage! When buying one of these power supplies take a volt meter and check the higher regulated voltage to see how accurate it is.
Next: School yourself on what regulated voltage, and un-regulated voltage is. I suspect only 5 people out of a hundred buying these power supplies understand regulated and un-regulated voltage. Furthermore I don't know if they take the time to read the paper work that comes with these power supplies. Many expensive devices gets burned up by people who either fail to read the instructions, or people who don't understand the instructions after reading them. The Voodoo instruction book is a half inch thick.

Good points Keith. Yes I do know the differences in regulated and unregulated voltages. As far as putting a meter on the outputs, again a good point. Heck I do that with the walwarts that come with the effects. Thought I was a little paranoid doing that so I'm glad you brought that up. Now I know I'm not the only one who doesn't take for granted what the microscopic lettering on the device says. The reason I'm thinking on going this way is when you've got several effects, dealing with walwarts will finally make you cuss, especially if you play out a lot, which I do. Having one supply for your effects is certainly an attractive idea, thus the reason I asked. I kind of move a little slow on things I haven't dealt with. Thanks for everyone's input. If there's more please bring it on. I like ammo when deciding on something.

An important piece of information: What pedals are you using?

Also, this subject came up here in the last few months. At that time I posted some information on several models/brands. A search should turn it up.