Recently I've been playing with only 1 pedal (an SD-1) and I've been powering it via battery instead having another wire snaking around. Sadly, I can be a forgetful sod and I sometimes leave the cable plugged in after finishing up. After accidently draining another battery this week I thought why not try some rechargeable batteries instead? I found some on amazon with integrated usb ports, which I thought seemed convenient. But, looking at the reviews some people have mentioned that the batteries' output isnt actually 9V. I used a multimeter to check and have read 8V. I've given one a try in the pedal and it seems to work fine.
My question is; is there a downside to powering a pedal below 9V? Will I break anything?
Comments
Other pedals with more sophisticated I.C's might not start or function properly but most will ... generally you won't damage anything going under voltage unlike going higher would
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
But it turns out they do make them, and I'm still unsure whether they would explode. Would they explode if shorted?
Even at that, the difference between 9V and 8V is only about 0.5dB, so you’re unlikely to hear much difference.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
They are available on e-bay, but quite scarce in uk I think, slightly more expensive at about £10 each, but I bought a few to use as supplies for pedals with no battery. They seem good quality, and it shouldn't take long for them to pay for themselves.
I found some small arduino boxes, which have switches, but found that they are reverse polarity for most pedals.I had to swap the wires round, but with a bit of velcro on the back they are quite a neat solution for a board that has no power supply.
Just have to remember to disconnect them, if I leave the pedals plugged in.
@Danny1969 can I ask, what happens when the battery goes the other way?
I bought a pack of cheap batteries recently and a couple of them measured 10.5v-ish.
I'm trying to "force" the phase effect in a Phase 90 to be more pronounced (it just disappears with gain) so I used the higher voltage ones.
Now I'm thinking your description means I might have given the circuit too much voltage, is it possible to damage an old school analog circuit with 10% extra voltage?
I assume you're running the phaser before the distortion...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
@Danny1969 can I ask, what happens when the battery goes the other way?
I bought a pack of cheap batteries recently and a couple of them measured 10.5v-ish.
I'm trying to "force" the phase effect in a Phase 90 to be more pronounced (it just disappears with gain) so I used the higher voltage ones.
Now I'm thinking your description means I might have given the circuit too much voltage, is it possible to damage an old school analog circuit with 10% extra voltage?
There is a supply voltage effect on the Phase 90 which will also depend on which version you have.
To work optimally the JFETs in the Phase 90 need to have the correct bias voltage applied to them.
This is done with a trimmer inside the pedal and is set at the factory.
There are two ways this voltage is derived in the Phase 90.
One version of the Phase 90 derives the "raw" bias supply with a zener diode, which means that the bias is the same as long as the input voltage is above the zener voltage, so the JFETs will be biased correctly.
The other version the voltage is derived via a voltage divider, so the bias voltage will vary with the input voltage and if it strays too far from the input voltage the bias was set for you will lose the phasing effect.
From memory the original Phase 90s and the "posh" reissue have the voltage divider and all other versions have the zener circuit.
Right now I'm running it on its own into the amp, with everything else (flanger, delay, reverb, tuner!) in the fx loop, trying to keep everything else out of the way. Amp does the drive, no drive pedals. To be fair this approach has helped. But it's not VH1...
Seems that, no matter what amp, or phase 90 variant I use (been many of both) the effect gets smothered and eradicated by gain.
That's one of the reasons why effects loops were invented, although of course the sound of the same effects *after* the distortion is quite different.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Seems like sometimes people eg EVH can use the effect, with a driven sound, with a presence in the sound that I've personally never been able to. Maybe it's a (mahoosive) volume thing. Frustrating.
The more distortion, the more it mushes together the differences in the input signal and obliterates effects, especially those which mix dry and wet signals - eg phaser, flanger, chorus. You still hear tremolo and vibrato fairly clearly because the whole sound is modulated.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It is basically, 2 x 9v daisy chains running off 2 of the batteries I mentioned above.
They are branded 'Znter' and are advertised as being able to output an actual 9v, with 600mAh.
I bought a couple, and they seem like good quality, charge from a standard 5v USB lead.
I also bought a couple of an other brand, 'Smartools' which are 9v, 650mAh, although it does say they put out less than 9v.
It looked a bit messy with 5 of them velcroed around the board, so I thought I would experiment with a couple of 3 way daisy chains, I only had 5 of the batteries anyway, and the Tommy is the only one that actually takes a battery, so this way looks a lot neater. It is something to just pick up and play with, and I am just seeing how long it lives for.
It is a Klon (Klone) into a Guvnor (clone) into a Timmy (Tommy clone) into a Magneto dual drive ( tubescreamer-Rat combo) into a Triangle fuzz (clone) into a Ghost echo (clone), and the only one that is on all the time is the Ghost, so it is just plenty of gain options really.
When I am not using it, it is just a case of disconnecting the 2 daisy chains and it hangs on a cupboard door by the handle at the top.
Came out well in the end.
The batteries are about a tenner each, and state 1200 charge cycles, so should probably outlive me.