Who's running a pedalboard just with a power strip?

jdh3000

jdh3000

May 16, 2016
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#1
I've been running 7 pedals plus a line 6 wireless off a power strip, one like you'd get at Lowe's... I've played in clubs without any issues.
I've recently added a few more pedals, one actually containing a preamp tube. Nothing is daisy chained.
My next purchase will be a dedicated power supply like the Truetone CS12
I'm not really getting much noise but haven't had the opportunity yet to use it on a gig.
The strip is just mounted under the board.

Has anyone skirted by using just using a power strip?

I have 2 one spot 9v under there and have thought about running a few pedals off of them, but I don't want to create any problems that currently don't exist.
The power right now should be fairly isolated, the proximity of the strip may be the deciding factor.
I saw a wall wart power supply snake available somewhere that would fix that by moving a strip away, but for the price I could get an isolated power supply.

I know a dedicated power supply would be the best way to go, and I plan to get one to save on space and avoid noise.

Was just wondering who has successfully used power strips on gigs, either with or without daisy chaining, and how may pedals.
 
#2
I have 13 pedals on my board right now, and I'm using a power strip. I run the EHX pedals off of a One Spot, the rest have their own power supplies. The only issues I've had are gravity pulling the plug on me on an effect mid-set 2.5 years ago. All of a sudden, I only heard one amp, and it was the clean, I look down and find the culprit, and, luckily was able to pedal an open D with one hand, and reconnect with the other while crouching over everything.

Nevertheless, I do have plans to get an isolated supply; my reticence has been justifying the cost to myself. If I were having problems with the way it is, I'd have plunked down the cash or card already.
 
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#3
AlvarHanso said:
I have 13 pedals on my board right now, and I'm using a power strip. I run the EHX pedals off of a One Spot, the rest have their own power supplies. The only issues I've had are gravity pulling the plug on me on an effect mid-set 2.5 years ago. All of a sudden, I only heard one amp, and it was the clean, I look down and find the culprit, and, luckily was able to pedal an open D with one hand, and reconnect with the other while crouching over everything.

Nevertheless, I do have plans to get an isolated supply; my reticence has been justifying the cost to myself. If I were having problems with the way it is, I'd have plunked down the cash or card already.
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I think I'm going to go ahead and daisy chain a few, except for the digital pedals, the Empress that's running 18v and a 12v... Others than those I should be ok... I can always cycle through the remaining ones if I get any noise.

Ultimately an isolated one will be on there, I'm just too broke right now from buying too many pedals, lol!
 
#4
I hear that. And I've also got a worry about using anything other than the Moog power supplies on my MoogerFoogers, just because they do CV. So even when I get an iso supply, I will likely retain those two. And I think the MarkBass has an odd plug, too, 12v. Plus, if ain't broke...
 
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#5
Well, here's some advice from a random bass player guy on the interwebz...

At this point, I wouldn't worry about getting an iso power supply, especially if it's working fine at the house right now. When we get back out to gigging, and you plug it in at some club and it's super noisy because the joint has really dirty electricity(it will happen), you'll want to think about getting a good quality power supply at that point.

There's plenty of good power supply's out there, but I would tell you that the one's you might want to consider are the Strymon's and Cioks/Eventide ones. Yes, they are NOT cheap, but they all have a ton of power, a truckload of outputs, and some cool options to make it easy to power 9v/12v/18v pedals.

Here's my last thought, if you spent good money on all of your pedals, why would you cheap out on the power supply? That's like buying a Ferrari, and putting the cheapest, regular unleaded gas in it! Yeah, it'll run, but...;)
 
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