radiophonic Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 I've just bought a 1980s OC2 on ebay. It has the 'Use ACA supply only' sticker on the back. I use a One Spot CS7 supply that will deliver regulated and isolated 9 or 12v per outlet and I also daisy chain a couple of the low current analog pedals. My understanding is that the old ACA pedals were unregulated and that the original supply would deliver up to about 14v, depending on the demand and that a modern 9v supply is not recommended. I've also read that (for some reason) if you daisy chain the OC2 (why? something to do with a common earth maybe?), it's happy with a regulated 9v supply. Since I don't want to risk blowing anything, what's the recommended solution? 12v regulated or 9v daisy chain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 The wonderfully-titled Stinkfoot website has a page about the Boss ACA power supply http://stinkfoot.se/archives/726 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 Both will work. I don't quite understand how the common earth thing works, but you can easily see if you plug it into a 9v daisy chain by itself, the LED is dim. Add another pedal to the daisy chain and it burns bright just as if you were powering it from 12V. Not sure what happens if you give it a 12V daisy chain though!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 3, 2019 Author Share Posted June 3, 2019 Cool. Hopefully the daisy chain thing works. I'm a bit short on outlets and running one at 12v would be annoying since it would have to be dedicated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 The ACA pedals have a dropper resistor on the ground side of the power supply. Daisy chaining bypasses this as long as you are using a non-ACA pedal. Or you can (reversibly) modify the pedal: http://www.stubmandrel.co.uk/14-music/171-boss-hm-2-pedal-9-volt-psu-conversion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 3, 2019 Author Share Posted June 3, 2019 That all looks fairly straightforward. I've got a Source Audio EQ coming a the same time and I'm trying to avoid the need to upgrade my PSU. The OC2 will displace an Okto Nojs, which is already daiychained, so fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassThing Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 My Boss BF-2 is an ACA type, however the 9v daisy chaining does not work with it (strictly speaking, I've tried it with common ground 9v outputs on my Mooer Macro Power S8 PSU rather than an actual daisy chain cable) so I just use the isolated 12v output on the PSU instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 3, 2019 Author Share Posted June 3, 2019 2 hours ago, BassThing said: My Boss BF-2 is an ACA type, however the 9v daisy chaining does not work with it (strictly speaking, I've tried it with common ground 9v outputs on my Mooer Macro Power S8 PSU rather than an actual daisy chain cable) so I just use the isolated 12v output on the PSU instead. Is that the old brown/gold one? I used to have one of those. It didn't like the impedance of an active bass - although in pre-internet days all I knew was that it sucked the low end in bypass. A guitar player vanished with mine. 12v is doable but a bit of an annoyance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 18 minutes ago, radiophonic said: Is that the old brown/gold one? I used to have one of those. It didn't like the impedance of an active bass - although in pre-internet days all I knew was that it sucked the low end in bypass. A guitar player vanished with mine. 12v is doable but a bit of an annoyance. Indeed. I can't say I've ever noticed any loss of low end with passive basses, so yes probably an impedance mismatch. They are a bit of a 'marmite' pedal but I like it. Useful for Neil Young songs - I used it for parts of Hey Hey My My recently and back in the day I used to do a couple of solos for Like a Hurricane using it (we didn't have a lead guitarist!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassThing Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 38 minutes ago, radiophonic said: Is that the old brown/gold one? No, it's not the BF-2B, it's the purple guitar one. I tend to use either my MXR M117R or an old Aria flanger on my bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 Silly me! I saw brown/gold and assumed you meant the HM-2! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 4, 2019 Author Share Posted June 4, 2019 10 hours ago, BassThing said: No, it's not the BF-2B, it's the purple guitar one. I tend to use either my MXR M117R or an old Aria flanger on my bass. I get it. The BF2B was supposed to low pass the fundamentals and only flange the top end. It was pretty innovative really and it was probably fine on a passive bass but the buffer really reacted badly to my stingray. Sounded great on guitar though. I assume this is something Boss realised at some point because, modern Boss pedals don't have this issue at all IME. I expect similar issues with the OC2, so I'm planning on running an EQ pedal ahead of it to drop the input level and dial back the frequency extremes if needed. I can then boost the overall signal back to unity later in the chain via my ES-5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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