Power supply issues

[Pea Turgh]

Hola peeps.  My boy is going down the effects rabbit hole big time.  Only been playing since May but he’s making excellent progress.

He’s hit a snag though - the distortion pedals at the end of his present chain aren’t happy/aren’t working properly.

 

Bit of a funny set up - Royal Blood-style.

Bass goes in to EHX Bass Blogger, affected output goes to a Korg Pitchblack tuner (for muting the bass channel) then in to the bass amp.

The ‘clean’ out from the Blogger goes to a TC Sub’n’Up (on “up” only), then in to a Little Bear R.attack RT2 (possibly to be swapped out with a Big Muff at a later date), on to a guitar amp.

All currently powered with a Nordel Audio Power Core.  Says isolated, but at £34 I don’t believe it.

 

Am I right in thinking digital & analog pedals don’t like sharing power supplies?

 

Can anyone recommend a suitable power supply with enough oomph to power the above pedals adequately?

 

Thank you kindly in advance!

[itu]

What's the headroom of the Nordel? How much do the fx consume / pedal, or in total? Nordel should be more powerful than the fx pedals.

 

If there's any pedal with center positive, you may face complicated issues.

[Pea Turgh]

Will have a look now…

 

[Pea Turgh]

Bass blogger: 9v 10mA

Korg Pitchblack: 9v 20mA

TC Sub’n’up: 9v 100mA

Little Bear R.Attack RT2 9v 200mA

 

All centre-negative.

 

330mA required in total?
 

I just plugged the pedals in to the supposedly correct outputs on the Nordell, and it seemed to work for about 15 seconds, then just buzzes.  Assume my power supply is now faulty?

[Pea Turgh]

So the Nordell has 7x 9v 100mA outputs, a 9v 500mA, 12v 100mA & 18v 100mA.

 

Borrowed an EHX Double Muff (9v 100mA) - works but noisy as hell.

 

 The Little Bear (9v 200mA) works for a short period of time but then stops.  Works brilliantly in isolation.

 

These distortions are trying to replace my Zoom MS70cdr (9v 500mA) which worked perfectly (I just want it back!)

 

Is this an analogue/digital conflict?

[itu]

The power needed for the fx seems to be on the lower side: 330 mA is not so much. The next step is to try to exclude one fx at a time from the group and the power. Is the Little bear in the 500 mA line?

 

I have a Valeton looper which does not want to work if certain other pedals are in line - even with their own PSUs.

[Downunderwonder]

The tuner has an aux power out supply point which may save you a potential bad loop.

 

Sometimes the ground reference of a pedal is different after awhile on, or off.

 

I know that sounds like I know what I am talking about but actually not. I had a problem when two particular pedals where both on and not with either on separately. That was how it was explained to me more ot less.

 

Adding an biamp into mix isn't going to help. 

[AJ567]

 

Assuming nothing is faulty, this sounds like a grounding issue, which ought to be solved by a properly isolated power supply. Bi-amping and combining analogue/digital pedals are both prime candidates for throwing up grounding problems!

 

NB Could also be a dodgy patch cable... Are you 100% sure they are all good? One dodgy cable anywhere in the chain might cause grounding issues like this. The bad cable is not necessarily connected to the "problem" pedal. A cable tester is worth its weight in gold to put your mind at ease here - a cable with a tiny short to ground can wreak havoc while not obviously sounding wrong when used by itself. This one is cheap and cheerful:  https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_mct10.htm

 

While we're at it, highly recommend this for a great quality power supply. Why pay more? https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_1ac_pro_modular.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Elfrasho]

48 minutes ago, AJ567 said:

 

 

While we're at it, highly recommend this for a great quality power supply. Why pay more? https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_1ac_pro_modular.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

+1 for that. I've got one and it's working a treat,  including an hx stomp with a current doubler.  All in a very nice quality chassis.. and having it run from a kettle plug is a huge advantage! 

[Pea Turgh]

Ooh, and it can be daisy-chained by kettle lead, too!  I do very much like the look of that.  In the Thomann basket it goes…

[tauzero]

On 13/11/2022 at 21:32, Pea Turgh said:

So the Nordell has 7x 9v 100mA outputs, a 9v 500mA, 12v 100mA & 18v 100mA.

 

Borrowed an EHX Double Muff (9v 100mA) - works but noisy as hell.

 

 The Little Bear (9v 200mA) works for a short period of time but then stops.  Works brilliantly in isolation.

 

These distortions are trying to replace my Zoom MS70cdr (9v 500mA) which worked perfectly (I just want it back!)

 

Is this an analogue/digital conflict?

 

Have you tried introducing the effects one at a time, starting with the Little Bear? Also, if you have a daisy chain lead, you could try powering the Little Bear and/or the Double Muff from two outlets instead of one.

[AJ567]

12 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

Ooh, and it can be daisy-chained by kettle lead, too!  I do very much like the look of that.  In the Thomann basket it goes…

 

Yeah it actually comes with a little kettle plug coupler thing, so you can add another unit if your power needs become more complicated. E.g. the ISO-2AC or ISO3-AC modules have more features. Or, you can make/find your own AC patch lead and add any other power supply! I'm running a Diago powerstation off my one.