Harley Benton Power Bar

[stewblack]

In my quest for the ultimate pedal board power system I've tried so many solutions. 

The best and most affordable was the rechargeable power pack. But I just couldn't shake the nagging fear that it would run flat mid performance. I should add that it never did. Ever. But I'm not a rational being and I hate distraction while I'm playing .

So enter my latest (last?) PSU.

The power bar replaces the top bar in your HB board. In fact you take the whole thing apart and replace the sides as well. Unless you buy it as a 'power board' which is a board with the power bar already built in.

They come in different widths to suit your needs. Power via a kettle lead, have pretty green lights, a multitude of options in including USB outs on the front.

 

 

Mine (the 60) has 13 fully isolated silent outputs. Even I couldn't use them all! There is a 3000ma 9v for hungry multi effects, a 24v link, multiple 500ma, 300ma and 250ma 9v, and four 500ma sockets switchable for 12, 18 or 9v.

 

 

The unit comes packaged with all the gubbins you could ever want. Velcro, power cables of various lengths, cables to reverse polarity, cables to link a 9v battery, cables for old pedals with mini jack inputs. There's even a bag of cable tidy clips.

 

 

Simple, elegant, efficient and effective. 

 

 

[Crusoe]

That looks the business

[stewblack]

Just now, Crusoe said:

That looks the business

It really is. 

[stewblack]

I should add, I also bought some of the HB pedal raiser thingies. 

There's four of them on the top rows of the board. Pleasantly surprised how good they are. Metal, really solid, already velcro on top and bottom and pre drilled for those who might prefer to fix them that way.

Deliberately riddled with slots and holes to facilitate simple cable runs in any conceivable direction. 

[rushbo]

I love stuff like this - it soothes my OCD.

 

I wish I could justify grabbing one of these, but my humble PowerPlant Jr is doing a sterling job of powering my teenytiny selection of toys on my board. 

 

Looking at the bits you've just bought, am I right in thinking that with a few wooden/metal strips of an appropriate thickness and a couple of adjustable feet/legs, you could turn it into a perfectly serviceable, DIY pedalboard? 

[stewblack]

59 minutes ago, rushbo said:

I love stuff like this - it soothes my OCD.

 

I wish I could justify grabbing one of these, but my humble PowerPlant Jr is doing a sterling job of powering my teenytiny selection of toys on my board. 

 

Looking at the bits you've just bought, am I right in thinking that with a few wooden/metal strips of an appropriate thickness and a couple of adjustable feet/legs, you could turn it into a perfectly serviceable, DIY pedalboard? 

100%

The bar comes with the side rails so you would only need to add as many bars as you desire. 

Also the power bar and sides are drilled and threaded ready for the feet 👍

Edited March 16, 2023 by stewblack

[gafbass02]

Absolute genius..might have to go back to my Benton board now! (Switched to Pedaltrain)

[stewblack]

Used it last night. No problems at all. Very happy.

[JapanAxe]

That looks to be exactly what the world has been waiting for - well, when I say ‘the world’ I mean ‘I’. I’m off to the Thomann website to consider my options…

 

 

Thanks for sharing that Stew!

[King Tut]

I’m a bit peed off - I had a parcel from Thomann yesterday with a HB board and separate power supply. If I’d realised these things existed, I’d probably have bought one!

[stewblack]

I should have communicated my discovery earlier. I'm so sorry. But you can never have too many PSUs right?

😬

[lidl e]

On 16/03/2023 at 10:44, stewblack said:

I should add, I also bought some of the HB pedal raiser thingies. 

There's four of them on the top rows of the board. Pleasantly surprised how good they are. Metal, really solid, already velcro on top and bottom and pre drilled for those who might prefer to fix them that way.

Deliberately riddled with slots and holes to facilitate simple cable runs in any conceivable direction. 

Thats exactly what i need.

 

Do the risers interfere with closing the case (assuming this is a HB spaceship board)

[lidl e]

On 16/03/2023 at 10:27, stewblack said:

In my quest for the ultimate pedal board power system I've tried so many solutions. 

The best and most affordable was the rechargeable power pack. But I just couldn't shake the nagging fear that it would run flat mid performance. I should add that it never did. Ever. But I'm not a rational being and I hate distraction while I'm playing .

So enter my latest (last?) PSU.

The power bar replaces the top bar in your HB board. In fact you take the whole thing apart and replace the sides as well. Unless you buy it as a 'power board' which is a board with the power bar already built in.

They come in different widths to suit your needs. Power via a kettle lead, have pretty green lights, a multitude of options in including USB outs on the front.

 

 

Mine (the 60) has 13 fully isolated silent outputs. Even I couldn't use them all! There is a 3000ma 9v for hungry multi effects, a 24v link, multiple 500ma, 300ma and 250ma 9v, and four 500ma sockets switchable for 12, 18 or 9v.

 

 

The unit comes packaged with all the gubbins you could ever want. Velcro, power cables of various lengths, cables to reverse polarity, cables to link a 9v battery, cables for old pedals with mini jack inputs. There's even a bag of cable tidy clips.

 

 

Simple, elegant, efficient and effective. 

 

 

One thing to note,  which caused me to have to reconfigure my power supply, is on the switchable 9/12/18 ports, the Mah is halved as you up the voltage

[stewblack]

4 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Thats exactly what i need.

 

Do the risers interfere with closing the case (assuming this is a HB spaceship board)

Interesting you should ask. Yes it is a spaceship board in a hard case. And yes it did prevent proper closing. I removed the front 'legs' and problem solved. Small faff each time but well worth it.

[stewblack]

1 minute ago, lidl e said:

One thing to note,  which caused me to have to reconfigure my power supply, is on the switchable 9/12/18 ports, the Mah is halved as you up the voltage

I wasn't aware of this. I suffered no problems though. Which is good.

[lidl e]

1 minute ago, stewblack said:

Interesting you should ask. Yes it is a spaceship board in a hard case. And yes it did prevent proper closing. I removed the front 'legs' and problem solved. Small faff each time but well worth it.

I regret not getting the hard case and getting the soft case as it moves the buttons.

[lidl e]

5 minutes ago, stewblack said:

I wasn't aware of this. I suffered no problems though. Which is good.

Aye, it worked for me, but i got paranoid,

 

i have a pedal that need 18v 300mah. I figured i could use the 18v port, but it is only 150mah(i think, maybe 220) at 18v. It worked, but i bought cable that allows me to use two 9 @ 450mah and making sure im getting full power

Edited March 18, 2023 by lidl e

[King Tut]

2 hours ago, lidl e said:

I regret not getting the hard case and getting the soft case as it moves the buttons.

The hard cases aren't very strong. My old one has cracked quite badly. Mind you, it was regularly loaded in the back of he band van.

[King Tut]

3 hours ago, stewblack said:

I should have communicated my discovery earlier. I'm so sorry. But you can never have too many PSUs right?

😬

Having said that, it looks like they do them for the 40's and 60's but not the 50's so i couldn't have got one anyway. Bizarre!

[MartinB]

That's a really smart design, and it's great that they did it properly with an IEC cable instead of having a separate power brick

[stewblack]

21 hours ago, MartinB said:

That's a really smart design, and it's great that they did it properly with an IEC cable instead of having a separate power brick

One of the main selling points for me. And the included cable has a neat low profile right angled plug. 

It really is well thought out.

Edited March 19, 2023 by stewblack