Power supply to use with Boss, Dunlop and Ashdown?

[davidjackson]

hi guys,

I am new to powering effects pedals but am looking to start building a pedal board. I have a Dunlop MXR87 compressor, an Ashdown Odomoeter tuner and am looking to buy some boss pedals.

The Boss website says the Boss pedals need a Boss power supply, the Dunlop says you need to use a Dunlop power supply. I have done some searches and it sounds like some people are powering both a Dunlop and Boss (and other pedals) with the same unit. When I have tried to dig deeper on other websites I am getting lost in the techie jargon.

Can anybody help?

Thanks.

[millahh]

Can't speak for the Ashdown, but Boss and Dunlop both take the same power.

[bongomania]

Every pedal brand says to use only their power supply, because (a) they make money selling power supplies, and (b) it avoids a legal liability problem.

The fact is brand has nothing to do with it, and techie jargon has everything to do with it. You have to learn and understand what specific parameters of power are needed, and what is actually provided by each supply.

Conveniently, most pedals accept the exact same power supply as each other. Boss, Dunlop, and Ashdown all take the same power and can use each other's supplies.

But just because that's the convenient majority does not let you off the hook from learning how they all work.

[blacklariat09]

If you are building a board you will most likely want to power multiple pedals with 1 or 2 wall plugs (as opposed to a dedicated plug for each one).

There are a few ways this can be done:

A) Daisy chain - simplest and cheapest method. You plug a line to the wall (wall wart) and it has 5-9 9V connectors that you can plug into each one. I used a OneSpot adapter for this before I got my current setup.

B) Powered board - SKB makes some of these and a few other companies do also. The board itself has a power supply attached to it and you use that to power the pedals. It works similar functionally to the next option.

C) Power block (conditioner) - A lot of people have these made by VooDoo Labs. You get a block and that plugs to the wall and it has several ports that give power to each pedal with a (usually) supplied cable. I use this now with 2 Gator G-BUS-8's on a GPT-PRO board.

D) Seen done but would never do - I have seen people do individual adapters into a power strip. It just looks bad and is not better than A.

You can get some buzz from option A but it does work. C is the preferred option IMO and there is a lot you can do. Depends on what board you look at and how many pedals you have.

The other thing is making sure that you don't have too many amps on your lines. Usually not a problem but something you should check especially on option A.

[davidjackson]

Great thanks guys.

PS: Bongomania -Your fantastic website helped me choose the Dunlop compressor so thanks for that too!