Running US pedals in Europe (power, voltage, etc.)

[kokoshmusun]

Hi, I'm thinking about purchasing some pedals from the U.S. this summer. I live in Turkey (where these pedals are available but more expensive). The electricity here operates on "220 volts, 50 Hz, with round-prong European-style plugs that fit into recessed wall sockets /points."

I'm interested in 9V pedals only as far as I know. I have no solid knowledge of electricity. What are the parameters I need to pay attention to, to make sure the pedals I get operate fine here.

I think I can eventually operate whatever I get but my main concern is that I want to operate all my pedals (made in US and made in/for Turkey) with a standard adapter, and NOT have to carry two separate adapters (one for US pedals and one for those I bought in Turkey).

Is this possible, and how do I make sure I choose pedals that work this way?

My planned acquisitions right now are just Korg pitchblack, a compressor (biyang, BBE opto-stomp, or DOD milk box), maybe a boss OC-2 or MXR bass octave deluxe, an EHX micro q-tron or similar envelope filter for our guitarist.

I appreciate the replies. cheers.

[Downunderwonder]

Anything that's 9V and DC. They don't care one little bit whether the power was 110V or 240V AC before it was turned in DC.

What you need is one good regulated 9V power supply unit in your own voltage to give you 9V DC at whatever current you think you'll need. Add up the peak mA of all your pedals, add 20% for good measure and gulp at the price of the new unit but be glad you're not dealing with multiple adaptors any more.

[warwick.hoy]

As DUW points out,...the main difference between the American Standard and the European Standard is the the Main Voltage. Over here we use 110v (220v for major appliances) and elsewhere they use 240v,...not to mention the configuration of the outlets and plugs are different.

It would appear as though most powersupplies on the market are configurable for 240v operation. Furthermore it would appear as though the Diago Powersupply and the T-Rex powersupplies were originally designed and intended for use with European Electricity standards.

Even the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 is sold in a "European" model that can handle 240v.

Basically it boils down to sourcing a quality powersupply locally in Europe and as long as the powersupply has enough current to feed all your pedals and the supply is adaptable to provide whatever voltage (9v/12v/18v/24v) and whatever polarity (either positive of negative ground [negative ground is the standard]),....it won't matter where you get those pedals from. FWIW all the good powersupplies have these features. Those with isolated power outputs,...while more expensive,...are more desirable IMO.

It's worth mentioning that if you have a pedal that is positive ground (not seeing anything the OP listed that is),...it will require it's own isolated power output,...in other words no daisy chains,...but positve ground pedals are few and far between.

[kokoshmusun]

Thanks guys, that's very helpful. That's what I thought but after our guitarist had to get a special adapter for his American Pod XT, he made me nervous as well. cheers.

[dune2k]

Battery powered pedals are no problem. You'll only have to check whether it's worth it to get some wall wart (power supply) powered pedal plus another wall wart for Europe.

[warwick.hoy]

Line 6 can be an issue because a lot of their stuff is AC powered,...there is some confusion though. The 4 stomp modelers (DL-4, MM-4 etc etc) claim to be AC powered but they have a rectifier after the power input that switch AC to DC,...so you can use A 1spot with them. I can't comment on the Pods and I'm pretty sure the M9/13 are AC only.

That's just regurgitating some lite research on the Line 6 forums.

[kokoshmusun]

Today I bought an EHX Micro Q tron for our guitarist. Just for the hell of it, I asked whether this pedal (its internal electricity circuit) needs to be produced differently to be able to work here, or if its the same pedal that is produced in the U.S. The seller dude said "you can't run U.S. pedals here, because they use 110 V and we use 220 V." But from what we discussed in this thread, that sounded like B.S. It just uses 9 V and a certain amount of ampers, and as long as I supply that with the right tip, it shouldn't matter.

So was he wrong (or lying so I don't get my pedals for half the price from the U.S.)?

Also, I noticed that the q tron is "- (o +" while the MXR M80 and Boss BF-2 I have are "+ (o -". So that means I can't run them with the same adapter? And would something like duncan brick or voodoo lab pedal power run both of those kinds?

[warwick.hoy]

The salesman is full of it if you ask me. As long as your powersupply accepts the European standard you should be fine running pedals from the US.

From the Voodoo Lab Site.

IEC connector:
120V 50/60Hz (North America model)
100V 60Hz (Japan model)
230V 50/60Hz (Europe/Australia model)
Model and input power are marked on the bottom of unit.

...

Important!
Pedal Power 2 Plus is manufactured to operate from a specific supply voltage. There are three different models, which accept 100V, 120V, or 240V mains. All units sold in North America are for 120V only. You cannot operate a 120V Pedal Power using 240V power without the correct step down transformer. The supply voltage is marked on the bottom of the unit.

Using my powers of deduction,...if you source a PP2+ locally it will likely be the model you need for running pedals in Europe. The "Important" disclaimer is probably aimed at Americans who plan to tour in Europe.

Voodoo Labs sells an adapter cable that will run the Q-Tron+ which is center positive which is reverse polarity and different from the BOSS standard. Also note that the barrel size is a little bigger than the BOSS standard. The Q-Tron+ also operates on 24v which would require you to combine two of the ACA outputs from the Voodoo Lab and have the dipswitches set to 12v.

Voodoo Lab - Accessories <--the 11th one down on the chart labeled as 18v/24v 5.5mm x 2.5mm - Reverse Polarity (straight)"

I don't know about the Duncan (do you mean Dunlop?). As far as I know the output on those aren't isolated and I don't think you can combine outputs to double the voltage. Don't quote me on that though,...and you may be able to find other ways to double voltage of the D.Brick.

[kokoshmusun]

Thanks a lot warwick.hoy for taking your time. This is really helpful. BTW, the micro q tron just needs 9V so I think that part is easy. I meant the Dunlop DC Brick. Or really any other power supply. Good to know that with some sort of adapter cable, we can also power the q-tron (at least with Voodoo labs).
cheers.

[kokoshmusun]

I just wanna add a note to not mislead anyone. I said the q tron is "- (o +" but I may be wrong. The q tron has a confusing sign on it. The negative sign is inside the circle. The positive sign is outside. I think this means "center negative." And the MXR and boss have the "+ (o -" sign. I think this also means center negative.

However, the electrician gave me a "- (o +" adaptor and this I guess means center positive. So I used the wrong adaptor for running the q tron, which didn't work, but luckily, it seems to not have done any damage. It still runs with the battery inside.

GOSH!!! I almost ruined everything.

[Downunderwonder]

Yeah, my daisy chain adaptor was labelled all weird so I didn't trust it until I put my multimeter on it and yep, it was labelled wrongly as far as I could work out. Multimeter is a very handy and cheap tool to own.

[JaamE]

you can always change the tips, you just rewire it. Make sure you write on it somewhere that you did though or you will plug it into something else and kill something

[kokoshmusun]

Don't know what a multimeter is but I will get one, sounds handy.