• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Dear pedal companies.

#63
Emanuel Apascaritei said:
I was trying out the pedal board of a bass brother and had a mooer power plant....don´t know what...9v adaptor for pedals....I couldn't see the pedals if they were on or off, not to say the knobs, cause of that flashing blue light....
Click to expand...

1394581425602.jpg


This one.
 
#65
JesseVMT said:
Are the majority of people still using batteries? That's seems silly with power supply's available at almost any price point.
Click to expand...

Yes, but if you use them (power supplies) and put your own bright lights into all of them, you'll discover that they may exceed the current limit of you power supply. Say a pedal draws 50 mA with its present lightning (!). You put another one in, brighter, stronger, and suddenly the pedal draw is 100mA. Add a few pedals on top of that and you run out of juice from the power supply as well.

Still, the TC Electronic idea with flexible display brightness, both bright and low lights, to ambient light situations is the best deal. Would rather have that, than any "one brightness fits all". Can't be that expensive. Granted it may be built in from the start on, and then you'll know what to expect in terms of current draw.
 
#66
Meyatch said:
They should put a photo sensor in, so they get brighter when you are playing an outdoor daytime gig, and dimmer when you are playing a poorly lit hole in the wall.
Click to expand...

Yes, the best thing, but then there's some other w*nker onstage with his MarkBass amp or other pedals with bright lights, that makes this sensor believe it's broad daylight! :D
 
#67
I thought (and hoped) that when I read the headline: "Dear Pedal Companies" would contain a pleade appeal of something for all companies TO NOT INCLUDE BRIGHT BLUE LEDS on their pedals! Quite stumped, that it was the reverse!
 
#68
When it's too bright, you can't see your settings on the pedal on a dark stage because it's too bright. Also, batteries die faster. When it's not bright enough, you can't see if the pedal is on or off of you're playing outdoors daytime. There are some rare pedals with a trim pot for the led.
 
#69
The new high efficiency LED's can get blindingly bright with only 1mA of current. The blue LED's in my pedals are only drawing 0.6mA of current and the red LED's draw 0.4mA of current. They have very little impact on the power supply or battery.

-Frank
 
  • Like
Reactions: JimmyM
#71
JesseVMT said:
Why not use extra bright LEDs in everything? I find that most pedals are adequate, but I prefer a very bright light on my pedals.

I find the lights MXR used to the the minimum I have no issue with. Anything less bright I don't like. My big muff could be brighter... the Cliff Burton Morley could be much brighter...

I'm just wondering why bright lights aren't used everywhere? Ibanez tube screamers have terrible lighting for example.
Click to expand...

this is a joke right? The LED's on MXR are so god damn bright it literally leaves trails in my vision. I tape the lights with black duct just so I don't get blinded..
 
  • Like
Reactions: Honch
#73
Honch said:
...
Like, making the bottom reversable. That once you screw the bottom off, turn it upside down, strap some velcro on it, and screw it back, with all the rubber pads, labels for serial numbers turned inwards, and not being damaged in any way. When you sell it, rip the velco off, turn on the bottom plate, and the rubber pads and labels looks like new.
Click to expand...

Now this really is good! In fact, better would be to have the velcro already in place - just flip the back and you are ready to go... Plus, you don't lose the rubber feet if you turn it back again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Honch
#75
boomertech said:
The new high efficiency LED's can get blindingly bright with only 1mA of current. The blue LED's in my pedals are only drawing 0.6mA of current and the red LED's draw 0.4mA of current. They have very little impact on the power supply or battery.

-Frank
Click to expand...

That's what I thought. That's been my experience as well. After swapping a red LED to a green LED and brightening up the LED, the guitar player said batteries lasted just as long. The new opamp we changed to after, however, did reduce battery life.

Any change will somehow impact battery life and current draw, but by only a few tenths of an mA, that might be what, a change in seconds of battery life?
 
#76
isher1992 said:
You could, but there's a far cheaper solution... just find the limiting resistor for the LED, should be either on the anode or cathode side and change it... if its 3K, change it to 2.2K, if 2.2K, change to 1.5K, etc.

I forget what value Boss likes off the top of my head, but I know its a pretty high resistance.

Edit: On a CE-2, the resistor in question is R51 on the circuit board. Its 3.9K, so change it to 2.2K and see if that's better. Same for a CE-2B.
Click to expand...

Good idea, thanks! Mine is the CE-2. I've already modified it once to accept a standard 9V wall wart (can't remember if it was because of polarity or it wanted 12V instead of 9V but anyhow) so changing that resistor should be a good compliment to that mod. And I really shouldn't be spending money on new pedals right now anyway.

Somewhere stashed away on a hard drive I have the schematic for the pedal and I likely have a 2.2k Ohm resistor around so I think I will take a stab at it this weekend. I have a gig Saturday where I will use it but it's indoors so Sunday should work fine.
 
#77
As with everything there is a balance. I've had some pedals so dim you couldn't tell if it was on or not. I've had others so bright you couldn't tell where the knobs were because it was blinding to look at it. Something in the middle is (of course) my preferred.
 
#78
mikeyjm2 said:
Good idea, thanks! Mine is the CE-2. I've already modified it once to accept a standard 9V wall wart (can't remember if it was because of polarity or it wanted 12V instead of 9V but anyhow) so changing that resistor should be a good compliment to that mod. And I really shouldn't be spending money on new pedals right now anyway.

Somewhere stashed away on a hard drive I have the schematic for the pedal and I likely have a 2.2k Ohm resistor around so I think I will take a stab at it this weekend. I have a gig Saturday where I will use it but it's indoors so Sunday should work fine.
Click to expand...

Yes, the CE-2 and CE-2B are sister circuits, so the LED limiting resistor is the same on both. Just be careful on those older Boss boards. If you have selectable temperature, I would recommend between 620-700 degrees. That probably seems counter-intuitive to the quick-in quick-out approach, but those older boards like the DOD stuff will lift pads pretty easily if you are just a second too much at higher temps. The newer boards seem to handle heat better. But I think the hole plating is bigger on the newer ones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mikeyjm2
#79
Gravedigger Dav said:
brighter light = shorter battery life.

put one of this on stage and aim it at your pedal board. Problem solved

View attachment 902249
Click to expand...

As long as you are not paying the piwer bill. :D

A friend was rehabbing an old house and was running a generator while he brought the electrical systrm out of the stone age. He got one of those big hallogen stand lights and every time he plugged it in it would pull the generator down so bad it was all he could run off his 6500 watt generator.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back