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Does anybody run a Pork & Pickle at 18v? Safe?

Andre678

Andre678

Nov 22, 2011
601
1,260
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
#1
Hi everyone. I bought a Pork & Pickle a few days ago and I am having second thoughts about how safe it will be running it at 18v. I tried it out when I came out and I loved it but after reading about it discovered the headroom issue with the clean preamp. I tried looking for information about running the Pork and Pickle at 18v and can't seem to find anything.

I bought a 18v adaptor (Dunlop ECB004) when I bought the pedal and only ran it that way the last few days. It sounds amazing and I love the pedal. I tried it with a 9v adaptor this morning and was amazed at just how bad the headroom issue really is. I had hoped that since people have run the Pork Loin for years with seemingly no problem I would be safe. But how about running a Russian Pickle at 18v? Or this new Pork and Pickle?

So basically I am wondering if anybody has been running their Pork & Pickle at 18v safely for some time? Since the pedal has been out for a while now I was hoping to get some positive information. I really like this pedal alot, both the Pork and the Pickle side, I just dont want to waste my money and fry it running it at 18v only. I read on the megathread that Way Huge says not to, however I think I read they said the same about the Pork Loin (I could be wrong about that) so that does not necessarily mean no.

Thank you for any help you can give me. I don't want to return the pedal but I fear may have to....
 
#3
I'd love to know more about this too.

I used to run a Pork Loin at 18v for years. The pedal still works fine to this day. I don't know if that was just a happy accident. I guess I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else but my Pork Loin never had any issues.
 
#6
Robertron said:
It felt like more of my bass was coming through before the clipping happened. It also seemed a touch louder. Unity gain was pretty much 9 o'clock. Anything higher than that on the volume knob gave me a boost.
Click to expand...

First off thanks for the responses everyone. I have been wanting to know this since the pedal was announced and I am sure I am not the only one.

Yeah I had found the same when I tried running the Pork Loin side as a clean boost (so I could use the tone know for my active basses) I also found the driven sound itself to be a lot more rich and full and nice sounding.

I ended up returning the pedal. I have been regretting it ever since because I absolutely loved the sound of the pedal. With every bass I had. Even sounded best on my most recent acquisition I use for Drop C. However the fear that I was frying it every time I played was eating at the back of my mind and I knew it would be there forever. I could live with the clipping even though it bothered me in my head because I used the pedal for full drive fuzz not low drive anyways and whatever was happening sounded amazing.

My plan now is to buy a Wounded Paw Blender V3 before anything else, so I never have to worry about this nonsense or a lack of a good blend knob with another pedal. At that point I may even buy another Pork and Pickle or maybe just a Russian Pickle. Or anything really. Sovtek Deluxe is at the top of the list next to another Pork and Pickle or Russian Pickle.

P.S. I would still love to know the answer to this question because I very well may buy one again in the future if the Wounded Paw Blender V3 plus EHX Sovtek Deluxe doesn't sound as good. Maybe the Bass and Treble knobs on the Wounded Paw clean blend can work as wonderfully as the clean tone does on the P&P...
 
#8
whoismarykelly said:
If you ran it at 18v and it worked then you can run it at 18v. If anything in the pedal couldn’t handle the voltage it would have fried that part rapidly. A part rated for 10v isn’t going to shoulder the load for a while and then break. Its going to go right away.
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This makes sense and is kind of reassuring to hear. It's one of those things already believe but there's still that nagging doubt in the back of your mind.

After this thread I went and took out my Pork Loin, plugged an 18v lead in from my MXR brick, and had some fun. It isn't back on the board but it's a damn fine pedal.
 
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#9
whoismarykelly said:
If you ran it at 18v and it worked then you can run it at 18v. If anything in the pedal couldn’t handle the voltage it would have fried that part rapidly. A part rated for 10v isn’t going to shoulder the load for a while and then break. Its going to go right away.
Click to expand...

Well thank you that. That was what hoping to hear. Too bad I panicked and brought it back before that good news. I know pretty much nothing about electronics and didn't want to try the thing before the 30 day return policy was up.

So I could probably assume then that because I ran the pedal for 3 days at mostly full drive but bedroom volume then it is safe to run at 18 volts regularly? If that is the case it will be put back on my list of pedals to buy because that sound was amazing. I could live with having to buy another pedal for low dirt applications because I almost always use drive and distortion pedals at full drive. I have tubes in my amps for low overdrive I suppose.
 
#11
dedpool1052 said:
Tried my P&P at 18V.
Works just fine.
Adds some transparency, and with the gain set low, adds this great harmonic richness and "sparkle" to the notes.
Click to expand...

I have regretted returning this pedal ever since. Now that I have multiple pedals I think I could live with the clipping of the low notes issue when using the pedal.

When I had it, I had not been planning on buying tons of pedals and thought it could not be my one and only dirt because of the clipping. Once I heard it, even on 18V I could not un hear it and it just popped out at me.

I still plan on getting a Russian Pickle one day and seeing if I can make it sound as amazing as the P&P using my FFXL for a low-passed clean blend to kinda be the same as the super amazing clean tone knob on the Pickle. I think having a tone knob for the clean blend is the unique super magic of this pedal.

Could be hazy memories but I still remember that as my favourite dirt/fuzz I have heard so far. Although I got it pretty good right now for dirt so maybe not anymore. My EHX Sovtek Deluxe just does not have the same awesome sauce. If I am lucky enough to score a Calamity maybe it will match the Russian Pickle.

I think I may just talked myself into picking another of these things up. Or just a Russian Pickle.
 
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#13
dedpool1052 said:
I know the clipping you mean.
I hear it on the low notes from the clean side, clean tone below noon, and my hot G&Ls in series.
Leaving the clean set lower, clean tone at noon, and drive set a bit higher, it goes unnoticed.
Click to expand...

That seems to be about what I remember too. It bugged me because my favourite tones were with the clean tone below noon.
 
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#15
I just bought a Pork & Pickle and all I can say is what everyone says: amazing pedal. Great, great, great overdive. One of the best I've used. But...I have the clipping problem too (I have very hot output bass). I can (barely) live with the overdrive clipping at clean settings, but my hot signal makes the fuzz side useless. Is anybody still using it at 18V without any issues? Does it really makes a difference? Love this pedal.
 
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#16
Sergi said:
Is anybody still using it at 18V without any issues? Does it really makes a difference? Love this pedal.
Click to expand...

late to the party but just to confirm it, you will not have any issues running a P & P at 18V. i just took mine apart to check it & the main electrolytic filter caps are rated at 35V, others at 25V and one at 50V.

Pork n Pickle PCB-01.jpg
 
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#17
johnk_10 said:
late to the party but just to confirm it, you will not have any issues running a P & P at 18V. i just took mine apart to check it & the main electrolytic filter caps are rated at 35V, others at 25V and one at 50V.

pork-n-pickle-pcb-01-jpg.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow, thank you! Mistery solved. I'll try this next week, when I'll be able to get a 18V power supply). Do you think it can make a noticeable difference, or it will be a subtle thing?
 
#18
Sergi said:
Wow, thank you! Mistery solved. I'll try this next week, when I'll be able to get a 18V power supply). Do you think it can make a noticeable difference, or it will be a subtle thing?
Click to expand...
it'll probably clean it up a bit but. i run mine at 9V and haven't tried it at 18V yet.
 
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#19
Sergi said:
Wow, thank you! Mistery solved. I'll try this next week, when I'll be able to get a 18V power supply). Do you think it can make a noticeable difference, or it will be a subtle thing?
Click to expand...
It made enough of a difference for me that I couldn't run it at 9V after running at 18V because it sounded so much better at 18V. YMMV of course.

johnk_10 said:
late to the party but just to confirm it, you will not have any issues running a P & P at 18V. i just took mine apart to check it & the main electrolytic filter caps are rated at 35V, others at 25V and one at 50V.
Click to expand...

Nice thank you. Some solid proof it is safe. I have actually been thinking of picking one of these up again because I remember it sounded so amazing. I got rid of it because I was being silly at the time and actually thought I would only have one fuzz/dirt pedal.:roflmao::laugh::rollno:

20220107_172903[1].jpg


I wonder how it would compare to the Calamity through a FFXL? I remember the secret sauce of the P&P being the tone control on the clean blend.
 
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#20
Would the newer "smalls" version of the Pork and Pickle also be safe to run at 18V? I heard Tripps say in an interview that the only differences between the smalls and their larger siblings is that the smalls don't have soft switching, because it wouldn't fit in the smaller case. I also have the problem with my basses (even passive ones) clipping the preamp.
 

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