How do you feel about pedals that DO NOT take batteries?

[Darkglass]

And following on the cadmium issue, the mean reason it's use was forbidden was that they pollute... but guess what's one of the biggest sources of cadmium pollution: batteries! Which ironically enough are exempt from this regulation... pretty funny (or sad) given that batteries are a lot more likely to end up on a wastefield than an optical compressor or envelope filter. Just an example at how effective law makers can be sometimes at tackling these issues .

 

[nshuman]

Just an example at how effective law makers can be sometimes at pandering to strong lobbies .

FTFY

Seriously, there are so many great long-lasting rechargeable battery options these days. While they still have an environmental footprint, they are a much better choice, especially if you have young kids that go through AAs and AAAs like they are candy. I can't understand how non-rechargeable batteries are still legally sold, in packs of 50 no less.

 

[Corey Y]

I would buy a pedal that doesn't take batteries. I'd prefer a pedal not take batteries, actually. I always use a power supply and I'd prefer not to have to deal with keeping track of battery power and changing them. The ecological issue, using batteries continually creating polluting garbage, is something I've considered but it's not my primary reason. If the current technology for batteries were very different I might have a different view on the latter issue, but my practical concerns would be the same. I don't want to have to worry about knowing when a battery is going to die, how it losing power before it dies will effect the performance of a pedal and dealing with the routine of changing it in an inconvenient setting.

 

[abbub]

I suspect that the number of people who've had bad experiences playing music because a battery ran out of juice on them is far greater than the number of people who've had a bad experience playing music because a power strip, power supply, or wall-wart went bad on them. I don't give any consideration to whether a pedal uses battery or not. In fact, I don't put batteries in my pedals that do take them.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

I prefer my pedals without batteries. Partly for ecological reasons but mostly because I never put one in anyways. I use true bypass so I really don't care if something happens to wall power when I am on stage. The only pedal I am truly going to miss is the tuner, I don't require boxes for tone.

 

[negativefx]

I flat out do not build pedals that have battery snaps. The wife is a eco-engineer... must not disobey her 'no batteries' mandate. =) I don't really think that the guitar FX community is responsible for or really has a significant impact on the landfills, but hey, do your part. I would not buy a pedal that *only* ran on batteries but I also wouldn't skip a pedal because it had battery snaps. To me, running off battery is way too unreliable and 9v's are friggin expensive now. Fixing noise issues from PSUs is easy enough and the added convenience of not having to worry about batteries at gigs is huge.

One big plus to having snaps: international gigs. I've had a few people request pedals that specifically ran on 9V because they have a hard time touring EU with PSUs.

 

[Adamixoye]

FTFY

Seriously, there are so many great long-lasting rechargeable battery options these days. While they still have an environmental footprint, they are a much better choice, especially if you have young kids that go through AAs and AAAs like they are candy. I can't understand how non-rechargeable batteries are still legally sold, in packs of 50 no less.

I am pleased with how respectful this conversation has been despite veering into politically charged topics. I don't want to upset that. However, I will throw in $0.02 on this topic that might (unintentionally!) ruffle some feathers.

When you say you can't understand how these things are legally sold, the answer is pretty simple. There are a lot of us that believe that just because something is a good idea, or because 51% of the people vote for it, that doesn't mean the government should make a law about it. It's not just lobbying that is the problem. It's that we have lawmakers taking "principled stands" where they don't know what they're talking about. For example, watch this---https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospNRk2uM3U. I absolutely do NOT want to debate gun control, but that is an example of a legislator who wrote legislation and she doesn't even understand what it is she's trying to ban or why.

Some of us advocate for taking personal responsibility and free market solutions rather than wanting new laws. I can understand that large companies and industries don't have the greatest track record on many things, and that's why people might be inclined to look to the government for regulation. But there can be a lot of unintended consequences. And thus there are reasonable people who want to approach these things differently.

 

[nshuman]

Sorry about the politics guys, I forgot I was on Talkbass for a minute

 

[MCS4]

Makes no difference to me. I use a power supply and keep a One Spot and daisy chain handy in case it ever fails.

 

[Mosfed]

The only thing is that what if something happens and power gets cut to your board. Then, no sound with no batteries.

In most instances when that has happened to me it was because we blew the whole place. Not just to my pedal board - but naturally the amp was effected to. So I am pretty much willing to take that risk. And look if I have to play clean to the amp once in a while, it wouldn't kill me.

 

[FretNoMore]

Same here, we've lost all power three times that I can recall, twice in a restaurant with dodgy wiring and once when we overloaded a gasoline powered generator on a boat.

Other than breaking a string once I've never had any of my personal equipment fail at a gig, touch wood.

 

[father of fires]

After reading some of these responses it seems to me that some people think that "battery only" is one of the options being discussed here and I think we can all agree that would not be reasonable at all.

I've said it several times but I'll try and sum it up differently. I prefer to use a powered pedal board for gigs and jam sessions and I prefer to have the ability to pull a single pedal out of my board and have it run on battery for a short while for quick practice sessions until it returns to my board. I would not buy a battery only pedal, I'd be hesitant to buy a battery-less pedal, and I'd be more eager to buy a pedal that can do both.

I may be in the minority in this thread but I believe wholeheartedly that I am in the majority in the bass world as a whole.

If the pedal is killer and you can't fit a battery just go without it. There will never be a consensus and people will make do if they like the pedal.

 

[huckleberry1]

Glad we gave you a good laugh . But to clarify, in our case at least it's not politics at all because so far there are no laws preventing us or other builders from including battery snaps on the products (a good example of politics getting on the way of product development is why we can't use components with lead or cadmium, which goes against EU regulations and is why we can't reissue the Opresor, the photocoupler has cadmium in it and it goes against RoHS criteria).

This is a very interesting discussion and like with many complex issues there's no real black or white, it's just a big gray area.

Regards,
Doug.[/QUOTE) Thank you for the response, love your product! Great to know the logic behind the scenes. I can't tell you how many people love my tone.

 

[totallyfrozen]

...Seriously, there are so many great long-lasting rechargeable battery options these days...I can't understand how non-rechargeable batteries are still legally sold, in packs of 50 no less.

That gets into a whole, long conversation and the science of it (and the $ involved in the whole thing too).

Ignoring the corporate profits convo for a second, not all rechargeables are long-lasting. Of course battery life is also greatly effected by the device it's in.

At the end if the day, rechargeables have a finite life since they can only be recharged a number of times. So alkaline or rechargeable, they both end up in the landfill eventually.



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[nshuman]

That gets into a whole, long conversation and the science of it (and the $ involved in the whole thing too).

Ignoring the corporate profits convo for a second, not all rechargeables are long-lasting. Of course battery life is also greatly effected by the device it's in.

At the end if the day, rechargeables have a finite life since they can only be recharged a number of times. So alkaline or rechargeable, they both end up in the landfill eventually.



Sent from my iPhone 5c using TalkBass mobile app

Sure, although the Eneloops I use in everything are rated at about 1K recharges and hold 75-80% of their charge over a couple of years. No matter what they should be sent to special recycling and not the landfill. At least, that is what I do. I have about 120 Eneloops in rotation in my household right now. Maybe 10-20 on top of that have been sent to recycling over the last 5 years. If I was using non rechargeable, I would have probably have sent maybe 2000-3000 batteries to the recycling centre in that same period. The math/science is pretty simple. If this was applied to someone who did not care about the environment and just sent their batteries to the landfill, there would still be a much smaller environmental footprint with rechargeables.

 

[totallyfrozen]

Sure, although the Eneloops I use in everything are rated at about 1K recharges and hold 75-80% of their charge over a couple of years. No matter what they should be sent to special recycling and not the landfill. At least, that is what I do. I have about 120 Eneloops in rotation in my household right now. Maybe 10-20 on top of that have been sent to recycling over the last 5 years. If I was using non rechargeable, I would have probably have sent maybe 2000-3000 batteries to the recycling centre in that same period. The math/science is pretty simple. If this was applied to someone who did not care about the environment and just sent their batteries to the landfill, there would still be a much smaller environmental footprint with rechargeables.

Thumbs up to you, man!
I do think it's worthwhile for us to try to reduce our waste.

From what I've seen, the Eneloop brand rechargeables get very high customer ratings. I think as the rechargeables go, they're one of the top brands out there.

I admit that I recharge my AA and AAA batts but I don't recharge 9v. I run my pedals on AC so I don't use 9v really. My charger doesn't take 9v so I can't charge them anyway. If you can and you run your pedals DC, it's good that you recharge. Personally, I'd be nervous about trusting an entire gig to rechargeable batteries--but maybe that's just me.


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[nshuman]

Thumbs up to you, man!
I do think it's worthwhile for us to try to reduce our waste.

From what I've seen, the Eneloop brand rechargeables get very high customer ratings. I think as the rechargeables go, they're one of the top brands out there.

I admit that I recharge my AA and AAA batts but I don't recharge 9v. I run my pedals on AC so I don't use 9v really. My charger doesn't take 9v so I can't charge them anyway. If you can and you run your pedals DC, it's good that you recharge. Personally, I'd be nervous about trusting an entire gig to rechargeable batteries--but maybe that's just me.


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I used to run my board using 16 AA eneloops but there are also ready made battery packs on eBay or stuff like the PT Volto. I think those are better battery solutions for pedals. I have a couple rechargeable 9v batteries for some kids' toys but anything that will be 9-9.6v (not 8.4v) and actually long lasting like eneloops will be very expensive.

 

[grygrx]

I generally do not use batteries, but...

I generally toss one backup drive pedal into my bag with a battery. If push comes to shove and the pedal board acts up during a show, I throw the drive pedal between the in and out cables and continue, rather the mess around with it on stage. I've only had to do it once ever, but I sure like having the option.

 

[moosapotamus]

How about this...

Would you absolutely not buy a pedal that would not run on a battery, if it was not sold with a power supply?

Personally, I would, because I use a power supply with enough capacity to power my whole pedalboard. So I don't need any more wall warts. How many besides me have a big box full of wall warts that you hardly ever use?

But I have had music store owners tell me that you must include a power supply with the pedal if it does not accept a battery.

~ Charlie

 

[Adamixoye]

But I have had music store owners tell me that you must include a power supply with the pedal if it does not accept a battery.

?

That describes several pedals I've bought---Empress and Darkglass in particular.