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Rookie pedal user battery drain question:

catcauphonic

catcauphonic

High Freak of the Low Frequencies
Mar 30, 2012
6,221
45,710
Seattle WA
#1
My simple question is 'are they draining battery when disengaged, if I leave the in-out cables plugged in overnight?' The 2 in question are an Aguilar Aggro & a Small Stone.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom, TB :)
 
#2
I'm not sure there's a general catch-all rule, but most pedals are indeed draining the battery even when disengaged.

According to my limited understanding, this is either to operate a buffered bypass (which needs power), in order to allow for instantaneous engage (many circuits need some time to power up), in order to prevent pops when engaging, or simply in order to keep the bypass switching circuitry simple and cheap.
 
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#3
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#4
Yes, keeping them plugged in will drain the batteries. Same goes for active basses.

Get in the habit of unplugging and it'll be 2nd nature in no time.

If you find you're using pedals a lot if invest in a power supply. A 1Spot is very inexpensive and will do just fine for most users.
 
#5
Not so sure it's so cut and dry. Boss pedals definitely drain and so do many others, but apparently Matt at Idiotbox has designed his pedals to not drain when not on. I've had a battery in one of my Idiotboxes for weeks now and it's basically still good as new. That pedal always is plugged in.
 
#6
Dave W said:
Yes, keeping them plugged in will drain the batteries. Same goes for active basses.

Get in the habit of unplugging and it'll be 2nd nature in no time.

If you find you're using pedals a lot if invest in a power supply. A 1Spot is very inexpensive and will do just fine for most users.
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Confident i could master that in short time :thumbsup:

What about keeping the battery connected .. That's not going to noticibly effect the life span, right?
 
#10
catcauphonic said:
My simple question is 'are they draining battery when disengaged, if I leave the in-out cables plugged in overnight?' The 2 in question are an Aguilar Aggro & a Small Stone.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom, TB :)
Click to expand...
Yep with most pedals that's the case. The batteries will drain. If you are just getting started and only have a couple pedals I use a one spot to power my pedaltrain mini and have never had any issues with it. It's affordable and doesn't take up any room on Pedalboard. I've heard it doesn't work well with some pedals but I've yet to have any issues and currently have shure glxd wireless/tuner, boss, tc electronic, ehx, and bbe pedals on my board.
 
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#12
Joey Cash said:
What about if there's a battery in the pedal, but it's connected to a power supply? Does it drain the battery at all while it's in use?
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The PS socket on most pedals is designed to disconnect the battery when a plug is inserted.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend that because you are likely to forget the battery and these leak after a few years, and it's a nasty mess to clean.
 
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#13
ProfFrink said:
The PS socket on most pedals is designed to disconnect the battery when a plug is inserted.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend that because you are likely to forget the battery and these leak after a few years, and it's a nasty mess to clean.
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Haha yeah I've been there. I just happened to be taking my Geddy Lee bass apart one day for some reason, only to find out that it had an active eq and the 9v was leaking all over.

I'd thought it was passive all along. :laugh:
 
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#14
ProfFrink said:
The PS socket on most pedals is designed to disconnect the battery when a plug is inserted.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend that because you are likely to forget the battery and these leak after a few years, and it's a nasty mess to clean.
Click to expand...
This is the exact answer I was going to type. A pedal is on whether the signal is passing through it or bypassing it.
 

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