Recharge! Vitamin C for your stomps...

aja

Why do people even bother trying to use power supplies for stomp boxes? I mean really, who wants to go through the hassle of finding positive tip, negative tip, 3.13754mm diameter gold plated silly power supply things? Then there is the added bonus of an entire pedalboard going south in the gig if the power supply dies. You cant just use any old 9V power supply either since you will get humming and so on... Then there is my pet hate - having to fiddle with the two prong plugs until they make a connection!

Why not just use rechargeable batteries!?!? I just got a nice GP charger that does all the sizes. The 9volt batteries go for around R40-R50 these days, but the rechargeable ones are only R95 and last for 500-1000 charge cycles. Am I missing something here? Why doesn't everyone do this? The only slight problem I can see is that the rechargeable batteries aren't exactly 9volt, more like 8.5V. So maybe this is a problem for the digital effects, or what?

I hate going to a buddy's house and having to muck about with double-adapters and extension chords anyway...

MikeM

Look at the mAh.. ? I had 9v issues with paintball gear..

Also a good power supply will be one plug with many adapters ?

aja

MikeM wrote Look at the mAh.. ? I had 9v issues with paintball gear..

Also a good power supply will be one plug with many adapters ?

200mAh. Not really that great I know. I just did a comparison with the rechargeable battery (freshly charged) and a boss power supply on the MI Audio Tubezone - I really can't hear any difference. Time will tell how well the battery holds up though...

I can't for the life of me find my multimeter. Otherwise I would have taken some readings before and after usage...

MikeM

I am sure you know this, but mAh refers to the total amount of current the battery can push out.. I used high performance 9vs that were 1100mAh.. High performance rechargables were 400 if I rememer... So basically rechargables will not last as long..

nick

I can think of nothing worse than having to pull apart my entire pedalboard everytime to replace 6 9v batteries. Good 2 amp out of the wall suits me fine ?

aja

MikeM wrote I am sure you know this, but mAh refers to the total amount of current the battery can push out.. I used high performance 9vs that were 1100mAh.. High performance rechargables were 400 if I rememer... So basically rechargables will not last as long..

Sure, but I don't mind recharging them more often... So there is no problem with using rechargeable's with effects? No loss of tone or damage or meltdowns?

DonovanB

I'm with Nick, but thats just another reason why Multi's are cool

Danny-B

Multi's are cool! My first pedal was a GT-8...loverly bit of kit! Just didn't like the amp sims...but recently sold that and bought stomps.

My stomps are on a BCB 60 pedal board. I have a pedal that needs 12V instead of nine, so that complicates things at gigs. I have to carry around an extension cable and double adapter, and then have to go throught the hassle and worry that the damned plugs won't sit properly...but I feel alot safer with a power supply rather than batteries. I'd be too worried about the batterries during my playing.

AlanRatcliffe

There's also the fact that most 9V rechargeables aren't 9V - they are something like 8.4V or 7.2V - with some pedals that makes a difference. Hell, Eric Johnson reckons there's a difference in brands of 9V because of slightly different voltages.

Also don't forget that most rechargeables can only be recharged a certain number of times before they need replacing. Long before they get replaced their mAh goes down.

Battery is fine for one or two stomps, but more than that and a power supply becomes important IMO. The only other time where batteries make sense is wireless transmitters - and many prefer the alkalines over the rechargeables anyway.

MIKA-the-better-one

It comes down to this, if you are a hobbyist who just plays guitar on a minor scale, enjoys the fun of it (relaxing) then batteries rechargable or not are fine. But I very much doubt you can find your pro international musicians using 9batteries, they go through with that tiny annoyance of plugging something in, but in the process provide enough power and a good sound. Its all in all how committed you are. To me batteries are annoying and impracticle if using more than two pedals. Its really not that hard to hook up an extension to a two prong adaptor = 2min max and neither of those items are that heavy.
Its actually easier to just hook your pedals up once and for all, and plug em in.

aja

/\/\
I guess that's true, Mika.

I hardly use pedals so for me to recharge is no issue at all

TomCat

There is another problem with batteries if you pedals are mounted to a pedalboard in that you would have to dismantle your pedalboard every time you are finished playing as the batteries will run flat when the input jacks are plugged in.

I built a common power supply for our pedalboard and all has worked perfectly from day one.