Noisy Pedal Power - I hate hum.

[ryan]

I'm sick of buying batteries...

I have just two things which require them -- a Boss NS/2 and a Vox wah.

The boss can theoretically power the wah -BUT- when I plug a wall-wart into the boss, I get hum thru my system.

(it really sucks that the NOISE SUPRESSOR is making the hum)

I plugged them both into our bass player's SKB-25 powered pedal board thing and that works dandy. *No hum at all.

Now, before I go out a blow $180 on a pedalboard I really don't want, can anyone recommend anything else?

I realize Voodoo Lab makes a Pedal Power thing and Dunlop makes the Juice Box, but those items are in the hundreds-of-dollars range, and I just want ONE STINKING CONDITIONED POWER SOURCE. *I don't need 9 outputs. *I don't need an AC convenience jack.

Does anyone make a conditioned Wall-Wart which doesn't hum? *If not, is the Dunlop thing decent? *It's a hundred bucks less than the Voodoo Lab box, but I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the VL thing will work as advertised.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Mark DY]

Been there recently. Here's my tale - have pedals and was sick of paying for batteries, so I got a Dunlop DC brick (formerly the juice box), worked great. Then I saw the SKB PS-25 and sold my DC brick and got the SKB. When I got it I noticed that there was more hum than with the Brick. Then I saw the Furman SPB-8 pedal board with built in power conditioner and got that, which is an awsome pedal board, but I was still getting some noise (but it is much better than the SKB). So I saw here that you should have an UN shielded cable for the head to cab connection - so I got one and that reduced the noise alot. I am now in the process of divorce, no, re-cabling my board and connections with George L's cable (solderless) so I don't have any crappy links. If you want to buy an SKB PS-25 cheap, e-mail me. Personally, If I'd have known I was going to go through all this, I'd have kept the DC Brick and custom built my own board using that to power it. *

[gkelm]

I just picked up a Signalflex power supply...kind of a poor man's Pedal Power with only five 9v outs. *Seems to work fine with minimal hum. *It's a great deal at about $40.
Greg

[ryan]

I found a Radio Shack 800ma wall wart laying around...

It works fine in the NS/2, but if I run the wah off the NS/2's extra jack, it gets noisy.

Today I went and got the SignalFlex PS9 thing. *It hums as bad as the 200ma Boss wall wart...

I sent an e-mail about the PS-25 thing. *Lemme know...

[LGMT]

I bought (4) 9v rechargeable batteries and a charger.I end with all my hum and power cables problems. But i still have my 2 noisy power supply (1 for wah and other for tube screamer) .... just for pratice at home.

[Mark DY]

Well... I don't think (at least by what I've done in the last 2 months) that you can blame the power supply as the sole source of noise. Crappy cables are probably equally to blame. I just re-worked my board with George L solderless cables and also changed to an unshielded cable for head to cab and got rid of almost all hum and can hear my sound clearly. I am still waiting for the .255 cables for my guitar-to-wah-to-amp connection. They don't look like much, but they are sweet sounding and easy to deal with. I'm just saying that noise probably occurs from multiple sources and not just a poor power supply.

Mark *

[ryan]

Here's my thinking:

Put batteries in -- NO NOISE

Use 800ma Radio Shack wart -- NO NOISE

Use Boss (or any other tip-negative) wart -- LOTS OF NOISE

That means the DC power sources are the sole source of noise, since I don't have any when there's not one connected to my stuff.

Besides, most of my cables are Monster and all have been checked in the past two days.

[RSVampire]

he's got a point...

[Mark DY]

Point taken

[ryan]

Mark (and anyone else fighting noise problems...),


Got the PS-25...

The adapter you supplied is 12VDC...

Dunno how that affected your pedals, but my NS/2 makes a loud BANG when you step on it to turn it on or off...

So... * I tried the 800ma Radio Shack thing I was using before and it's BETTER thru the PS-25 but the wah is still noisy (it's less noisy to the point where the NS/2 cuts it out completely)

Then I grabbed the wall-wart off of my bass player's PS-25 and hooked it to mine... no hum. *At all.

I dunno what they're doing in Taiwan with that particular wall-wart, but it's absolutely quiet. *I ordered one from SKB for $10 plus $4 shipping so it seems my noise problem is solved.

[Mark DY]

Sorry - I never thought about that - I just assumed that it was a 9 volt. I was more concerned with the fact that it was a 200ma as that's the way I got it (used). I went to the local store and checked the ma on a new PS-25 and it was 300ma so I bought the 800ma radio shack adapter and still got hum, but same thing - not as bad.

No wall wart on the Furman, so I don't have that problem any more.

Good luck with it.

Mark