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Do you use batteries or power supply for your pedals?

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Do you use batteries with your pedals?

  • Yes, all the time

    Votes: 4 19.0%

  • No, never

    Votes: 9 42.9%

  • Yes, but only at home, not at gigs

    Votes: 3 14.3%

  • Sometimes

    Votes: 5 23.8%
  • Total voters
    21
Robert

Robert

Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clements.
Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Messages
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City & State/Province
Camrose, Alberta, Canada - used to be Umea Sweden.
I have a One-Spot adapter and I really like it. However, I must say I notice the tone is better when using batteries. It can be a pain to gig with though, if some batteries die halfway through the set:(

If tone is your ultimate quest, try batteries in your pedals if you haven't already!
 
Since I always play at home, I keep all my pedals "wall-warted". No need to hassle with batteries.

Robert, I'm curious--in what way(s), specifically, do you find your effects to sound better when run on 9V batteries?
 
I find the OD and Distortion pedals sound more smooth with batteries. You get a bit of that sag too with batteries. My Wah sounds better with batteries too, more organic sounding, if that makes sense. With the modulation effects, I notice less differences.
 
What's it been...like maybe a year or more ago that I got into using pedals at all? Since then I've used adapters for them. Before this I used only batteries in the 2 pedals I did have....the Ross compressor and the MXR Micro Amp. I haven't noticed a difference between batteries and adapters Rob but maybe you do because you're using more than one pedal at the same time? I can tell the difference in that respect.
 
Robert said:
I have a One-Spot adapter and I really like it. However, I must say I notice the tone is better when using batteries. It can be a pain to gig with though, if some batteries die halfway through the set:(

If tone is your ultimate quest, try batteries in your pedals if you haven't already!
Click to expand...


I'm with you...

Absolutly there is a difference in tone in many cases with DC vs AC/DC.. not to mention no chance of the AC/DC cords picking up any stray frequency tangents from lights etc.. I have certainly found batteries to be the quietest way to go.

But my main reason is because it is hassle free and I just always make sure to have fresh batteries in before a gig, they last all night and the next night too.
 
batteries always, the non alkaline kind.. I have a stock of them! But mainly because I hate cords all around. They've been lasting a lot.. (I dont use pedals too much.. just and OD and phase 90, and a compressor at home only) same batteries since november!
 
Robert said:
Oh, and another thing - DON'T use alkaline batteries! They don't sound good at all! Use the cheap carbon batteries; Eveready are good ones. This makes a big difference for your tone.
Click to expand...

I have batteries in my pedals, but they are alkalines, (Costco pack of Duracells) and usually leave them plugged in to the OneSpot. I hate having to unplug everything all the time when my playing time can be so short at times and off and on. I have not noticed a difference much yet. Will have to try it and see. How long are the non-alkalines lasting you that use them?
 
Robert said:
Oh, and another thing - DON'T use alkaline batteries! They don't sound good at all! Use the cheap carbon batteries; Eveready are good ones. This makes a big difference for your tone.
Click to expand...
Man, call me a skeptic, but I don't know if I'm buying this one quite yet! What is the physical/chemical explanation for this alleged performance difference?? I can understand that a wall wart vs. a battery could possibly make a difference in sound, but one 9V battery (assuming full charge/good quality) vs. another? You're going to have to convince me, Robert! Got any web references to send me to?
 
I´m not much of a gambler so I would NEVER gig with batteries
in my stompboxes. Especially not in crucial effects like OD. The OD
gets weaker when the battery gets low on juice. I want my sound to be
consistent and always the same. Hum or not, I want 9 volts of anti-christ/devil-child (AC/DC)
 
Another thing about batteries is that they'll start to crap out real fast (modulation pedals like delay, reverb, chorus, flange eat batteries up like candy duh) and if I was gigging now I wouldn't want that to happen. I "gig" in my house and at the neighbor's across the street and I still wouldn't want that to happen. Especially with a multi pedal setup. I'm also not convinced about the difference between alkalines and regular batteries. :confused:
 
I heard there suppose to be a difference, but I use walwarts..onespot etc.. I just can not see unplugging a dozen pedals every nite to save the batteries..:) thanks for the tip though..will have to see what the difference in interference is with batteries replacing the walwarts.
 
Robert said:
Hard to explain in writing what the ears hear... why don't you take your ZYS and try with an Eveready batter and a power adapter and see what you think?
Click to expand...

Will Panasonic carbon zincs work? Which brand would be better? Now I'm totally cornfused. LMAO j/k

I think I will try that experiment out. So I'll need what...an alkaline battery and a carbon zinc right? Or is it a war between just the battery and the adapter? The ideal way to do that would be to have 2 Zonkin's side by side with the different batteries in them if you did alkaline vs. carbon zinc. By the time I go to change the batteries out I've bent over to take it out and blood rushed to my head and my ears pop and get stuffed up...then I change the battery out and by THAT time I've forgotten what the pedal sounded like before I change the battery out and.....

Ok so carbon zinc vs. AC adapter then. I'll see what I can do and I challenge Voodoo, Swede and anyone else to do the same.
 
Robert said:
Hey sceptic + see what Analogman says - http://www.tonequest.com/articles/article21.htm (2nd last question)

Here's a "Dying Battery Simulator" article - http://www.beavisaudio.com/Projects/DBS/

I am no engineer as you know, and as always, judge for yourself. The differences are subtle, but I think gain and fuzz pedals sound better with a carbon-zinc battery.
Click to expand...
Guess I'll have to check out the battery effect for myself in my OD & fuzz pedals. Still smacks of mumbo-jumbo, but I suppose anything's possible. I just like to understand the scientific reason behind a perceived difference.

Now, the dying battery thing I have no problem believing. The physical effect there is clear--dropping voltage level--and it's easy to understand that that is going to affect a pedal's tonal output.

Between us girls, I have to take much of what "AnalogMan" says with a grain of salt. Without a doubt, he is an extremely knowledgeable, experienced guy, and has forgotten more than I'll ever know about pedals. But keep in mind that the guy, in addition to being a master techie, is also a salesman--he has made big business out of pedal modding. When you read comments like one pedal having more "mojo" than another, or making a TS sound "brown" because he used a couple of old carbon composite resistors instead of newer (and far superior, from the standpoint of consistency and low noise characteristics) metal film resistors--well, that stuff just smacks of snake-oil salesmanship to me!

The only way to know if this stuff really makes a difference is to do "blind" testing. The hearer shouldn't know what he's listening to, because the mind will play tricks on him. You begin to hear what you think you're supposed to hear. This is just the nature of the human mind. Unfortunately, setting up such a blind comparison test is complicated and takes a couple of people to do it, so most of us don't have the luxury of running one of these tests at home....
 
tone2thebone said:
I heard Swede brought back a lot of beer from his trip. We could all meet there and do this blind taste test? And we could try the battery thing too.
Click to expand...
Best idea put forth in this thread! And after a few beers, nobody will care about the battery thing anyway.... :D
 
I would love to see some true double-blind tests done on things like this, SS vs. tube, various caps in tone pots, heavier vs. lighter strings, etc. Thus far I have seen no one attempt this. It would seem to be an awesome experiment for a guitar magazine to do.

One of my other hobbies as you know is beer brewing. I want to train to be a judge. You learn that everybody tastes things slightly differently. Some can pick up certain off-flavors in very trace amounts. Others can't detect it even if it's about to knock over a mule. You have to train your palate to "look" for certain things. When the judging is going on you know nothing other than the style of beer attempted. This is to eliminate as much prejudice as possible. So not only are you trying to educate yourself, you are also trying to remove any preconceived notions you might have.

While I have not studied the matter, I would have to believe that there are similar differences in people's sense of hearing. My questions on these subjects would be: are there any real, perceptible differences in all of these things? If so, how many favor one over another? Are those favorites in keeping with what is generally accepted to be true (e.g. tube amps sound better)? Are certain differences in tone only perceptible by a certain minority of the population? Can professional musicians tell the difference? (How about record producers/mixers? Hard-core music fans? Causal audience members?)

Until such double-blind tests are run, we'll never even begin to know the answer. I've a feeling that some musicians and equipment companies might be afraid of the answers.
 
I hate to say it but in a few of my non modulation pedals I can really tell a difference between AC and DC. However, that doesn't sway me to NOT plug my stuff into a power adapter. The difference doesn't outweigh the convenience.

The main difference for me is touch and response. I can more feel a difference than hear a difference. The feel is more consistent for me if I leave everything plugged in....so I do.:)

By the way...I'm looking for some new old stock filtered AC adapters with the oil paper wrapped transformers. If anyone has any or know where I can get some then PM me.
 
I know that Eric Johnson raised this whole discussion some time ago. This man knows a lot about sound and I believe that he has the most educated ears in music biz. Listen to his album Venus Isle, it took him 7 years to get that sound!

Here's some interesting stuff Eric said - can't believe that with the Fuzz Face screw.....hell yeah:

Eric Johnson started it all with the talk about batteries having an effect on the tone and so on...
Now everybody is careful about what batteries to use on vintage pedals, here are some more tips and rumors from EJ tone bag:

-Pre-amp tubes for Marshall and other three pre-amp tube amps (Bassman..): First Yugoslavian EI 7025 then 2 Chinese 12ax7's (neither is made anymore).
-Cables don´t sound the same both ways!!! Take your guitar chord and plug it into your amp and listen to it with your guitar's volume all the way up (doesn't matter what the amp volume is, but it should be to where it is clear), then take the chord, plug the end that was in your guitar into your amp and vice/versa and you will notice the VERY ANNOYING FACT THAT IT DOESN'T SOUND THE SAME!!!!! I wish they'd never told me that..... (thanks Rick)
-Fuzz Face: If you take the bottom screw out from the Fuzz Face you get a better tone, EJ had the bottom of his Fuzz Face tied with rubber-bands on ALC summer tour!! (now it´s also on Guitar Player but you read it here first .)
 
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Robert said:
Oh man, I've using my cables the wrong direction all these years!

No wonder I have always had bad tone... :D
Click to expand...


Hey Rob, I bet that everybody who's reading this tries the cable thing at home!

Ya know what I'm gonna do when I come home..........it's turning cable time!
 
Jimi75 said:
-Pre-amp tubes for Marshall and other three pre-amp tube amps (Bassman..): First Yugoslavian EI 7025 then 2 Chinese 12ax7's (neither is made anymore).
-Cables don´t sound the same both ways!!! Take your guitar chord and plug it into your amp and listen to it with your guitar's volume all the way up (doesn't matter what the amp volume is, but it should be to where it is clear), then take the chord, plug the end that was in your guitar into your amp and vice/versa and you will notice the VERY ANNOYING FACT THAT IT DOESN'T SOUND THE SAME!!!!! I wish they'd never told me that..... (thanks Rick)
-Fuzz Face: If you take the bottom screw out from the Fuzz Face you get a better tone, EJ had the bottom of his Fuzz Face tied with rubber-bands on ALC summer tour!! (now it´s also on Guitar Player but you read it here first .)
Click to expand...

Hehhehe I think you got that from the Custom-Sounds website! I read it before... anyway, first time I heard him I thought "that's a really different tone" (and playing) but I highly doubt anyone else but him would hear a difference on his tone with the cable turned the other way. Same stuff about the fuzz-face bottom screw..
 
Robert said:
Oh man, I've using my cables the wrong direction all these years!

No wonder I have always had bad tone... :D
Click to expand...

My tone gotta improve...my cables come with arrows so I can't put them backwards!! ;)
 
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