For a long time I used 9 volt batteries to power my pedals. When I think back on all the money I spent on those things. Not only that, but I've had batteries go dead on me during gigs and that can be a big pain. Some pedals act a little differently when the battery goes dead in them so you may not realize the battery is dead for a while because the lights are still working. With a 9 volt power supply you don't have to worry about all of that.
I finally got tired of spending over seven dollars for a two pack of 9 volt Duracell battery's and decided to buy a One Spot while in a Guitar Center store one day. Now I've heard some not so great things about using a "wall wart" power supply. But, as long as your power supply has enough mA output you should be fine. A One Spot handles up to 1700 mA and that's enough to easily power 4 or 5 pedals as long as they're not all digital pedals. I only have one digital pedal and I've been told that digital pedals use more power. That could very well be true because I sure seemed to go through a lot of batteries with that pedal. For the record, the pedal I'm talking about is a Digitech Screamin' Blues Driver. Its not a bad pedal, but since I got my Wampler Paisley Drive pedal I have pretty much quit using it.
This is a pretty good article that tells you more about powering your pedals and what is best for your setup. Since I only use 3 to 4 pedals the One Spot works great for me. Some people say they are noisy, but that has not been the case with mine. It could be that my noise suppressor is taking care of that, I'm really not sure. Some pedals take more than 9 volts to run them. If that's the case with you, you are going to have to look at a more expensive power supply that has multiple outlets and different voltages. The One Spot is just for 9 volt pedals. For more on powering your pedals, take a look at this short video. This guy does a pretty good job explaining the basics of what you need to know about using the One Spot.
If you want to get something a little more versatile (and expensive) you can check out Voodoo Labs youtube channel and find more information on their products as well. Whatever you decide to use, just remember the cost involved in keeping your pedals powered with 9 volts batteries and I think you'll see it just makes good sense to use an AC power supply instead.
Hello folks, just a quick post to explain why I deleted my previous post. It was full of errors, and the editing was horrible. I thought I was done with it until I actually read it after I posted it. That was a poor excuse for a blog post. I have another draft or two right now and I will post them as soon as I get time to do some editing. I've been very busy lately. Until yesterday I did not even have internet service for almost a week due to lightening hitting a junction box. It took the technician a couple of hours to find the problem, but its fixed now and I'm hopefully back in business for a while. My ISP is putting in new fiber optic cables in the area right now and service has been sporadic lately. Hopefully they will get that finished before long and my internet speed will be a little faster in the end.
I apologize for having to delete that last post. I will get back to that story when I have more time to put the proper effort into it. I had not posted in a while and I was in a hurry to throw something up for my readers. That was a mistake on my part and I will strive to do better in the future. I have been attending classes four days a week and have not had much time for writing. I do have some things in the can so to speak and I will try my best to get them posted as soon as possible. Since my last few posts have been about effects pedals I will post one more geared toward that subject before I move on from it. Its going to be about powering those effects pedals and the different ways you can do that.
Hang tight, and I will try to get that post up before the weekend is gone.
About a year ago I decided to buy a Wampler Paisley Drive to add to my small pedal collection. I'm really not big on effects pedals but after hearing this Wampler Paisley Drive I decided to buy it. Its not that I wanted to play any Brad Paisley songs, or even sound like Brad Paisley, I just like what the pedal will do. I pretty much use it as a clean boost but its capable of getting down to some serious rock and roll playing when you turn up the gain. Its got three knobs, Volume, Gain, and Tone, and two switches, Presence, and Mid Contour. Unlike a lot of pedals out on the market these controls are very responsive and distinct. You can really dial in your sound with one of these things. Like I said, I'm really not much of a pedal kind of guy, but the Paisley Drive is one I would recommend to anyone. You can get a ton of boost out of them without distortion. And if you want some distortion its got plenty of it. I don't think I would recommend it for playing death metal, but its definitely a nice pedal for blues, classic rock, and modern country music. Also, unlike most pedals I've used over the years its really clean as far as noise goes. I've got a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor but you don't really need it for this Paisley Drive. Its that clean!
I know this is kind of a short post today but I've been pretty busy for the last couple of days. I played music over the weekend and I'm paying for it now. Playing guitar has gotten pretty hard on me since my accident and back full of steel rods and screws but I still try my best to keep playing. I'm going to leave you with a video demonstration of the Wampler Paisley Drive and encourage you to check out their other pedals and even subscribe to the Wampler Pedals youtube channel. They have regular podcasts on the channel and its usually pretty informative. I'm not necessarily trying to sell anybody anything, nor am I endorsed by Wampler. Unless Brian happens to read this and wants to send me some free pedals to review haha. Yeah, fat chance I'm sure.
I just think they make some really good pedals and I would encourage everyone to try them out. Brian Wampler is not only an electronics genius, he's a guitar player too, so he does have a little advantage when it comes to making a good effects pedal. I plan on adding another one of their pedals soon too. I'm going to get an Ego Compressor as soon as possible and as soon as I get to another Guitar Center store to try it out first hand. I already pretty much know I want one just by the video demonstrations I have watched on them. And really, no pedal board is complete without a compressor anyway. You can also purchase these Wampler Pedals directly from the Wampler Pedals website. I know the prices seem a little high, and that's what kept me from buying one until I tried it out. A year later I still think it was worth every dime I paid for it @ $ 219.97. I know you can buy overdrive pedals all day for 50 to 100 dollars and get a pretty decent one, but I have never tried a more versatile overdrive that's as clean as this thing is. Most all overdrive pedals put a lot of hiss in your signal chain and you can clean them up using a noise suppressor. But, you don't even have to have a noise suppressor with this pedal.
Its a super clean pedal and it loves tube amps especially. It doesn't sound as good on my little solid state practice amp, but there's a ton of difference in my practice amp and my gigging amp, which is a tube amp that I've written about on this blog not long ago. My practice amp is a Fender Frontman 25R which I believe is out of production now. The 10 inch speaker in them are kinda crappy Chinese made speakers with scrawny little magnets. I plan on replacing that 'spanked' speaker with a good one eventually because it really was a good sounding amp with a fresh speaker. Anything past 7 on the volume knob is just making it sound bad. Its just not quite enough for using as a gigging amp (not enough stage volume) but its plenty good for practice because its small and light. My Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III weighs over 40 pounds and I have to have help with that one. I'm literally not supposed to lift over 10 pounds for the rest of my life because of my back being pieced together, so I either use a dolly and or get someone to carry it for me. That's a lot of the reason why I got a Telecaster and put my Les Paul in its case on standby. My Telecaster is between 3 and 4 pounds lighter than my Les Paul. That probably has a lot to do with why it always took me 3 or 4 days to get over playing a few hours. Its worth a little pain though to be able to play with a whole band, (just as long as you have some pain pills with you) haha.
Check out the Wampler Paisley Drive and see what you think of it. Go try one out at your nearest dealer and see for yourself just what this pedal is capable of. I think you'll love it as much as I do.
Much Peace and Love to Everyone .... and remember ...
~Its All About The Music~
