Power Supply recommendations? (Anything inexpensive and reliable?)

xefned

xefned

Well-known member
Is there a budget supply you guys recommends for a beginner board, 10 pedals max?

I know I should DIY one, but I'm looking to get started quickly and relatively cheaply. Thanks for your recommendations. For reference, I just bought this medium sized 14" x 10" pedal board for $40 and it has a small cage below for a PSU. (Incidentally, now $2 cheaper than it was last week.)

Underside pic of PSU cage:
1715357887241.png
 
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Do you know what pedals you'll have on it? Anything digital or that requires more than 9v?
 
For inexpensive and reliable: Trutone 1-Spot (20 USD) plus a daisy chain (7 to 15 USD) is a cheap way to get started.

If you are using 9v analog pedals, you will most likely be fine. I power most of my board with a 1-spot. But there's also a power strip mounded under the board for a 12V pedal and a high amperage digital one.

If you find any of your pedals need isolated power, you can put one of these together:
https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/pcb617/
 
I have Caline CP-206, it costs about $50 on Aliexpress. 12 isolated outputs (6 x 9V/100mA, 2 x 9V/300mA, 2 x 9V/500mA, 1 x 12V/300mA, 1 x 18V/300mA), low profile. There are also other models from CP series.
 
Depends on your pedals (digital requires more ma and overdrives, barely any), your use (or more appropriately, your abuse level) and need for reliability.

I build my own (for my own use) and will be interested in seeing the responses. Power switching unit technology is mature and affordably available. I am sure there are differences in reliability in manufacture and components. I build and fix pedals, amps and guitars, so my supplies have to be operational on a daily basis.
 
Without knowing any requirements, the Onespot is definitely the starting point. It's specifically designed for pedals by R G Keen and it's very quiet. If you need 18v get the voltage doubler add-on. If you really need true isolation for some reason, then that's a requirement that it doesn't have. Although, could just run two of them.
 
I’m also a huge fan of the Truetone series. I also love how they arbitrarily threw max current values on each port, but all they care about is that you don’t exceed the total current draw of the whole unit! So on my CS12, I was able to run a HX FX (>1A), a Klone, CryBaby, Phase 95, Tc SCF+ gold, Line6 G10 wireless AND MXR talk box simultaneously without need for the goofy “current doublers” that steal multiple ports as well as defeat the isolation between supplies. Only company I know that can say that
 
My buddy has a caline that has served him well until he built a MB Glasshole phaser. He complained of ticking in bypass. I swapped it over to my board with a gigrig supply and no ticking. If I were buying today, I might lean more cioks but I have zero regrets.

What's nice is you can grab something like a caline and if it's too noisy for gigs it's cheap enough to keep around as a bench power supply. I find that my cheapo bench supply imparts a little more noise than a daisy chained one spot but I do use it every day.
 
xefned said:
Probably 1 digital pedal: TC Electronic Flashback mini 9v. And probably 8 fuzz pedals.
Click to expand...
8 fuzz pedals!?!?

I used a Dinner for a handful of analog pedals.

Now 8 am using a Voodoo Labs unit. I don't notice anything so IMI, that's a good thing. I'm powering a few digital pedals, with the Hali and Cloudburst requiring the lions share of the MA's.
 
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