I have a guitar effects pedal that came with its own 9v AC adaptor. I run the rest of my effects on a One Spot AC Adaptor http://www.visualsound.net/1spot.htm

The pedal that has its own power supply came with a sheet of paper filled with the usual rhetoric about the warranty being voided if used with another power supply, but it seemed a bit more serious than usual, and a professional review of the pedal indicated that they took the warning seriously as well. I just want to know if there's any chance of damaging this thing by using the other power supply because I'd hate to ruin a $350 effect on the convenience tip. Both are 9VDC Class 2 transformers with matching polarity and the plugs are the same size. The One Spot lists 1700 mA max output and the other adaptor shows 200 mA output.

Does anyone know of any reason for concern, or are these adaptors interchangeable?

5/6/2007 9:46:07 PM

so how would they know you hooked it up to an off brand adapter? I mean you could just tell them you didn't...

5/6/2007 9:49:43 PM

That's probably true, but I'd just as soon avoid the trouble of trying to deal with all that by keeping my pedal in working order on its own.

5/6/2007 9:52:44 PM

Have you had any problems with those adapters in the past? I mean as long as you've got it all on a good surge supressor... I wouldn't think it would be a problem. The One Spot is rated to a higher power, but as long as it provides correct voltage it shouldn't burn out the pedal.

5/6/2007 10:00:53 PM

I have 5 other pedals made by 4 different companies and they all work fine on the One Spot. I definitely always run this off a good surge protector as well. It may be that I'm just being overly cautious, I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something I was missing that needed to be considered.

5/6/2007 10:34:53 PM

If you're really worried, buy the branded one if it's not too much. Sounds like the one spot is decent and proven reliable so I wouldn't really tear myself up over it.

5/6/2007 10:35:51 PM

Oh, I already have the branded one, it came with the pedal. I'd just like to save the hassle of carrying it around and using up another space on my surge protector.

5/6/2007 11:42:32 PM

Quote :

"The One Spot lists 1700 mA max output and the other adaptor shows 200 mA output."

that will be your problem... you need the same output levels.

5/8/2007 10:24:17 AM

^ I wouldn't worry about that...those are simply maximum currents that can be supplied. WRT the maximum current rating, as long as the current rating of the substituted transformer is >= the current rating of the original transformer, you'll be good. 1700 mA / 200 mA ~ 8, so the 1SPOT should be capable of supplying about 8 pedals.

From the website:

Quote :

"NOTE: The 1SPOT cannot be used to power multiple LINE 6 ToneCore Pedals due to inadequate power supply filtering in the pedals. A 1SPOT can be used with one Tone Core Pedal with only a minimal amount of noise. More than 1 Tone Core pedal on a daisy chain causes too much noise for practical use."

This sounds as if the 1SPOT provides little smoothing of its output. As the note implies this isn't a problem for most pedals because they provide on-board filtering (probably so they can use an inexpensive generic transformer). However, there are apparently pedals out there that do not provide on-board filtering and instead rely on the transformer to provide a filtered output. Your pedal may be one of those. I would try the pedal with the 1SPOT. If it works, good. If it doesn't work or is noisy I would go back to the manufacturer's brick.

5/8/2007 10:44:34 AM

Thanks for the advice. I'm hoping noise won't be a problem. I have the 1Spot plugged into a power conditioner, so that should calm things down some. My main concern was just frying my delay pedal, but it sounds like there isn't really a risk of that.

5/8/2007 3:19:55 PM