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pedalboard power confusion

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:45 pm
by ConcreteVampire
Really not plugging much in, not sure if I should go cheap brick? Or just power strip? +daisychain?

Gator small board- (incoming)

Boss Ms-3- (500Ma) have the wallplug
2 dirt pedals in loop (Creme Brûlée + Golden Brownie) used into front of amp 4CM

TC Helicon. Voice live- (12 volts- Off board) not always used...

I could,

3 input powerstrip- Daisy chain the 2 dirt pedals? (Since the two dirt pedals are going into the front of the amp there won’t be an issue with DaisyChaining correct?

Cheap brick with 100 ma + 500 ma + 12 volt

Cheap solutions guys! I’m only paying 60 something dollars for the board, there’s no way I’m paying more for a PowerBrick, Rather just use a power strip at that point

Re: pedalboard power confusion

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 2:19 pm
by GuitarBilly
Moving this to the main forum since it was posted in the classifieds. :)

Anyway... when you're dealing with 4CM, isolated power is a must have. I think Boss really dropped the ball by not adding a couple isolated 9v outs to the MS3.

Daisy chaining the 2 dirt pedals would not be a problem, but they should be isolated from the MS3 power supply. By putting them all on a power strip, they would be sharing a common ground, which is not ideal. Sometimes you can get away with it though.

My suggestion would be to get a power strip first and see how it works. It's possible that the MS-3 have some kind of internal filtering/isolation for the loops and it will work out fine. Try it in a few different places (home/studio etc) before taking it live. If it works, you're done.


if you are getting hum/buzz.. then I am afraid you'd need a power supply with isolated taps, like the One Spot CS7.. that would take care all your power needs. It's not exactly cheap ($120) but not super expensive either.

But try the power strip first. You probably already have one at home so give it a go. It might work.

Re: pedalboard power confusion

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:43 pm
by ConcreteVampire
Thanks 1 million Billy! That’s what I get for posting elevators LOL

Re: pedalboard power confusion

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 9:25 pm
by the recluse
I'm using a One Spot CS7 with an MS3 in 4CM, a Decibel 11 loop expander and three dirt pedals ( TC BLD, Source Audio Kingmaker, DOD Carcosa), and the power supply really took care of a lot of the issues I was having with a gator non-isolated power supply. As is usually the case, Billy is on to something here...