Power supplies for new board - GigRig or Strymon Zuma

Philtre

Right now, all my pedals are on the floor running off a TREX Fuel Tank Junior and the power adapter that came with my Strymon Flint. I want to tidy it all up and put them on a board with a better power supply. This is what I'll put on it:

JRAD Archer
Soul Food
OCD
EHX Big Muff Nano
EHX Pitch Fork
TC Viscous Vibe
TC Flashback
TC HOF 2
Strymon Flint

The lower powered boxes (Soul Food, Big Muff Nano, JRAD Archer) can be daisy chained, but some need to be isolated, and the OCD likes 18v, while the Flint wants at least 250ma.

The GigRig Generator + Distributor + Isolator + Time Lord + Doubler comes to over £300 while the Strymon Zuma is £250.

I like the idea of the GigRig stuff because it's expandable but I don't like it that you have to pay another £59 for a new adapter for each high power pedal you buy.

On the other hand the Zuma has 9 isolated 500ma outputs, two of which can be voltage adjusted,

Thoughts? Any experience of either?

vasselmeyer

The Gigrig system is infinitely flexible and you will never run out of power. I have one powering my big board and it's ultra-quiet. You can pick up isolators and Timelords second hand fairly regularly if you don't want to pay full price. It really does get pricey though. 

I've never seen a Strymon but it really does look small and compact. With what you've listed, I reckon the Zuma would do it as long as you pick up a voltage doubler if you really want to run the OCD at 18V. This is really easy to do on the Gigrig Isolator, by the way. 

Philtre

The Zuma has two outputs that can be switched to 9/12/18v. When you say "This is really easy to do on the Gigrig Isolator" do you mean you can combine two 9v rails?

vasselmeyer

Yes. You just loop one isolator output into another so you use 2x9V outputs for one pedal which is the downside. 

The Zuma sounds pretty flexible. However, doesn't it have a power block or wall wart? The Gigrig Generator just takes an IEC cable from the wall. I hate having lumps on the floor or out of my power strip. 

John_P

Another alternative would be the voodoo lab 4x4 
You would need to daisy chain a couple of pedals but otherwise it looks like it could run everything on your list.  

digitalkettle

I got a Zuma and Ojai...very pleased with them.

Zuma runs off an IEC.

GavRichList

Cioks / Eventide Powerfactor 2 

meltedbuzzbox

Cioks or voodoo labs for your pedals. Cheaper used. 
The gigrig stuff is great but super pricey. When you add up all those modules it won't be cheap. 
Jury is out on the strymon stuff, there are a fair few faults being flagged over on tgp at the moment. 

Philtre

meltedbuzzbox said:

Jury is out on the strymon stuff, there are a fair few faults being flagged over on tgp at the moment. 

Anything in particular?

mynamesnotbob

Have strymon, great noiseless and powerful. Single iec cable powers the lot, no wall warts. Zumas daisy chain to ojai for easy expansion

Philtre

I think the Zuma ticks more boxes than other options - nine 500mA outputs, two that can be set to 12v or 18v. For my board I can use one 18v for the OCD, one 9v for the Flint, and the others can even be daisy-chained for low current pedals like Soul Food, Big Muff, Archer.

stickyfiddle

The Zuma is great. Super flexible, very quiet and doesn't weigh too much. 

hotpickups

My personal feeling about the Zuma is I feel you pay a lot for the design of it. It looks lovely but I would sticknit under my board and not see it anyway Other than that it looks a great power supply

onyir

The onespot CS12 also fits your requirements and it's £169 new. I've had a CS7 for over a year now and couldn't be happier.

crunchman

Decibel Eleven Hot Stone Deluxe.  Good Quality. Will do all you need and about half the price of the Strymon.

Philtre

Good suggestions, thanks.

impmann

Another factor is weight - the Gigrig stuff is super lightweight. This may not make any odds to you, but when you combine a lot of pedals with a Pedaltrain (other boards are available - you get my drift though) with some of the other power supplies (especially the Voodoo labs stuff) it gets heavy. I know folks with boards that weigh almost as much as a decent amp!

I've just gone down the rebuilding my pedalboard rabbit hole - and I've gone for the Gigrig system. Yes its expensive but its quiet and flexible. Gets my vote.

Philtre

I don't mind buying the GigRig Generator, a Distributor, and an Isolator or two but paying another £59 for each pedal that requires more current or voltage (TimeLord, Doubler) is where I draw the line.

peteri

I think the gigrig stuff is a wonderful solution, as others have said here - buy used and you're likely looking at £20-45 for each 'small box' - based on what I just sold mine for.

It's very, very quiet; can be expanded as much as you'll ever need, and also has the advantage that you can run cables super neatly.

I agree, expanding it can get expensive, but you do get what you pay for I think.

However, there are also smaller/cheaper solutions that are likely as good - and the generator is a pretty chunky box - and I think some stuff is overpriced/can get pricy if you have a lot of Strymons etc.

Something I really liked was I had two boards for a time, a large and a small - all with exactly the right power supply to each pedal, all isolated. And I simply switched the Generator between the two - that was cool

impmann

peteri said:

Something I really liked was I had two boards for a time, a large and a small - all with exactly the right power supply to each pedal, all isolated. And I simply switched the Generator between the two - that was cool

Oh, now that *is* a cool idea...

Philtre

Yes, that is a good idea!