Search for the right PSU...

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Hello! And first of all sorry as I'm sure posts like this have been posted on here too many times... But, I have searched the internet far and near and I haven't found anything that is truly helpful. 

My knowledge of power for pedals is shockingly dreadful, so I was hoping someone could help me on here.

I have 6 pedals as of yet - Boss RC300, Boss NS 2, Boss LS 2, Marshall Echohead, Marshall Regenerator & Marshall Reflector. All of them are 9V, I understand that, however the pedal's Milliamps confuse me. I want to know what the right PSU for me is. I was looking at the T-Rex FuelTank Junior but again, the Milliamps tripped me up. 

Thank you guys for having to deal with another numpty like me!

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Comments

  • This is a list of power consumption of lots of popular pedals: http://stinkfoot.se/power-list ;


    Here's some rules:

    • Don't exceed the maximum mA available from your PSU overall, or from each individual outlet if there's more than one.
    • The best way to minimise noise from your PSU is to use isolated outputs. Most PSUs from known brands (Voodoo Labs, Cioks, T-Rex etc) will have this- but check the specs before you buy- but most cheap stuff won't.
    • You can daisy-chain pedals from the same outlet, but they're not isolated from each other that way, so may be noisy.
    • One of the more common causes of noise problems is a mixture of digital and analogue pedals on the same supply. 
    • Just because it might be noisy doesn't mean it will be. You might be fine with a single PSU (something like a 1SPOT) and a daisy chain, although you might be better off buying a PSU that's more than you need right now...
    • Pedals can't be damaged by using a supply with a much higher maximum mA than they need. The pedal will draw the current it needs and no more.
    • Pedals can be damaged by a supply with too high a voltage, or an incorrect choice of AC or DC power. Yes, some people will tell you that running certain pedals at 18vDC instead of 9vDC makes them sound better, and *some* pedals can do this without incident, but you need to be very sure yours is one of them before you try it.


    Google suggests the RC-300 draws 320mA, so the Fuel Tank Jr won't be suitable since it gives a maximum of 120mA per outlet. The Truetone One Spot PRO CS-7 isn't a huge amount more money and has more than enough power. There are a lot of options when you start to get to that sort of money though, so do some research armed with the info above.

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  • The RC-300 should come with its own PSU.  The Harley Benton PowerPlant Jr should handle the rest - it has 5 isolated outputs (don't confuse it with the more expensive PowerPlant where the outputs aren't isolated).  Worth checking the Classifieds - I picked one up for £25 and it does the job.

    If you want to power everything from a single supply, though, you'll need something like the CS-7 mentioned above.
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  • With regards to the mA requirements - the available Current (mA) from any given output on the PSU should always be greater than the sum of the Current draw of any pedals attached to it.

    The most important things to get right are the voltage and polarity. Get this wrong and things go pop. So check voltage/polarity requirement first and current draw second. 

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  • Thank you all for your help! I've bought the One Spot CS-6, I'm excited to use it!
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