I am a massive idiot

Bucket

I received a Gator pedalboard with attached G-BUS-8 power supply for Christmas, and said power supply comes with eight 9v power cables, one end of which is a standard barrel socket to plug into a pedal, while the end that goes into the power supply has a 3.5mm headphone-style jack.

I currently have six pedals plugged in and have been looking for the other two cables, and they've disappeared off the face of the earth. I've looked EVERYWHERE they could possibly be, and I just cannot find them anywhere. So the other day I was fleeced for eleven quid for two T. Rex cables with the same jacks, and upon plugging them in my signal was crippled, with enormous amounts of hum - and every pedal on the board refused to turn on. So those are going back to the shop, and I've been looking yet again for the original two Gator cables, to no avail. Why did I not just plug all the cables into the power supply to start with, for safe keeping?

More to the point, it would seem that nowhere sells any spares (apart from one eBay shop in Iowa). So I have lost two small but vital components in making my pedalboard work properly, and I am really rather cross about the whole thing.

Sorry, no real purpose in posting this, just venting.

monquixote

Have you tried viciously punching yourself in the groin?

Pyroman

Try looking somewhere stupid, and completely nonsensical. I tend to find things there... Also, I guarantee they will be in the last place you look. Unless, of course, the spouse/S.O. threw them out in the throes of a neatness attack.

ICBM

The T.Rex cables are the opposite polarity so they shorted out the power supply - nothing wrong with them as such, you just need the other kind. But £11 for two?!

If you know which polarity you need I'll see if I can find some, I may have a few spare ones kicking around.

If you have a multimeter, just do a continuity test and see whether the correct cables are barrel outer to sleeve or tip.

If you don't have a multimeter: plug a guitar cable into your amp, so that touching the loose end makes it buzz. Now using the barrel end of one of your correct cables, hold the barrel against the tip of the cable without touching anything that makes it buzz. Now touch the 3.5mm plug end - which makes the buzz, tip or sleeve?

ThePrettyDamned

Pyroman said:

Try looking somewhere stupid, and completely nonsensical. I tend to find things there... Also, I guarantee they will be in the last place you look. Unless, of course, the spouse/S.O. threw them out in the throes of a neatness attack.

If I can't find the remote, the chances are I've put it in the fridge when half asleep.

Fazer

try writing to gator, some companies will send little replacement things like that gratis

mart

Boss plug to mono 3.5mm jack? I got a couple of cables like that with the Fame power supply I just bought, and I have no use for them. So if you let us know what polarity you need, I'll check mine and if they match you're welcome to have them.

mike_l

monquixote said:

Have you tried viciously punching yourself in the groin?

That'll only work until he decides he enjoys it..........
:-?

Bucket

Thanks all, a much more constructive and helpful response than I thought such a crap post would receive

Thanks particularly to @mart and @ICBM, I'll see if I can check the polarity tomorrow.

Bod

Pyroman said:

Also, I guarantee they will be in the last place you look.

Of course.  Why would you continue to look if you'd found them?

Fretwired

Have you tried the box ..

Bucket

Fretwired said:

Have you tried the box ..

It didn't come in a box.

AlanP

Just start looking for something else...

mike_l

AlanP said:

Just start looking for something else...

I look for my sanity, found loads of good stuff along the way........

Bucket

@ICBM - I did the test you detailed above, and it was the tip of the barrel end that made it buzz. Hope that helps.

ChrisMusic

I blame 'Grumlins' myself. 

Have you noticed how often you put a pen, or something down, then go to pick it up, and it's not there.

 

Even seconds after putting it down it has mysteriously vanished into the 'ether'.

OK it's a pen, it probably rolled off, no, it's not on the floor, or where I just put it, most peculiar.

I have not moved from where I am sitting, but I'll get up and scour the area, no, scour the room, no.

Damn, just get another pen and finish writing.

Go to put the pen down, and guess what - there is the other pen - just where you thought you'd left it.

Is it just me, or does that sort of thing happen to other people too?

I blame 'Grumlins', beings from another dimension, determined to wreak a bit of havoc with us mere mortals.  They reach through the fabric of 'space / time' and grab the thing you are just about to use, then titter themselves senseless while you look high and low for it.  Then when you solve the issue in an ingenious human way (i.e. get another pen), they loose interest and just pop it back where it was, just to wind you up completely.

Is it just me?  or "do I need to take my tablets now, nurse?"  

mike_l

ChrisMusic said:

Have you noticed how often you put a pen, or something down, then go to pick it up, and it's not there.

 Go to put the pen down, and guess what - there is the other pen - just where you thought you'd left it.

Is it just me, or does that sort of thing happen to other people too?

 

Yes, at our place they're called "Technicians" and "Receptionists"

dafuzz

You're not a massive idiot, you're skinny.

Big +1 to just writing to (or even ringing) them and politely asking how much they cost, I bet they bung a couple in an envelope for nowt.

ICBM

Bucket said:

@ICBM - I did the test you detailed above, and it was the tip of the barrel end that made it buzz. Hope that helps.

You mean with the sleeve of the 3.5mm plug held against the tip of the guitar lead, or with the tip of it to the tip of the guitar lead?

Sorry to be pernickerty, this is important .

I checked and I only have home-made and cut-down cables of that type anyway though (scrap from building pedalboards), so I'll pass you over to mart if we can confirm the polarity.

Bucket

ICBM said:

Bucket said:

@ICBM - I did the test you detailed above, and it was the tip of the barrel end that made it buzz. Hope that helps.

You mean with the sleeve of the 3.5mm plug held against the tip of the guitar lead, or with the tip of it to the tip of the guitar lead?

Sorry to be pernickerty, this is important .

I checked and I only have home-made and cut-down cables of that type anyway though (scrap from building pedalboards), so I'll pass you over to mart if we can confirm the polarity.

The tip of the 3.5mm jack to the tip of the guitar lead was what caused the buzz.

Same story with the barrel jack at t'other end.

ICBM

Do you mean the tip of the barrel jack?

ie guitar lead tip > 3.5mm plug tip > barrel plug tip = buzz?

If so that would make sense as to why the T.Rex cables were wrong - they were probably the standard converter cables which have the barrel sleeve (positive) to 3.5mm tip (positive) because that's what you need to connect an old MXR/EH/ProCo pedal to a common power supply.