Active Band Man Chats - Power Supply Edition

What are we doing this time?

This time, it’s power supplies!

I see, power is important. I’ve kind of skipped over it, thinking, “Is there really that much to say about it?”

The time has come for us to talk about it.

What kind of things have you used up until now?

First would be batteries—9V ones.

Huh? Starting from there? You said power supplies (laughs). Well, fair enough… the square ones, right? The so-called “block batteries.”

Yeah, those. You’d turn the screw on a BOSS effects pedal and open up where you step on it…

Been there.

Then there was a period when I used a multi-effects unit.

In that case, the dedicated adapter.

Yeah. You couldn’t really get creative with the power setup, but it was easy and convenient.

Right.

And then I went back to compact pedals again.

Happens all the time.

At one point, I was using a Big Muff that could only run on batteries, and a RAT that used a center-positive adapter, so I powered the BOSS tuner with the genuine PSA adapter and ran everything else on batteries.

That sounds pretty bad in terms of costs…

Looking back now, yeah! I also messed up a few times by leaving a cable plugged into the input of a battery-powered pedal and draining the battery completely.

That’s a classic mistake too. I did that myself when I was a beginner… Apparently these days there are products that let you use an adapter even with pedals meant only for batteries.
→ VOODOO LAB / PPBAT-R

Things have really gotten convenient. Oh wow, that’s amazing! There are even ones that can step up the voltage?
→ MONTREUX / Battery Plug 18V - Cliff - [3104]

You’re right.

But I’ve grown up using nothing but 9V batteries my whole life, so I honestly don’t really understand voltage boosting…

Same here, not really… We probably should pay more attention to it though… So, what kind of power supply are you using now?

These days, for The Captains’ board, I keep it simple—just a genuine adapter split with a Roland distributor! This one!
→ ROLAND / F3487008R0

Kind of rare these days, actually… You used to see them pretty often back in the day though.

Exactly. A BOSS tuner and two BOSS drive pedals. Since I’m only using three pedals total and all from the same brand, I can pull this off!

Very impressive (deadpan).

There’s one song where I use an acoustic guitar simulator, so on days when that song is on the setlist, I add a Zoom MultiStomp to the board—but I power only that one with the Zoom adapter.

I see.

For the board I use with The Showas, there are a lot more pedals, including digital ones, so I figured it’d be better to keep things more stable and go with something decent. The CUSTOM AUDIO JAPAN AC/DC STATION IV.

Makes sense.

Wait, the latest one is already VI!?
→ CUSTOM AUDIO JAPAN / AC/DC Station VI Power Supply for Effects Pedals

So there’s a new model out now.

I feel like I totally missed the hype for a new Dragon Quest release… (laughs) And on top of that! It has a digital voltage meter!? That’s so cool! So unfair!

It’s not “unfair” (laughs). That’s just their corporate effort.

I kind of want it now…

You’re not dissatisfied with what you have now, right?

I’m not… but if I were to upgrade, it’d probably be this series. The balance between price and performance is good.

Yeah.

Still, I’m also curious about the ultra-compact ones.

Miniaturization is really progressing. They don’t take up much space on a board, which is a big help.

So, Horry, what’s your power supply history like?

I actually used a power supply from the very beginning. A friend sold it to me… even though I only had three pedals at the time.

Oh wow, you were ahead of the game!

It was a GUYATONE model called the AC-104. It was pretty chunky… it had ten 9V outputs, two 18V outputs, and even two AC 100V outlets. On top of that, it even had a master switch—totally over the top. And I only had three pedals (laughs).

I didn’t know there was such a high-spec one!

I think it stopped being made by the early ’90s? I don’t remember anyone around me using one.

Yeah… that sounds about right.

After that… I don’t even remember when I got it, but I moved on to the MAXON PD01. The classic model.
→ MAXON / PD01 Power Distributor

Ah, yeah, I remember seeing that one a lot for a while.

Back then, pretty much everyone was using this one. I can’t even remember what other options there were (laughs).

Exactly! When you said “power supply,” this was the one. I think I even saw it in pro rigs in magazines.

It’s still in the lineup even now, and people are still using it. It’s definitely a reliable brand.

Wait, it’s still in production!? That’s amazing!

Yeah, but honestly, there wasn’t much need for a power supply for a while. I didn’t use many pedals back then. Even if I did, it was usually just one. I also had a period using rack effects.

Rack… that really takes me back…

I only started using pedals a little more once BOSS released a tuner with a mute function.

The TU-2, right! That’s a classic now, and it even has a power supply feature.

Even so, it was mostly for the SansAmp, so I still relied on batteries. The only other pedal I added was an Electro-Harmonix chorus. Since that was center-negative, it was a hassle to run it through a power supply.

Oh yeah, you have to convert it, right?

I guess it was around the time I started my current band, National, that I really started using a power supply… Once I started using a Steinberger copy model, I tried upgrading the sound and ended up adding more pedals (laughs).

Ah, that makes sense. The effects would sit nicely in the signal chain too.

At first I used the MAXON, but eventually it started acting up, so I replaced it with the One Control Distro. That’s what I’m mainly using now.
→ One Control / Distro All In One Pack Shinny Silver>

One Control is really great, am I right?

Yeah, I’m happy that it can handle eight 9V outputs at this size. The 12V terminals max out at 50mA, so you need to be careful there, but so far it’s never been an issue.

Sounds perfect to me!

Since then, my setup has grown quite a bit (laughs). I have several boards, so constantly swapping power supplies would be a hassle—I keep a few ready.

That makes sense.

Besides the One Control, I also use the KIKUTANI KP-10, the CAJ power hub, the Revol EPS-01, and although it’s not in the photo, the VITAL AUDIO VA-01 MKⅡ.

→ KIKUTANI / KP-10 Power Supply
→ VITAL AUDIO / POWER CARRIER VA-01 MKII

Impressive!

But nowadays, power supplies have so many options and features… like short-circuit protection and all that makes them really reliable.

We should be mindful of power! After all, everything is…

For love!