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Old 07-11-2018, 08:50 AM
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Methos1979 Methos1979 is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Seacoast, NH
Posts: 8,070
Default External battery power solutions for effects pedals

A few months back I posted a query thread here on AGF looking for battery power solutions/recommendations for providing power to guitar effects pedals that do not take batteries as well as recommendations for rechargeable batteries for pedals that do take batteries. At the time I was working towards making my gigging rig all battery powered since the Bose S1 can run on battery. I'm happy to report that I now have everything running on battery and it has greatly simplified and minimized the amount of gear needed to carry and time to set up and break down. I wanted to post my final findings so others in the future looking for this information can find it with a simple search.

First up, for rechargeables I went with this EBL system from Amazon. It's a great system and works very well. It has a nice display for showing charging status as well as built in safety features for overcharge protection and trickle charging. It will charge 10 AA or AAA batteries and has two bays for 9V batteries. :

EBL 12 Bay LCD AA AAA 9V Battery Charger for Rechargeable Batteries, New Released - ETL Certified

For batteries I like these EBL's because of the tropical colors with each battery having a different color. It's not the colors I like but rather the ability to differentiate which helps me to make sure I rotate them often. I ended up buying two sets of AA and one set of AAA:

EBL AA Rechargeable Batteries 2500mAh Home Basic Combo Tropical Color 1200 Cycles, 10 Packs

I use the AA's to power my Boss VE-8 pedal (takes 6 AA's) and they work great. I always carry all 20 fully charged but have yet to drain a set during a gig.

The next thing was something to power my Neunaber Wet Reverb pedal. Lot's of people recommended bricks but I just wanted/needed to power the one pedal. There was nothing on Amazon but I found a thing on Reverb called the Battery Buddy. It had a similar look to the basic cell/mobile phone external battery packs but with an addition 9V out so I grabbed one of these for $50 and it works great. It has an LED indicator bank so you can see how much power you have left. Here's the link to the Reverb ad (sold out now):

Battery Buddy PS-2 Rechargeable 9volt Power Supply

While searching Amazon I did find this little device that was quite simple in its design - just a connector that goes on a 9V battery and to a 9V power plug. It was really inexpensive and based on quoted shipping times (and the stupid name!) I new it was coming from China. So ordered one for the heck of it not expecting much but it came in and it works really well and even appears to be fairly well made. I'll keep in my 'emergency' bag along with a couple fresh 9V batteries in case I ever need it because I forgot to charge my Battery Buddy! Here's the link to this:

Pink Lizard ENO EX PD-1 Electric Guitar Effect Pedal Mini Power Supply Cable

So there you have it. Everything works great and there's a couple solutions for those that need to power just a single pedal or two and don't want or need a brick to power an entire pedal board. I'm all about traveling light these days. Less is more!

Here's a brief video of the Battery Buddy and the little connector. I'll also post some photos in a followup post:

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