So I have 5 effects pedals that I run through a simple daisy chain adapter.
Recently my pedals have not been getting enough juice from the outlets in my apartment. None of my pedals will work.
Nor does my midi controller keyboard.

I know I've used them in my bedroom before and I'd be hard pressed to think that all of my pedals just stopped working one day.

My amp works. My computer, stereo, lamps etc.

I'm no electronics expert but I think that most electronics expect less than 9 volts is that right?
Effects pedals and my midi keyboard want 9v.

The only thing I can think of right now is for some reason my outlets aren't capable of dishing out a 9 volt current.

I don't know if that even makes sense.

Anyone out there with knowledge on this sort of thing care to offer an opinion on what might be wrong?

I'm going to take the effects to a friends house one of these days to see if they work there....

Just looking for some possible insight

cheers

I work in a hospital, repairing all the medical/surgical equipment that doctors and nurses break. I've done this for over sixteen years.

This sounds stupid, and I'm not picking on you, but is the power strip or whatever you're plugged into turned on?

I have had surgeons with twenty years of experience stumped because they forgot to turn on the piece of equipment.

Second question, Are you cables good? Your guitar cable, your patch cables, your power cables, all of them.

You said "daisy chained"; are you running all your pedals off (power-wise) off of your tuner or some other power source? If so, bypass the tuner, plug the first effect into the TUNER's power source, and see if that works. If not, your original power source is bad and you won't get anywhere.

Tell us what happens...

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

If you are using the Ibanez 5 way power supply splitter you should know they have a limited lifespan of about 5 years or so. I have gone through a few myself over the years. The first symptom is that some of your pedals sound better and some sound worse as degrading wiring within the splitter begins to introduce voltage drop. Then the footswitch on some pedals will begin to become erratic, not fully switching in or out and becoming noisy. Finally some of the splitter ends just stop supplying power altogether and that's about the time you start trying your pedals on battery power and realise they work perfectly so you buy another $25 splitter which will last about another 5 years or so. I don't know why they fail. They just do.

Try all of your stomp boxes individually on battery power and also plugged in to the adapter directly. If they all work fine then you have your answer. Let us know your results.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Try the pedals using batteries - probably a power supply issue.

Is the supply rated high enough to supply everything you're wanting to power? Volts aren't the important part, it'll be the amps (or milliamps) which matter. Some pedals stress most cheap power supplies even by themselves, let alone when chained with a few others.

Quite often an underrated supply will work for a while, then just give up. If so, you might suddenly discover your pedals sound a hell of a lot better with decent power as well.

I was gonna suggest same thing Armadillo did.I have seen people with power surge protectors not turned on and all kinds of weird stuff.Check all cables.
your best bet would be to just give em to me and upgrade all your pedals and you will be good to go works for me.....j/k ,somebodies gotta give ya hard time

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1986 Fender Sidekick Reverb 35
1990 Fender Red Knob - "The Twin"
1992 Fender Newporter - Acoustic
2000 Fender American Series Strat - Natural ash
2010 Fender Mustang 1
2011 Fender Blacktop Jazzmaster -Sunburst
2012 Fender Champion

heya folks,
i appreciate the replies

the guitar cables should be good. i have no reason to think they're not. they're fairly new but you never know.

i don't have a tuner pedal in the chain and i believe anything that should be turned on, is. i'm plugging direct into the wall.

but i do have one of those outlets typically found in a washroom that has a reset button on it. i've tried turning it off and on and hitting reset. my lamp plugs into that outlet and when i use my amp at home, i use that outlet and everything there is fine; so it seems the outlet should be good.

my midi controller has its own dedicated adapter and it also won't work thru that outlet, nor will it work thru my second outlet (which has a multi outlet unit plugged into it) from which i power a few things, like my computer and stereo.
I also tried plugging the midi adapter into the stereo's extra outlet. still no dice.

the last time i used my daisy chain adapter with success was at a show we did at the end of october. band activity has slowed for us since then since the members live in different cities now and we haven't even had a rehearsal going so i haven't had the chance to try out outlets in other buildings.

oh also, i dug another single adapter i have. one of the ones where you select the amount of voltage. turned it to 9v and still no dice plugging that into a single pedal.

i'm going to pick up a 9v battery or two on my way home tonight to rule that out; make sure those pedals are working.

it very well could be that both the midi adapter and the daisy chain adapter are both fired, dead or whatever. i'll keep ya posted.

cheers

also try another plug-in. Sounds like the adapter.

A voltage alert device is an invaluable tool for anyone doing some electrical troubleshooting. They cost about $15-30 depending on if you desire a name brand and they're roughly the size of a Jiffy Marker. In the alternate you can also use a common duplex circuit tester. It will go beyond telling you if power is present, it will also tell you if the outlet is properly wired. It's also smaller and cheaper but slower to use.

http://www.kmstools.com/milwaukee-voltage-detector-with-light-12943

http://www.kmstools.com/klein-tools-gfci-wall-receptacle-tester-13645

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

get you one of these
http://www.newark.com/fluke/fluke-179-e ... dp/25C4804

mine has been an Invaluable tool

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You bin snoopin' through my tools again, haven't you?

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

folks, how do i use one of those meters to test a wall outlet?

cheers

You don't need a meter to test a wall socket. Any clock, radio, lamp, etc will do.

Have you tried another socket? Plug your daisy into the samy socket as your TV?

Do the pedals work individually?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

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Snoopin through a man's tool kit is just plain wrong. It's nothing that a decent guy would ever contemplate.
Snooping through a man's wife's underwear drawer however, is quite another matter..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

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