No Air Power Without Ground Power Patch - balance-frees14’s diary

UPDATED 27 September 2011 Ground Mobility for Army helicopters: the all-or-nothing paradigm solved 2000. Washington D.C. U.S. Army Interim Brigade Combat Teams.

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PedalSnake and Pedal-Rig Terms

Like small headphone plug aka 3.5mm. Some pedals use this type connector to receive power. PedalSnake P-Lines are all standard 2.1mm, but PedalSnakeACC Power Plug Adapters will adapt to any power plug size for pedals, and for power supplies. See Power Plugs Sizes.

2.5 barrel connectors look just like 2.1, but the center pin hole is larger 2.5mm. A standard 2.1 plug wont fit into a 2.5 pedal. A 2.5 plug fits loosely into a 2.1 pedal, making little or no contact between hole and pin. PedalSnakeACC Power Plug Adapters will adapt to any power plug size for pedals, and for power supplies. See Power Plugs Sizes.

Like a small headphone plug aka 1/8 miniphone. Some pedals use this type as a power connector. PedalSnake P-Lines are all standard 2.1mm, but PedalSnakeACC Power Plug Adapters will adapt to any power plug size for pedals, and for power supplies. See Power Plugs Sizes.

A pedal that accepts a 9V battery, though it may have a power input jack too. 9V battery pedals are important for designing your P-Lines and power-chains, because they typically draw only 10-20 mA of current. So 20 or more can be powered on a standard P-Line. See Pedal Current Categories.

The end of PedalSnake that goes at the backline with the amp. To facilitate setting up the patented ultra-quiet wiring scheme, PedalSnakes have labels for the Amp End, and Pedal End too,

This is is gear like amps that are powered by 120VAC wall power. They plug into the wall with a 3-prong grounded AC power plug the 3rd center prong is for earth ground, any gear powered by 2 prongs or an isolated power supply is not considered to be AC-powered gear. The earth ground is for safety only, and not intended to carry current, so all input and output jacks are grounded to the metal chassis which is tied to earth ground but ground is not always ground --see different ground points. See Grounding and Hum.

The back of a performance stage where players put gear like amps, racks, etc. as opposed to the frontline where performers stand over their pedals. PedalSnake is designed to replace all cables running between pedals and amps, from the frontline to the backline.

Those little power connectors for pedals that have a hole in the end of the plug on the power supply s cable, and a matching pin inside pedal s power-In jack. See Power Plugs Sizes.

The Base Snake the long, thick multi-channel cable that serves as the backbone of a PedalSnake System. All guitar rig lines run from pedals frontline to amp backline using channels within the Base Snake. Channels are configurable with plug n play Pigtails. See Base Snakes.

Marketing gimmicks about tone often lead us to begin hearing with our eyes. A blindfold test can find out what is important and what isn t, like do I really need a 100 guitar cord. Find one and test it against a decent 25 cord---but do it blindfolded. The tester secretly names the cords A and B, and switches between them whenever the testee listener asks whle trying to hear a difference. You ll be surprised how many folks can t pass. The point is, quit listening to marketing claims and find our for yourself. Save your money for stuff that really affects tone your amp being the most important thing.

A pedal which is always on the opposite of true bypass. Most pedals today are buffered, meaning a buffer circuit is always on, even if the pedal is turned off this is why you have to unplug the input cable on buffered pedals to save the battery. Good buffers drive cable capacitance better than a guitar pickup, so you can have as much as 50-60 feet of cable downstream after the output before you start losing tone. See True Bypass Truths, and Preserving Tone.

This is the standad polarity for barrel power connectors, but it was not a good standard to adopt. It means the center hole of a barrel plug is ground negative, and the outer barrel of the plug is hot with the pedal voltage like 9VDC.

Since the metal of the outer barrel is exposed, it can short out against any grounded metal in your pedal area, like the metal shell of a guitar cord plug. This will kill the power, and your sound. So, if you have unused center-negative plugs on a power-chain, cover them with an insulator, like a small plastic bag. Don t use adhesives like tape, because sticky residue will be left behind when you use that plug, causing a poor connection.

As opposed to a wall wart, where the supply itself plugs into the wall, a chassis supply is a free standing box, usually meant to go on a pedalboard. They usually require 120VAC run out to the board what a pain, and have multiple power outputs for pedals on the board. See Power Supplies.

The 2nd best conductor among metals silver is 1. But copper is not the metal the industry chose to be a standard for electronic connections---they chose nickel. The standard exists because using mating connectors of the same metal prevents galvanic corrosion see dissimilar metals. People are led to believe that high conductivity low resistance, like copper is important in audio signal cables. It is not. Capacitance and corrosion are far more important. Conductivity becomes important with heavier lines, like speaker cables.

To simplify P-Line design, PedalSnake defines 3 Current Categories for pedals. For details, see Pedal Current Categories.

This is the actual amount of current that a pedal draws from its power supply or battery when its on. It is usually only a fraction of its power supply s current rating. 9V battery pedals can have power supplies rated at 200mA, but draw as little as 4mA average is about 20. Some pedals draw over 1000mA. It is good to know or estimate current draw when deciding how many pedals to put in a power-chain with one power supply. To get the accurate current draw of pedal, try to find it on the Power List. To estimate, you can use Pedal Current Categories. Also see Choosing P-Lines.

Current Rating applies to a power supply, not a pedal, telling you how many mA of current that supply can safely deliver. Pedals draw only a fraction of their power supply s current rating. If the rating is exceeded by having too many pedals in a power-chain, or by using the wrong supply, the supply may overload. Try removing some pedals, and putting them on a 2nd chain and supply. PedalSnake uses the current rating of a pedal s supply to define 4 Pedal Current Categories, which can be very helpful in designing PedalSnake P-Lines and power-chains.

Every rig has at least one ground point and hopefully only one. In order to teach proper grounding in pedal rigs, we say a different ground point is any point in your rig with a different ground from your amp-input jack primary ground. You see, ground is not always ground. Power transformers in 120AC-powered devices like amps can induce small voltages into the amp s metal chassis, and it is no longer earth ground 0 volts. One amp chassis can even have different ground points---like with some tube-driven FX loops. If different grounds ever get connected, hum can result from ground loops. The solution is to keep different ground points in your rig isolated from each other. Use enough isolated power supplies, power chains, and other devices like isolated A/B boxes, etc. power chaining across audio-chains at different ground points in the 1 culprit. See Common Different Ground Points. To know what to do about your rig, take a few minutes to do our Simple Hum Test.

A type of connector, like those used on PedalSnake channels and MIDI cables not to be confused with mini DIN, like on computer gear. There are several DIN connectors with different pin counts, but PedalSnake uses only 2 to make 3 different types of channels. See Channel Types.

Can also be called different metals. It is best to avoid mating connectors made from dissimilar metals. This speeds up galvanic corrosion like rust, which will eventually cause a crackling or failed connection. Since your gear has nickel connectors the industry standard, use standard nickel plugs on your cables not gold, despite marketing myths---both sides of a connection have to be gold to realize the benefits. Also see PedalBoard Failures.

Applies to Mx2-I P-Line Pigtail 2-Packs. Dual-I s have a separate ground wire for each side instead of a shared ground wire like an MF2 Dual P-Line. When plugged into the white 5-wire channel on a BaseSnake, a Dual-I functions like 2 MF1 Single P-Lines, So, a Dual-I P:Line can do some things that a simple Dual P-Line can not:

The only true ground is mother earth, which is considered to truly be 0 volts, and always safe. This is not true of all grounds. To make an earth ground for electrical wiring in buildings or a lighting rod, a copper stake is driven deep into the ground, and the electric panel is grounded to the stake. AC-powered gear, like guitar amps, have all their input and output jacks grounded to the metal chassis, which is tied to earth ground via the 3rd center prong on the power plug. But power transformers in AC-powered gear can induce small voltages in the chassis, creating different ground points which are no longer true earth ground 0 volts. See Different Ground Points and Grounding and Hum.

The distance the individual channels stick out past the black outer jacket of the BaseSnake. This gives you an idea how far the channels will spread to reach different connections. Standard BaseSnakes have a 12 fanout length at both ends so the black outer jacket of a BaseSnake is 2 ft. shorter than the stated length for that BaseSnake. Plugging a Pigtail into a channel adds about 15 to the effective fan length. Custom PedalSnakeCS models can be ordered with larger fanout lengths, but is it better to use short extensions than to order fans longer than 24. Long fans are hard to coil up.

The line, or cable, that connects to a footswitch. Footswitches come with some amps to change channels, turn FX on and off, etc. They are typically a pedal-type box with one or more on-off buttons. Footswitch lines can go in PedalSnake too. This is easy when footswitches have cables that detach like Mesa. Footswitches with permanent lines won t plug into PedalSnake s all-male plugs see Footswitch Modifications. See what types of connectors PedalSnake supports, see Footswitch Lines.

Some footswitches have a cable with a male plug permanently attached to the footswitch box, so a modification may be needed for proper mating to PedalSnake s male plugs.

The best thing to remove the cable, and install a female jack in the chassis of the footswitch. Then any appropriate cable, or any appropriate PedalSnake line will work see Footswitch Lines. Some companies like Mesa and Fender already offer cable-less footswitches with chassis jacks.

If you can t modify the footswitch yourself, and you can t find a qualified tech to do it, there are other options like; 1 Use a coupler female-to-female. Hosa makes a good one for 1/4 GPP-105.

or 2 If this is too much cable, cut the footswitch cable off to 12 or less and wire a female jack on the cable right,

or 3 Wire the male plug back on to the 12 cable and still use a coupler above.

This is preamp section of an amp, fed by an amp s main input. The front-end sends a preamp signal to the power amp that drives the speakers. A gain-master amp can get distortion from the front-end, may have an FX loop to send a signal out to effects, and return it to the power amp. Also see primary audio-chain.

The front of a performance stage where guitarists stand with their pedals underfoot. PedalSnake is designed to replace all cables running from the frontline to the backline between pedals and amps.

Effects Loop. The Send/Return FX Loop was developed for gain-master amps that can get front-end preamp distortion at any volume. The purpose of the FX loop is to keep time-based effects sounding good by putting them after the amp s front end distortion. A delay pedal going to the amp-input will result in distorted delay, when delayed distortion sounds better. An FX Loop s Send comes after the preamp and the distortion, so a delay pedal in the FX loop will delay the distortion and sound better. The same is true for other time-based effects, like chorus, tremolo, etc.

Effects that change a signal s level, or amount of distortion. Compressors, fuzz, distortion, overdrive, etc. are examples. These FX should be placed in the primary audio-chain not in an FX loop, where time-based FX belong.

The term for amps that can get distortion from their front-end. A gain knob controls the amount of distortion, and the master knob controls the overall volume, so any amount of distortion is possible at any volume. Sometimes these amps have an FX loop between the front end and the power amp.

This is a type of corrosion rust that slowly takes place when 2 dissimilar metals contact one another. If the contacts are not moved around periodically, it will eventually lead to a crackling or failed audio connection. This is the electronic industry has a standard metal for connectors. Nickel. So stick with guitar cords having standard nickel plugs despite marketing claims of gold and copper. They match the standard nickel jacks on your gear. Also see Pedalboard Failures .

The 3rd best conductor among metals behind 1 silver and 2 copper. Gold-on-gold connections are the most reliable kind---they never corrode---and can be found on the space shuttle, very expensive hi-fi gear, etc. But having gold on only one side of a connection may actually hurt rather than help see Dissimilar Metals. See Galvanic Corrosion and Pedalboard Failures .

Hum in audio systems guitar rigs is often caused by ground loops, which result from 60Hz currents that flow in the ground wires shields of audio cables that connect between different ground points. The most common cause of ground loops in pedal rigs is power chains. So, if you want to understand ground loops and isolation in audio systems, study the illustrations below---they may be the best ever at illustrating these important points. The highlighted area is the path ground currents take when power chains are the culprit.

The key things to understand about these illustrations are:

AC powered devices can have different grounds, even if plugged into the same outlet this is a good thing to do, though.

There can be even be different ground points within the same AC powered device Ground 2 shown above could have been a tube-driven FX Loop in the 1st amp---we used a 2nd amp for visual clarity.

Power-ground and audio-ground in a pedal are the same

So tying power-ground of one audio-chain to power-ground of another audio-chain will also connect the grounds of all the audio cables and everything they connect to.

Notice the ground current path does not go back to the supply because it is isolated.

The ground current path did not have to be caused by a power-chain, the 2 amps could have been directly connected by the audio cables the way we used 2 amps in the old days..

So, don t connect your power-chain cables between audio-chains that are at different ground points. Use 2 different isolated supplies, and 2 different power-chains see below. Isolated supplies have no ground by themselves---they adopt the ground of what they connect to. That s why we have them---they help us avoid creating ground loops.

It s easy to find out if your rig has different ground points. Use our Simple Hum Test. For more, see Grounding and Hum.

Every guitar rig has one or more ground points. Every input and output jack on AC-powered gear like an amp can be considered a ground point, because jacks are grounded to the amp s metal chassis which is tied to earth ground. The problem lies when ground points are not at the same as the primary ground this can even happen within the same metal chassis. These different ground points are responsible for ground loop hum. See Ground Loops.

If you get more buzz when you remove your hands from your strings, you need to ground your strings. Unfortunatley, many guitar makers don t do this for you, so it becomes a popular aftermarket mod. To avoid electric shock, do it properly with a resistor and capacitor. Various websites sell these parts, and offer instructions.

This is what we call a pedal that draws a LOT of current from its power supply see Current Draw. It is a loose definition, and usually applies to pedals that 1 Draw more than 500mA of current, or 2 A pedal that comes with a power supply that is rated at 1600mA or more. With PedalSnake, a Hi Current Pedal can be safely powered using an MF1-H Hi-Current Pigtail and the white 5-wire channel on a BaseSnake.

Made with an MF1-H P-Line Pigtail 2-Pack and the white 5-wire channel in a BaseSnake, a Hi Current P-Line will deliver 1000mA of current before dropping 0.5V across the line. This comes in handy when powering Hi-Current Pedals through PedalSnake see Pedal Current Categories.

Isolated means ground isolated, or transformer isolated, meaning no hard-wired connection between the input and output, especially no ground connection. The purpose of isolation is to prevent ground loop hum. Isolation usually refers to a power supply it can also refer to tranformer-isolated audio outputs, like those found in good stereo pedals and A/B Switchers, because they often connect to 2 amps, and ground loop hum can occur. In an isolated device, power or signal at the input is induced from input to output, across the air gap of a transformer. Isolated power supplies like good wall warts are usually better quieter, and will usually say Class 2 Transformer somewhere on the label. Isolated supplies must get grounded when we use them. But this only happens after they connect to a pedal that is connected to a grounded AC-powered device like an amp, with a 3-prong power plug. So, a single audio-chain of pedals, and the wall warts providing power to that chain, will all adopt the ground of the amp input the last pedal connects to. This is important to know when using a power chain. To learn more, see Avoiding Hum in Power Chains, Dual G-Lines, and Dual P-Lines.

Lo-current pedals will not accept 9V batteries, because the current draw is too high. The battery would not last long. Power supplies for lo-current pedals are usually rated between 350 and 900mA. See Pedal Current Categories.

Modeling pedals by Line 6; having a 2.5mm power plug with reverse polarity center positive instead of center - negative. When using the Line 6 supply with a PedalSnake P-Line, use a 2125AR power plug adapter for the pedal, and 2521A for the supply. You can also use a standard 2.1mm, center-negative, 9VDC supply, but it must have a current rating of 500mA or more like SnakePOWER. Then use 2125AR and 21RP for the pedal itself. Power Chains are possible when using our SnakePOWER 500mA rating to power the Line 6. To be safe, try to keep the total current draw below 400mA the Line 6 modeler draws around 270 itself.

Electronic devices are usually powered by a low voltage from a power supply instead of 120VAC wall power. The low voltage is usually 24V or less. While a few pedals require 120VAC from the wall, the vast majority require a low voltage from a power supply or battery 9VDC is the most common.

Pedals with power supplies rated between 1000 and 1600mA.

The standard metal for audio signal and power connectors. When all connectors use the same standard metal, galvanic corrosion and bad connections are minimized.

If you you need tons of gain which increases noise, and can t afford better gear few can, noise gates may be a solution for you. But they are not perfect solutions. Gates merely turnoff or reduce the sound noise included when you are not playing. This is effective, because noise is more noticable in quiet moments. But, when playing resumes, the sound comes back, noise included. This is effective, because your guitar signal is usually much louder than the noise, and the noise is mostly covered up. But, the gating on and off of the sound can be noticeable, and---since the noise is still there when you play---sound and tone can be affected, even though you don t hear the noise specifically. See Types of Noise.

This refers to power supplies, and happens when too much current is drawn from a supply, and usually noted by increased hum. Avoid overloading, because the increased heat may shorten the life of the supply. This is important to keep in mind when designing your power-chains.

The same as an audio-chain: A chain of pedals where the guitar signal feeds from one to the next. The last pedal s output goes to some AC-powered device like an amp. A pedal-chain is an important concept because each pedal in an audio-chain are at the same ground which is the ground point of the outer metal jack at the signal input of the AC-powered device. This is useful to know in order to avoid hum. See Grounding and Hum.

The order of pedals in a chain, from first input to the final output, can be important. See Pedal Order.

The end of PedalSnake that goes at the frontline with the pedals. To facilitate setting up the patented ultra-quiet wiring scheme, PedalSnakes have labels for Pedal End, and Amp End too.

This is the operating voltage of a pedal, usually supplied by a power supply or battery. Most pedals use 9VDC, but they vary up to 24V, and be AC or DC. You need one P-Line for each pedal voltage in your rig. For more, see Pedal Voltages.

These are short 15 cables that plug into a Base Snake channel to form 1/4 G-Lines for guitar signals or 2.1mm P-Lines for low-voltage pedal power. Pigtails makes PedalSnake plug n play, which is done guitar rigs change so often. Pigtails are easily added or swapped around. Sold in 2-packs, one for each end of a channel. Bare channels can be used for any application needing 5pin DIN connectors---like MIDI. See Channels and Line Types, G-Line Pigtails, and P-Line Pigtails.

This is power delivered to a device thru its signal cable. This site talks only about phantom power for MIDI footcontrollers. Some have no dedicated power-input jack, and require phantom power thru the MIDI cable. More more, see the various types of MIDI Lines.

Found on some pedalboards, this is a group of power-output jacks that feed power pedals with short power cables. Since the outputs are usually just a power-chain from one power supply, they are not isolated from each other, and can cause ground loops. So avoid purchasing pedalboards with patch bays. Power for you pedals is best designed using individual isolated supplies and power-chain cables. If you have a pedalboard with a patch bay, use it as long as their is no hum. See Avoiding Hum in Power Chains, and our Simple Hum Test.

2.1mm is the standard power plug size for pedals Boss, Dunlop, etc, use this size. But there are other sizes out there that may require a power plug aapter, for pedals or supplies. For more, see Power Plug Sizes.

Chaining power to several pedals from one power supply, usually via a power-chain cable like our Vari-Chain System is the world s first power chain cable that can be configured to any length, and has all space-saving right-angle plugs.

The chain of pedals that connects to your guitar as opposed to, for example, an FX Loop chain. The primary chain usually connects to the amp input at the other end. It is important for several reasons: 1 It is considered to be primary ground, and serves as the ground reference for our simple Hum Test, 2 This chain is driven by the guitar pickup unless an active pickup or wireless is used, so see True Bypass Truths, and 3 It usually goes into the front-end of an amp as opposed to the FX loop. Also see Different Ground Points.

A P-Line Pigtail 2-Pack that provides only one P-Line, like MM1, MF1, and MF1-H. The 2-Packs always contain a 2.1mm male plug for the PedalEnd, and can have either a male plug or female jack at the AmpEnd, depending on what your power supply needs to plug into.

A unique power supply from PedalSnake. To help tidy up backline wiring, instead of a messy cable and plug like most wall warts, it sports a female jack in the chassis. For ultra-quiet power, SnakePOWER is a true ground-isolated Class 2 Transformer, with a real heavy iron core. Rated at 500mA, it has the highest current rating in this class, making it the best choice for powering a dozen or more stompboxes. In fact, it is the only single-output, transformer-isolated wall wart that we know of that can power a Line 6 Modeler like the DL4just add 2125AR and 21RP power plug adapters.

This is and easy way to get a quieter rig, and PedalSnake helps you do it. Plug your entire rig---all your AC-powered gear amps, rack gear, etc and power supplies---into the same AC power strip PedalSnake makes this possible by having you move your supplies to the back with the amp. Having all this gear plugged into the same strip minimizes ground loop hum by putting everything at the same ground potential. Grounds can still vary in some rigs see different ground points, but this is a good start.

FX like delay, chorus, tremolo, etc., that change the sound over time. The opposite of gain-FX. To know how to best use them, see FX Loops and Pedal Order.

A device used to induce a signal or power into a secondary coil from a primary coil, with no hard-wired connections isolatated. Usually used to: 1 Raise or lower transform a voltage, 2 Isolate a signal to prevent ground loops, or 3 To isolate a power supply from ground so it will adopt the ground of its target device and not cause a ground loop. This 2nd and 3rd are our primary concerns with guitar rigs.

A pedal with no buffer circuit driving the downstream output cable when it is turned off. The input and output become hard wired together to pass the dry signal thru. The opposite of a buffered pedal. See True Bypass Truths.

Sometimes wireless receivers sit back with the amp at the backline. So two long 1/4 cords are needed: one takes the guitar-signal out to the pedals at the frontline, and another returns the signal back to the amp-input. Because they use isolated power supplies, wireless receivers always have the same ground as what they connect to, so this is is a perfect application for PedalSnake s RS2 Dual G-Line with its shared ground wire for the 2 sides. RS2 allows you to get both cords for wireless-out-and-back using just one BaseSnake channel.

Players often debate whether to go with a multi-effects unit or several stomp pedals. The the positive perception of multi-FX units is three-fold:

All the effects one needs can be had in one unit true

Fewer pedalboard connections means fewer problems this is actually misleading; see Pedalboard Failures

High-end rack FX can be better for some sounds true, if you can afford them

There was a migration towards multi-FX in the 1990 s. While PedalSnake works fine with multi-FX, there has been a trend back to stomp boxes, which have now made a big comeback. Here are some of the reasons:

You get one sound per stomp box usually

A single program can call up many FX at once

Each stomp boxes must be stomped individually

Players rarely like all the sounds inside

Each stomp box can be chosen for a sound you like

You are stuck with all the sounds the unit

It is easy change out stomp boxes, one at a time

Multi-FX are more expensive, and harder to resell

Stomp boxes are usually less than 150, easier to resell

Programming with menus is slow and painful

Turning a knob on a stomp box is fast and easy

Digital FX can sound unnatural

Digital modeling of distortion has come a long way, but

The best distortions are still analog, especially lighter crunch tones

The main idea is that you want time-based FX AFTER any distortion happens. You do this to delay the distortion rather than distort the delay using delay as an example,

Put Gain-FX in the AmpInput chain

Put noisier Gain-FX after quieter ones

Put Time-Based-FX in the FX Loop chain

This is one of the great benefits of PedalSnake. With PedalSnake, amps with FX Loops are just as easy as amps without them---you always run only one cable, no matter what your rig contains.

You see, in the past players tended to avoid using Loops, even if their amp had one. They hated running the 2 extra guitar cords which was somewhat of a pain.

Should you use your FX Loop. See Pedal Order above.

This sounds weird, but its a fact, and happens all the time.

A layer of rust see galvanic corrosion will slowly form between electrical contacts if they experience these 3 conditions

They are not disconnected or jiggled around over a long period of time

It just so happens, pedalboards experience all 3 conditions listed above, so

They can occasionally exhibit pops, crackles, and fade-outs if the connections are not moved around periodically

This is why smacking electronic devices upside the head will often make them straighten up---the vibration broke through the thin rust layer.

Still, perfectly good cables often get thrown away for no good reason, and folks begin to think fewer connections mean fewer failures.

While this is technically true, it is rarely a factor with pedalboards

A: Only if the male plug and the female jack are both gold, which would never be the case in a guitar rig.

Gold is a superior metal, but not because it is the best electrical conductor it is only 3rd on the list of metals for lowest resistance, silver being 1st, copper 2nd. Gold is superior because it does not corrode. But galvanic corrosion happens faster between 2 contacts if the contacts are not the same metal see dissimilar metals. The only place where gold usage is really important is in crtical high-reliability applications. Then, all the contacts--male and female--are gold.

But the audio industry has developed a quasi-standard metal for electrical connectors: nickel. So most guitar amps, pedals, etc. have nickel-plated input jacks. A gold guitar plug going into a nickel jack will only serve to cause the nickel to corrode faster.

So don t pay extra for gold plugs on your cable. It is sales hype, nothing more.

Because they aren t handled or stressed a lot, good quality cords and cables on pedalboards generally do not break, and,

There is a more common reason for pedalboard failures

no matter how many connections you have on a pedalboard, oxidation of contacts will cause more failures than anything else if some periodic jiggling is not done.

This is especially true if you live near corrosive salty ocean air.

To avoid pops and fadeouts at gigs, all you have to do is:

Use all standard nickel plated plugs

Every 6 months, break any rust layer like this:

Twist all connectors back and forth several times

Move connectors in and out several times

If you live near the ocean, do this monthly

Guitar rigs are susceptible to 3 types of noise, each with a different cause:

HUM. A low pitched, smooth bass tone 60Hz.

If it does go away when you turn the ax down, you are probably using single coil pickups and standing too close to a power transformer in an amp.

If it does not go away when your turn the guitar down, it is caused by:

A ground loop in your rig, and can be fixed see Grounding and Hum.

A cheap power supply. Get a good audio supply like SnakePOWER, or a wall wart from Boss, Dunlop, etc.

An overloaded supply. Remove some pedals from the power-chain, or upgrade to SnakePOWER with 500mA---the most of any isolated-transformer 9VDC supply. This is enough current to power 15-20 9V Battery Pedals without overload.

BUZZ. Similar to Hum from 60Hz wall power frequency, but sounds like a buzz instead, with a higher pitched component in the sound

If does go away when you you turn the guitar down, you are probably using single-coil pickups and getting buzz from light dimmers, neon lights, color TV s, etc. these emit radio waves.

Try turning-off these buzz sources, or move away from them.

It may help to rewire your pickups and pots properly, and shield the cavity the manufacturers rarely do, Stewart-MacDonald has a nice kit, and Shielding a Strat has an excellent guide for proper wiring--take it to a good tech if you don t do it yourself.

If it does not go away when you turn the guitar down, you may have

A damaged or cheap amp. Get a better one we all will one day.

Noisy wall power. Try plugging your amp into a good power strip that claims EMI or RFI filtering on the package

HISS. Is just what it sounds like---a high pitched white noise.

Hiss is typically system noise, and does not go away when the ax is turned down.

The most common cause is high gain. Use only enough gain to get the right sound which can be a lot sometimes.

Other than that, hiss is best reduced by getting better amps and FX pedals.

POWER SUPPLY NOISE This is like buzz, but is not always based on the 60 Hz wall power frequency. It is based on the switching frequency of your pedal s power supplies.

Power supplies, unless they are expensvie chassis style supplies with toroid transformers, can radiate noise as radio frequencies. This does not imply you need an expensive toroidal power supply, only that you shouldn t put standard power supplies right up next to your pedals and cables. When moved to a safe distance, there is no difference in noise between the expensive supplies and the standard wall warts. They isolation and circuitry are the same, and the typical wall wart will have a higher current rating than most of the outputs provided by the expensive supply, which makes them better for power chains. For more, see Chassic Style Supplies below.

A fun experiment: Put a typical wall wart on an extension cord, and wave it around your pedals and cables while the volume is up loud on your amp. This will give you an idea of how much noise your power supplies contribute, how far away they need to be, etc. You can see Jody demonstrate this at the PedalSnake Channel on YouTube, in the help video about P-Lines and Power starting at .

This is one reason PedalSnake makes rigs quieter. Wall wart supplies move to the backline, away from your pedals and cables. They even plug in to the same power strip as your amp, which yields a quieter star ground.

If you do everything right to prevent noise, and still have problems, you could try a noise gate. While they may be needed for high-gain players, they do alter the sound a bit, and are considered a band-aid fix. Its better to try to kill noise at its source. This is why most high-gain players use quieter humbucker pickups.

AC Adapters and other confusing names for power supplies

At PedalSnake, we think power supply, and even wall wart, are less confusing names to use. Other names, like AC adapter or power adapter, are really misleading terms. Why.

Power supplies don t adapt anything.. They convert aka transform 120VAC wall-voltage to a low-voltage for pedals and other electronic stuff.

Most power supplies do not output AC power---most deliver DC power.

Various types of Power Plug Adapters are also described as power adapters, which is a better use of the term.

Wall warts are the most economical way to get clean, quiet power. You just have to know how to use them Some nice characteristics of wall warts are:

They almost always have have isolated transformers like SnakePOWER, Boss, Dunlop, etc., so they are very quiet.

Our tests show that good wall warts, when used properly, are not only as quiet as more expensive chassis supplies, but as quiet as batteries.

To avoid induced noise, keep wall warts at least a few inches aways from audio connections within your pedals. PedalSnake makes this easy.

Use a star ground in your rigplug your wall warts into the same power strip as your amp. PedalSnake makes this easy.

For moresee Grounding and Hum.

They are mass-produced in large volumes, so they are usually inexpensive 20 or less

They almost always have an output of 200mA or more. This means:

Most wall warts have a cable with a male plug, requiring our MF1-H or MF2-I PLine Pigtails Kit.

However, our SnakePOWER has a female output jack instead of the typical cable and plug :

Use our male to male PLine Pigtails Kits with SnakePOWER MM1 or MM2-I.

At 500mA, our SnakePOWER supply has the highest current rating of any ground-isolated Class 2 Transformer power supply. Ground-isolated transformers like most wall warts are the quietest type power supplies, and deliver quiet clean power at a modest cost when you know how to use them..

SnakePOWER easily powers 15-20 9V Battery Pedals

Wall wart stype power supplies have gotten a bad rap. True, they can induce noise placed right up against pedals. The better chassis style supplies have a toroidal transformer, which keeps noise from being induced this way, so the supply can be placed quietly right next to the pedals. But, when moved a foot or two away, a wall wart supply is just as quiet, and a LOT cheaper.

Some of the other general arguments against using a chassis style supply:

Are more expensive than wall warts 175 or more.

Outputs can be isolated from each other, but not always

Having many isolated outputs can solve some hum problems, but

so can adding a 2nd wall wart, which is much more affordable, because wall warts are isolated too. Usually, isolating each pedal chain on its own wall wart works great.

Some additional arguments against using a chassis style supply if you want to use PedalSnake:

Chassis supplies are made to be on pedalboards, which requires running that nasty 120VAC power cord to the pedal areauuuggghhhwhich is something PedalSnake seeks to eliminate.

Some brands have outputs of only 100mA each, which powers only 3-4 9V Battery Pedals, taking little advantage of

Power-chains. These will be limited to 3-4 pedals.

PedalSnake PLines. You ll have to run a P-Line for every 3-4 pedals, whereas a supply with a single 500mA output can power a dozen or more 9V stompboxes thru one P-Line.

If you do elect to use a chassis style supply with PedalSnake, remember they have multiple female output jacks in the chassis no cable/plug like a wall wart. So be sure to use MM1 or MM2-I PLine Pigtails, so you ll have a male at both ends.

How Many mA Do Pedals Really Draw.

A pedal will draw a certain amount of current mA from a power supply or battery. This is NOT the same as the mA rating of the supply. The real current draw of the pedal is usually much less than the supply s current rating usually printed on the supply, in mA. So you can usually power-chain several pedals from one supply.

For example, a typical 9V battery pedal draws less than 20mA. So you can usually power 4-5 of these with a 200mA power supply without exceeding 50 100mA of the supply s current rating. It is a good rule of thumb to not stress your power supply to the limit of its current rating. Staying at 50 or less will keep the supply running cooler, which will increase its reliability and extend its life.

For power-chaining purpose, knowing the real current draw of your pedals or estimating it can help you determine how many pedals you can run off the supply. You usually get a clue that you are chaining too many if you start to hear hum, or the supply gets hot. They usually get warm, so this is a judgment call.

If you can know or estimate the current draw of each pedal, you can check the mA rating of the supply and figure about how many pedals it will power. These resources can help:

PedalSnake defines 4 Current Categories for pedals. This can greatly simplify your decisions about power-chains and PLines.

If you really want to push the limits of a supply, you may not want to estimate the current draw. Many are listed here, by manufacturer.

Reduce the number of power supplies you use

Reduce the number of PLines you need for your PedalSnake

Get a power-chain cable, like our Daisy4S, and chain power from one supply to several pedals of a given voltage like 9VDC.

Daisy4S has all standard 2.1mm plugs. Power Plug Adapters are available for pedals and for supplies if needed.Whether you use PedalSnake or not, you must power chain properly to avoid hum. See;

When a pedal is true bypass, it means that when it is off, the input is hardwired to the output with no electrical circuit in between. The electrical circuit is completely bypassed. It is like the pedal isn t even there. The signal is just wired straight thru, with no buffer circuit supplying the signal to the ouptut. Even when a true-bypass pedal is off, and no battery or power of any kind is applied, you can still play your guitar thru the pedal. It just becomes a direct connection to the next pedal or amp when it is off.

What is a Non-True-Bypass Pedal.

These are what we call buffered pedals. The electronic circuit is not bypassed when the pedal is off---just the effect part of the circuit is turned off. This is done to overcome cable capacitance. The longer the cable, the higher the capacitance. Buffer-circuits with lower output impedance will push the guitar signal thru any cable capacitance better than a guitar pickup. NOTE: This is why you have to unplug the cable from the input of a buffered pedal to save the battery. Even if the effect is stomped off, the circuit is still on and will continue to drain the battery until you do unplug the cable.

The first pedals ever made 1960 s were true-bypass. But tone-loss was noticed when using longer cables. So, the buffered pedal was invented.

In the 1990 s true-bypass made a come back. Some players were saying buffer circuits colored their tone, and they wanted true-bypass. However, with all true-bypass, they must be aware of cable capacitance,which means using shorter cables, and more expensive, low-capacitance cables. This may all seem a bit strange---true-bypass pedals still turn on the circuit on when the effect is on.

Butthere is a catch to using an all true-bypass pedals: Cable capacitance adds up with cable length this mainly affects the pedal-chain that connects to a guitar pickup. So, if you have all true-bypass pedals, and have

15 of worth of short cables between pedals

you are using a virtual 60-foot cable when all pedals are off, and it is being driven by the guitar pickup. This can cause signal loss usually heard more as high-frequency tone loss no matter how good the cables are.

For this reason, most pedals today are buffered not true-bypass. With the buffer lower output impedance, we don t have to worry so much about using expensive short cables. Buffers are usually 200-2,000 ohms, while guitar pickups are usually 6,000-14,000. So the worst buffer 2,000 will drive 3 times more cable than the best pickup 6,000.

Becuase PedalSnake G-Lines are of higher capacitance, a player should include at least one good, buffered pedal like a tuner in the pedal-chain that connects to the guitar pickup the primary chain.

The primary chain is the only one that needs a buffer. FX Sends, wireless outputs, etc., are usually buffered already.

Once there is one buffer in the primary chain, you are covered. After that, the more true-bypass pedals you have, the better. Too many buffers can indeed start to color your sound but it usually takes at least 6-8 to begin to notice anything.

We have never seen anyone who could hear one good buffered pedal color their tone in a blindfolded A/B test. A few folks out there may be able to pass such a test it aint easy, but of those few, there are probably even fewer who actully care. Of course, WAY too many buffers can be stacked up, and tone loss becomes obvious then.

Overall, we think it is fair to say that a few good buffered pedals will not color tone for the vast majority of players. We have a bunch of Boss pedals, and others, and don t worry too much about it, except not to use too many. A good practical limit may be 4-6 buffered pedals in your rig, but let your ears be the judge.

Pedaltrains Pedalboards---the best for PedalSnake, or for any rig, really

Pedaltrain s raised, tilted design allows

This yeilds the famous the UltraCool Look for PedalSnake.

PedalSnake to coil-up in the Pedaltrain case

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Tough black powercost finish lasts a lifetime

Lightweight aluminum alloy construction---super strong

Power supply patchbay outputs are almost always a power-chain; i.e., not isolated from one another.

So, to stay hum free, power is best done with individual isolated wall warts. Usually, when hum occrurs, a 2nd isolated wall wart is needed to isolate one pedal chain from another. See Grounding and Hum.

The pilot of a small plane that crashed into a Massachusetts home on Sunday calmly told an air traffic controller he had no engine power and was gliding in the.

Power Ground Wire Information: In order to connect your car audio components, you will need power and ground cable. The power cable transfers the electrical current.

Thirteen members of the British Antarctic Survey BAS were trapped and in danger of freezing to death when their base, Halley VI, lost power. Power went down on July.

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Terms we use at here at PedalSnake.com, regarding guitar effects pedals, amps, noise, and tone.

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