Wondering about order of effects..

k-lub242 · 05-13-2009, 11:31 PM

Well it sounds to me like both of those require a special/non standard power supply. I'm totally not the expert here, but it sounds like your stuck using wall warts for those two. I would just find a really sleek power supply and attach it to your pedal board in some shape or form. Or get one of those fancy extension cords that have a few plugs at the end. Of course the wall warts won't fit it quite right, so you would have to get these amazing little things designed for power strips that are basically like 6" extension cords. That way a wall wart won't hug it all. IDK, just a thought.

metropolis4 · 05-13-2009, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by relient nelson

well, kinda. Its not actually on my board, I'm just running it between my board and my amp. I use the Holy Grail's hall reverb settting with a completely wet signal and a large amount dialed in to create a very ambient, background type sound for a worship setting. And I found that boosting that reverbed signal with the bad monkey actually works better than boosting the signal before the reverb pedal. So that's what I've got going for now.

Now I've got a powering effects pedals problem.

I use the SKB 55 pedalboard and power all my pedals from there. However, when I try to power my holy grail plus pedal using the board's power, something interesting happens. The pedal will turn on and off like normal, but when it is on, it does not affect the sound at all. It seems to just send it straight through. When I use the individual wall wart adapter that came with the pedal, it functions normally. I have checked my polarities on the board and I believe the Reverb needs a 9 volt center negative power source, but I don't know what to do about this problem and I don't want to have to bring that wall wart with me all over the place.

Also, my Nova Delay requires a 12 volt signal. I've tried using my board to supply it, the pedal will turn on for a few seconds, and then power down. Again, when using the seperate wall wart, the pedal functions perfectly.

Any suggestions or ideas to help me troubleshoot this? Thanks guys.

Thats one of the problems with the Holy Grail: great sounding pedal, but I've never seen a pedal so picky about its power supply! I had the same issue with mine and tried lots of different things and came to the conclusion that, for whatever reason, that pedal ONLY works with the power supply that comes with it. Nothing else works well. You either get the issues you described here, a weird thing where the knob works in reverse, or so much noise it's not even useable.
The newer Holy Grail + is much quieter, but still uses its own wall wart due to the higher voltage and Ma draw required to operate it. Plus I didn't think it sounds as good... You're basically stuck here

As for the Nova delay, there's really no other option but to use a 12 volt power supply.

You might need to figure out some other way of powering things. A Voodoo Pedal Power 2+ would handle everything all in one unit, but it's a little pricey. I think I spent around $165 for mine. But, it has an AC out that you could plug the Holy Grail's power supply into, and it has options to increase power to 12-15 volts for the Nova...

relient nelson · 05-13-2009, 11:58 PM

Dang it, I really don't like having to run wall warts. I'm OCD about the board looking clean, and running stuff off it like that gives me a nervous tic motion of the head to the left.

Has anyone else managed to power a Nova Delay with anything other than the provided power supply? My pedal board can supply the correct voltage and polarity, I just don't know what I'm missing.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...6&id=530301714

Here's a crappy pic from my mobile that I uploaded. Notice the unusual placing of the Bad Monkey in the top left. I'm going to have to set up that pedal and tear it down each time I want to move my board, but oh well.

metropolis4 · 05-14-2009, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by relient nelson

Dang it, I really don't like having to run wall warts. I'm OCD about the board looking clean, and running stuff off it like that gives me a nervous tic motion of the head to the left.

Has anyone else managed to power a Nova Delay with anything other than the provided power supply? My pedal board can supply the correct voltage and polarity, I just don't know what I'm missing.

This is probably what your problem is: check how much Ma your Nova requires and compare that to the amount of Ma your board is capable of putting out per channel. I would guess that the issue is that, while you have the correct voltage and polarity, the board can't handle the level of Ma required to power the pedal. I had the same issue running my DD-20 with an SKB pedal board. In that case you really have no choice but to run the wall wart

relient nelson · 05-14-2009, 12:25 AM

This is a dumb question for someone who claims to be a gear nerd, but what does "Ma" stand for?

**thesteve** · 05-14-2009, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by relient nelson

This is a dumb question for someone who claims to be a gear nerd, but what does "Ma" stand for?

it should actually be mA, milliamps.

relient nelson · 05-14-2009, 01:57 AM

Okay, thanks. I'll look into that. I hope there is some way to avoid using wall warts.. but its all worth it to achieve that killer tone, right? ... er whatever.

metropolis4 · 05-14-2009, 08:57 AM

I thought that didn't look right for some reason, thanks for the correction

I can almost guarantee this is what your problem is. I had the exact same issues with my Holy Grail and Boss DD-20 when I started using a powered pedal board a few years ago. The Holy Grail would only work with its own power supply, and the DD-20 would turn on for a few seconds and then turn off again. And, I just looked up that board and realized it's the same pedal board I was using.

I looked up some numbers and it looks like the Nova Delay pulls about 268mA and the Holy Grail draws 200mA while the SKB55 can only handle 100mA per outlet. This is what's causing the problem. Unfortunately there's no way around it. The power supply simply isn't sufficient for those pedals...

Why not just plug the wall warts for those two pedals into the AC outlets on the top of your pedal board? That's what I ended up doing with mine and it worked fine. Just bundle up the cables with some ties and tuck them in and you're good to go.

relient nelson · 05-14-2009, 11:05 AM

That would work if I had the 45 model, but I have the 55. Its designed for worldwide use and doesn't include any space for wall warts on the board :/