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I'm currently using an unwieldy combination of daisy chains, wall warts, and one battery, and am planning on getting a Pedaltrain soon, and after that I'd like to switch over to an isolated power supply or two. As far as I know there's no single supply that's big enough to power the whole board, and while I realize that there are indefinite permutations of smaller supplies, I really don't know shit about this stuff, and would really like some guidance in balancing thrift and quality.

My current plan is two Truetone CS12s. Total draw is something like 750 not counting the two ARC pedals, the Arion delay, and the custom Muff next to it (I can't remember/find these values). Everything is straight up 9v (except the Echorec and Sabbra, which can be run at 18v, but since I've never done this I don't foresee a need to), so I don't need any fancy switching options.

So here's the board:



Thanks in advance, O wise ones!

Errant Tiger wrote:I'm currently using an unwieldy combination of daisy chains, wall warts, and one battery, and am planning on getting a Pedaltrain soon, and after that I'd like to switch over to an isolated power supply or two. As far as I know there's no single supply that's big enough to power the whole board, and while I realize that there are indefinite permutations of smaller supplies, I really don't know shit about this stuff, and would really like some guidance in balancing thrift and quality.

My current plan is two Truetone CS12s. Total draw is something like 750 not counting the two ARC pedals, the Arion delay, and the custom Muff next to it (I can't remember/find these values). Everything is straight up 9v (except the Echorec and Sabbra, which can be run at 18v, but since I've never done this I don't foresee a need to), so I don't need any fancy switching options.

So here's the board:



Thanks in advance, O wise ones!

I was looking for an answer with the search function and found this unanswered post.

I have the Truetone CS12 and have been using it since a lot of time. Never have a single problem, works well, and it's silent. The only thing is that right now I might need to change it because a lot of the pedals I recently got need more than 100mA and I might not have enough power for those. Also, I have 3 or 4 pedals I want to power 18v for bigger headroom but right now I can't even daisy chaining those because of mA.

So the answer is, if you don't have pedals that draw huge amounts of power, go with the CS12. Is stable, heavy built, and highly reliable.

Dowi wrote:
I was looking for an answer with the search function and found this unanswered post.

I have the Truetone CS12 and have been using it since a lot of time. Never have a single problem, works well, and it's silent. The only thing is that right now I might need to change it because a lot of the pedals I recently got need more than 100mA and I might not have enough power for those. Also, I have 3 or 4 pedals I want to power 18v for bigger headroom but right now I can't even daisy chaining those because of mA.

So the answer is, if you don't have pedals that draw huge amounts of power, go with the CS12. Is stable, heavy built, and highly reliable.

Hey, thanks for the feedback. I have pretty much decided the CS12 (well, a pair of them) is the way to go. I just have to resign myself to shelling out for them - even though the price is right, it's still such a boring thing to drop cash on.

Are you adamantly opposed to daisy chaining any pedals? I use a Mondo and it covers power for my whole board. I daisy chain a few pedals off a couple outputs, but the Mondo has enough high MA outputs that power isn’t an issue. You can also try different combinations of daisy chaining to eliminate noise.

If you are against any daisy chains, then you can do the strymon power supplies which are sorta modular, or another company has one that is really crazy expensive p&w level prices. Two cs12 supplies would work too, of course, but you could probably get by with one.

To me daisy chaining has never been a problem (used a 1spot for years to power 10-11 pedals) until I started to use more digital/high power requiring pedals. That's why I turned to the cs12

harpies wrote:Are you adamantly opposed to daisy chaining any pedals? I use a Mondo and it covers power for my whole board. I daisy chain a few pedals off a couple outputs, but the Mondo has enough high MA outputs that power isn’t an issue. You can also try different combinations of daisy chaining to eliminate noise.

If you are against any daisy chains, then you can do the strymon power supplies which are sorta modular, or another company has one that is really crazy expensive p&w level prices. Two cs12 supplies would work too, of course, but you could probably get by with one.

I'm not totally against it, and have been getting by for the last couple years with a mix of wall warts and daisy chains. The current plan is to pick up one CS12 and combine it with a wart and chain or two and see how it all goes.

Errant Tiger wrote:I'm not totally against it, and have been getting by for the last couple years with a mix of wall warts and daisy chains. The current plan is to pick up one CS12 and combine it with a wart and chain or two and see how it all goes.

After I had a couple gigs where half my pedals were janky I caved and bought a CS12, it's been pretty smooth sailing ever since.

You've probably seen this a thousand times if you've been reading around about it, but the individual draw from each output is less important than the total draw you have... as long as you're not going over the brick's total output, you are generally fine getting away with, say, more than 100mA from one of the 100mA taps. The upshot is (at least in my experience) it's generally okay to daisy two or three lower-draw analog pedals from one output on the CS12.

The other observation I have is that I don't have any 18v pedals, so the two 18v taps were useless to me without grabbing the 18v->9V adapter plugs.

With something high powered like a mondo, cs12, or strymon zuma, you should be good then. Daisy chain a few lower power pedals off an output and isolate the big draw and digital pedals. Buying two cs12 would likely be overkill for your board.

harpies wrote:With something high powered like a mondo, cs12, or strymon zuma, you should be good then. Daisy chain a few lower power pedals off an output and isolate the big draw and digital pedals. Buying two cs12 would likely be overkill for your board.

Thanks for the tip! I will keep everyone here posted on this fascinating story.

Isolate digital and high draw pedals. I’m passionate about a good isolated power supply, but I’ve never had issues daisy chaining a few dirt pedals or tuners or loopers and splitters. Start off buying one power supply. You’re board isn’t that crazy. Try different combos. You’ll probably be fine. If you really need to, buy another, but it’s bet it’ll be fine.

misterstomach wrote:Isolate digital and high draw pedals. I’m passionate about a good isolated power supply, but I’ve never had issues daisy chaining a few dirt pedals or tuners or loopers and splitters. Start off buying one power supply. You’re board isn’t that crazy. Try different combos. You’ll probably be fine. If you really need to, buy another, but it’s bet it’ll be fine.

Thank you! This is all very helpful.