What happens if you use the wrong power supply on a guitar pedal?
I also learned that using a power supply of the wrong polarity can damage or destroy a pedal, but that some pedals have protection against using the wrong polarity.
Some pedals are designed to accept 9-18v, and it will say on the pedal or in the manual. But most 9v pedals are not designed to handle voltages higher than 9v. You may or may not destroy the pedal, but it won't work properly.
You should not. If you run a guitar pedal that requires 9v with a 5v adapter it is below the pedal's requirement and you might burn out the power supply if you try to connect it to your power. The power supply you use must provide at least the same current as the guitar pedal requires.
Your power supply must meet or exceed the pedal's amperage requirement, usually measured in milliamps (mA). Not doing so could cause irregular performance or even damage! A milliamp meter is useful to view the exact amperage draw of a pedal. This can prove important when configuring and assembling your pedalboard.
Running a guitar pedal designed to only handle 9V with a 12V adapter can potentially ruin your pedal. If the capacitors inside the pedal aren't designed to handle 12V and you plug a 12V adapter in, they'll burn out.
Voltage. Most guitar pedals on the market use a 9V power supply. Luckily, they will (mostly) all use the same sized power adapter, meaning purchasing a power supply is easier than ever. Some vintage or higher-powered pedals will use other voltages such as 12V or 18V, however.
It depends on whether your power supply is regulated. If you need regulated (stable) 12V, and the 9V supply is unregulated, it could give you up to 14V or slightly higher when not loaded. Chances are it will work, but we don't know for sure.
You cannot use that adapter because it is outputting more voltage than the original (12v vs. 9v). This has a likely chance of burning out one or more of the components within the router.
Voltage and Guitar Pedals
Most guitar pedals require 9V power (even many multi-effects pedalboards). If you have a guitar pedal with 9V written on it, make sure you use a 9V power supply or battery.
9V Battery Equivalents Are: 6LR61, 6AM6, Duracell MN1604, Rayovac A1604, Energier 522, Varta 4922, MX2400, 1604A, Radio Battery, Smoke Alarm, 9V Block, Krona, PP3.
How do I change my 12V adapter to 9V?
To reduce a 12V circuit to 9V, place two resistors in series within the circuit. Find the difference between the two voltages (12V - 9V = 3V) to determine the total amount of resistance needed.
However, one essential thing to note when buying a router is UPS. You will need to make sure that it is compatible with your Wifi router in terms of power ratings. For instance, a router UPS 12V will only function properly for a 12V router, while the 9V variant will work for 9V routers only.
The range can be from as low as 20mA to 1000mA, or 1A. The most important factor here is to not underpower a pedal with too few milliamps. For example, putting a 500mA pedal on a 100mA power tap would cause it to act erratically and probably shut down — it might even damage the pedal.
Sit down and write the power requirements for each pedal and then ensure the power supply you'd like to buy will match those requirements. Most pedals require 9v DC power and have a very low current requirement but pedals to watch out for include powerful digital pedals like the Strymon or Eventide pedals.
If the supply voltage is too low, then your device just won't work. Current: When looking at current, you need to ensure that the Amps rating is higher than the device needs as it will only use as much electricity as it needs.
Guitar pedals should not be left plugged in. You expose your pedals to electric current surges, possible heat issues, battery drain, humidity, and a lot of dust. This deteriorates your pedals little by little. If you want to preserve the life of your guitar pedals, then you should unplug them when not in use.
Super, mega high output boost pedals (beyond anything you're likely to find commercially) could fry the input stage of a solid state amp. Octave down pedals at super high volumes into a loud amp could mess up speakers, but a lot of amps these days can handle that just fine.
Generally speaking, 9V batteries will last anywhere between 1.5 hours to 35 hours in an average guitar pedal. However, the current draw – measured in mA – is important. Pedals with a higher current draw like 170mA will last approximately 2 hours and a pedal with a 30mA draw will last up to 35 hours.
If your system will tolerate a range of voltages rather than exactly 12v, then the answer would be yes. You would need two batteries, one with it's negative terminal connected to ground to provide the "+12v" supply and the other with it's positive terminal connected to ground to provide the "-12v" supply.
Guitar pedals can be powered using batteries, an AC adapter, or a DC power supply (power brick). A battery is fine for an individual pedal, but when powering multiple pedals an isolated DC power supply is the best option as it produces the least amount of background noise.
Do pedal power supplies make a difference?
You can run different voltages
Compared to both a battery and a cheap power supply, most decent isolated power supplies will have at least one variable voltage output. If you have overdrives that can be run at a higher headroom using a higher voltage, then these are ideal for getting the most out of your drives.
A standard 9V battery has about 400-600 mAh capacity. In the most basic terms, these batteries can supply about 500 milliamps for one hour before being "dead".
No, a 12V Adapter provides too high a voltage for the intended application (9V). It is a gamble you will need to assume. The correct adapter is certainly cheaper than your device.
Modern digital pedals – like Strymon- or Source Audio-effects – generally need between 200 and 300 mA. Eventide-effects tend to be quite power-hungry, needing currents between 400 and 500 mA.
Distortion, overdrive, wah, boost, and fuzz pedals tend to sound best with a dying battery due to how the decreased voltage affects the transistor technology in the analog circuit. In this circuit, the battery is isolated from the gain stages, and the battery affects the sound as a result.