1spot, BOSS, Cry Baby, Dark Echo, Fulltone, Ibanez, Jack Deville, Line 6, pedal, power supply, Tremolo, Tube Screamer, Tuner, VooDoo Labs -

How many pedals is too many for my power supply?

Dave in Portland, OR asks:

"Using a 1Spot power adapter, how many pedals is too many pedals to chain together on a 1Spot?
I am using a 1Spot with an extender and it's powering:

  • Fulltone Choralflange
  • Crybaby wah
  • Jack Deville Dark Echo
  • Line 6 MM-4 modeler (with One-Spot Line 6 adapter)
  • BOSS® TU-2 Tuner
  • BOSS® TR-2 Tremolo
  • Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive
  • Ibanez Tube Screamer
My thought is, how can this one power supply work for all of these? Am I risking damaging anything?"

Hey Dave! Great question. I'd wager there are a lot of guys out there wondering if this is legit. Well, lets explore this question and find an answer!

This is a pretty straight forward question, but it does require a little bit of math. Don't get all scared on me, I said a little. No square roots, trigonomentric derivatives, differential equations and imaginary numbers. Leave that shit to the guys who have to design this stuff. All we need here is simple arithmetic and some basic information from the manufacturers of these pedals and power supply.

I'd like to take the time to introduce you to my good friend Andreas' site: Stinkfoot.se. Andreas has setup a database that will really help us here. The Power List. This contains lots of data about the current draw of many common, and even uncommon, effects pedals. Bookmark this site. If you're serious about pedals, this is an invaluable reference (thanks for putting this together Andreas). Here's the idea: we'll compile current draw data for all the pedals, add them together and see if we are within spec for the power supply. Easy-peasy, like greasy cheese.

Here's the list of pedals, with their current draw and where the information was found:

We add them all up and get: 1446.93mA total current consumption.
Compare it to the 1700mA the 1Spot delivers and we see that 1700mA >= 1446.93mA so we're in the clear. Turn the amp up and rock the fuck on out!

Big ups, props and kudos to Andreas for putting this data together, but that's not all. He even wrote a tutorial for how to measure your favorite pedals' current draw: Dig it.


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