I've got two pretty cheap pedals and maybe that's why this is happening.  But I was gonna start building a pedal board and get my pedals all set up. But it seems like I have to unplug the input for them to not go dead with a battery.  I check them that they are off but it seems like if I unplug the chord in the input, then they don't go dead.  

Is this normal?  

I've never been a big pedal guy except when I first started playing.  But even back then (90's) I got tired of dealing with the batteries and crap and I didn't know what a pedal board was so I eventually just had my foot switch from my amp and nothing else.  It was just how I played.  So I know very little about pedals.  But I'm trying to be an old dog learning new tricks.  LOL.

Yep, unplug the input. For the cost of three 9V batts you can get this at GC...



Snark 9V zero hum pedal power

If you get more than 2 pedals, bump up to one of these power supplies for $32.  Its nuts to buy those $179 pedal power bricks if you are just a hobby player. I have a $42 Caline Pegasus pedal which is indistinguishable from other Klon type pedals such as the EHX Soul Food. It will also burn down a 9V battery overnight if left with the input cable plugged in..

Thanks man!!!!  I will order some of those snarks probably but I'll be sure to unplug the inputs from now on.  Seems weird.  I didn't realize it was a thing until now.  LOL.  I don't plan on having TOO many pedals but I'm not exactly  sure what else I want yet.  I have a Fender Chorus and Dan Electro Reverb.  The distortion / dirty on my little SP10 amp is kind of..... rough.  I think I want a little cleaner distortion, smoother.  That's what we used to call it back then but I'm not sure what the right term is.  Dirty / High gain....  what else is there ?  Overdrive?  LOL.   I just looked, that's what my amp calls it I guess....  O.D.   Fuzz...…  

Got any recommendations for other pedals for just making it sound more...  full?  I guess everyone loves delay....


The Dan Electro reverb is kind of annoying cuz you need a phillips to adjust the tones.  LOL.  Ugh.  It was super cheap.  And I only had it in mind for one song and I figured I'd set it and forget it.

Same thing applies to guitars with active pickups. The jack has a switch that controls the power circuit. When plugged in, they are drawing power - and while low, it will still drain the battery if you just leave it like that. (Though not as bad as battery-powered pedals.) Unplugging cuts the connection to battery.

For everything but metal: one of the affordable Klon Centaur clones such as Caline Pegasus, Mosky Golden/Silver horse.  Works as clean boost all the way up to nice "transparent" overdrive.

For pushing your amp to edge of dirt for blues or really helping your amps own drive circuit do metal/high gain, get one the clones of a Tube Screamer TS9 or TS808.  

Then you can stack them for other levels of overdrive. FWIW, none of these pedals sound similar on a single coil pickup guitar as they do with humbuckers so expect if you dial it in on a Strat, it will sound like crap when you plug in say an Ibanez RG until you tweak it as they respond differently. Remember that the same Tube Screamer that SRV used for his unique sound, also drove James Hetfield's Marshall amps into some nice thick distortion in Ride the Lightning. A good video on stacking these two types of pedals:

Yeah, if you don't unplug the cable, it'll drain the battery.

And about the power supply, research the shit out of them. Even some of the ones with isolated outputs can be noisy. I currently run one from Voodoo Lab, but it can be noisy. I'm pretty sure my next one is going to be a Strymon Ojai.

My power supply is made by BOSS. But yes, I occasionally forget to unplug and it runs the batteries in my active pickups dead.

Don't go cheap on the power supply. A lot of the cheap chinese multi out put power supplies (and several 'name brands) are not isolated power supplies and have the potential to cause a lot of noise. Daisychains are a no-no. and you do not want a wall wart for every pedal. GigRig is expensive but reliably overbuilt and overpowered. I ran a small auxillary board with a no name 2amp power supply into the GigRig distributor and isolators with no problems.

It is recommended that a power supply be 5-10 times the total current draw for all (not each, all) the pedals on the board.

I bought one of those but it didn't work. Could hear something rattling around inside the enclosure.  Took it apart and a big capacitor fell out. Sent it back and ordered a different one (basically same thing with different graphics) and it works great.

only caveat if you have power hungry pedals they may not work with that. my EQD avalanche run needs like 350 mah of power and those only put out 100 so tthey wont power. Strymon are real power hogs as well.

I am going to upgrade to a Ciocks when i get an HX stomp since i could use that to power the stomp as well.

Being both a HX Stomp and Helix Rack owner, if you don't need the extra routing options, the amp models, and overdrives, I'd give the TC Electronic Plethora a good hard look. I'm really leaning towards getting one myself in the future. Gotta pay down some debt first, though.

old germanium chips go bad, like a vintage Fuzz Face

I did look at that and may end up buying one anyway/in addition to the stomp. The price for those is fantastic for all they do.