Baby Thundaa Question

[John]

We use a basic 1Spot for all Thunder variants. I have had major issues with several popular bricks, but never with a 1Spot. The Boss supplies (and all similar) are shitty.

What brand are you using? It is almost certainly a power supply issue, but I suppose it could also be a loose ground connection...

Also, if you haven't used that power supply with a high gain pedal before, it won' matter if you've never had problems with other pedals. High gain stuff will cause problems with supplies that are perfect with everything else. Just the nature of the beast...

Hey, thanks for checking in! I didn't try a 1Spot yet but will dig one up and give it a go. So far I used a Dunlop and a UsedPedals.com house brand one, both of which have been reliable even with noisy pedals. I opened up the Baby Thundaa when it arrived and the PCB is kind of loose, dunno if that could have anything to do with it. There's a mess of extra wire in there that I was a little surprised by, but having never opened one of these before I didn't know what to expect. It's one of the black ones with the skull, supposedly from the short run of ten according to the seller; dunno if that sheds any light on the sitch.

[codetocontra]

Aens_wife, curious what other isolated power supplies you have had issues with. I know you mentioned Voodoo Labs PP2 in the past, from someone you know with bad experiences on tour. PM me if you would rather not air the info publicly.

[aens_wife]

We use a basic 1Spot for all Thunder variants. I have had major issues with several popular bricks, but never with a 1Spot. The Boss supplies (and all similar) are shitty.

What brand are you using? It is almost certainly a power supply issue, but I suppose it could also be a loose ground connection...

Also, if you haven't used that power supply with a high gain pedal before, it won' matter if you've never had problems with other pedals. High gain stuff will cause problems with supplies that are perfect with everything else. Just the nature of the beast...

Hey, thanks for checking in! I didn't try a 1Spot yet but will dig one up and give it a go. So far I used a Dunlop and a UsedPedals.com house brand one, both of which have been reliable even with noisy pedals. I opened up the Baby Thundaa when it arrived and the PCB is kind of loose, dunno if that could have anything to do with it. There's a mess of extra wire in there that I was a little surprised by, but having never opened one of these before I didn't know what to expect. It's one of the black ones with the skull, supposedly from the short run of ten according to the seller; dunno if that sheds any light on the sitch.

Those were made before we had board mounted pots that hold everything in place. We are definitely more careful about our design and wiring now than we were 5 years ago. Generally, it won't cause problems. We get very, very few of the older pedals in for repair.

We have used the Pedal Train brick and the Voodoo Labs brick in the past and have had a terrible experience. I'd rather own 4 1Spots to power a board than one of either of those. I know they say they are isolated, but given what we have heard/seen, I don't know how that's possible.

[codetocontra]

Another thing, are the power supplies and the amp on the same circuit? If not you can get weird ground loops. Or you can use a 3 prong adapter to lift the ground on the pedal power. Safe because the amp is grounded.

[Jwar]

Isolation supplies only matter when someone doesn't properly protect their circuit in my experience. Meaning, you have to have power regulation internally to down step the shit if it pumps too much juice in there. lol.

I've seen so many damn bad designs from other builders claiming not to use anything but certain supplies. To me that means they didn't do enough homework or are just generally ignorant to how power works in general. Which is crazy considering they are making an effects pedals that uses all these caps and resistors that hold or resist power. LOL!

Diode protect that shit in case of reverse polarity (because it does happen) or over powering. Prescription Electronics has a diode circuit directly attached to the power jack just for this reason.


Jack Deville has a very in depth blog about this as well. Love it. It's cut throat and makes you think. lol


I know this isn't really what you were talking about here but it drives me fucking insane and I wanted to vent a bit. haha

[John]

Another thing, are the power supplies and the amp on the same circuit? If not you can get weird ground loops. Or you can use a 3 prong adapter to lift the ground on the pedal power. Safe because the amp is grounded.

Well, there is no ground on the pedal power because wall warts are only 2-prong devices.

I just tried it with the same PSU on a different circuit of the house and the whine is 95% gone! Also on a bass amp, whereas I first tested it on a guitar amp which is more likely to amplify the really high frequencies, so there may be a couple factors at play but it's a definite improvement.

[Lebowsky]

Can you tell me what is the approx (or rather max) current draw of the Baby Thundaa? I need to daisy chain it on a 100mA outlet with 2 other pedals that draw approx 50 and 12 mA respectively.

It's the "first" baby thundaa, brown one, not the reissue, and it says 2004 on the back plate.

Thank youuu!

[aens_wife]

The Baby Thunder will pull about 10mA.

[Lebowsky]

thank you!