for those who do NOT use batteries in their pedals...

[semi-hollowbody]

...put electrical tape on the 9v connector...

I was having weird electrical/grounding issues...humming when I pulled my fingers away from the strings, for example...my pedaltrains are on carpeted floor and I was wearing slippers, my hardwire overdrive AND distortion were acting funny, and would turn on and off just by touching them with my slippered foot, nowhere near the footswitch

I pulled the distortion pedal off the board, removed the switch and saw the 9v connector was touching the steel housing...I electrical taped it and tuccked it awaw, did the same to my overdrive and they stopped turning on and off intermittantly...the hum from pulling my fingers away from the strings was much less, but still there...im gonna tape the 9v connectors on all my pedals...

anyone else have weird electrical phenominon??

Im also committed to getting isolated power for each pedal, slowly but surely...AND im gonna run a couple outlets to their own seperate breaker...nothing else on them...

 

[ibodog]

I have a Four Banger booster that I think was doing the same thing when I first got it. The rangemaster boost in it sounded horrible. Once I opened it up and put in a battery it was fine - even when running it off of a power supply again. Now I tape all the battery snaps if I remove the battery.

 

[StompBoxBlues]

I believe you, but find this extremely weird...

Pedals that offer battery and external power, have a little
pressure plate on the jack, so that when you plug in a power jack, it "opens" and breaks the connection from the positive (if normal pedal, negative if "positive ground" I think) battery lead on into the pedal.

You can test this, on CORRECTLY wired, normal negative ground pedals, you put in a battery, turn the pedal on, see the LED light showing it is on...then plug in a dummy (or just don't plug in the power supply to an outlet) power plug into the 9vdc input, and the LED should go out, indicating the battery is no longer in the circuit.

All my pedals behave this way, and that meanst the battery is out as far as I can see.

Does your pedal do this (the battery trick)?

Edited to add: On the other hand...if the battery clip was dangling around in there and could have the terminal short out some component on the circuit board I could understand that.

rather than tape them up (which gets "gunky" after time) why not just tape it face-up to the body by taping the leads into the clip? Or buy a small self-adhesive wire wrap tie-down and wire wrap it so it is usable but safely
not able to dangle in there?

Just some thoughts..

 

[amp_surgeon]

I was having weird electrical/grounding issues...humming when I pulled my fingers away from the strings, for example...my pedaltrains are on carpeted floor and I was wearing slippers, my hardwire overdrive AND distortion were acting funny, and would turn on and off just by touching them with my slippered foot, nowhere near the footswitch

I pulled the distortion pedal off the board, removed the switch and saw the 9v connector was touching the steel housing...I electrical taped it and tuccked it awaw, did the same to my overdrive and they stopped turning on and off intermittantly...the hum from pulling my fingers away from the strings was much less, but still there...im gonna tape the 9v connectors on all my pedals...

Are these Boss pedals?

A true-bypass pedal can't be turned on or off just by zapping it with a little static electricity from your slippers. You'd have to actually toggle the switch. Also, most pedals don't require you to remove any "switch" to get to the 9V connector, but Boss pedals DO require you to lift the switch treadle.

Many Boss pedals use a two-transistor flip-flop to toggle FET's that engage or disengage the effect. It's easy to believe that a little static electricity could cause the flip-flop to toggle when it isn't supposed to. I don't understand why the battery clip touching the chassis would have any affect on this, though. As StompBoxBlues pointed out, the positive lug on the battery clip is disconnected at the DC jack when you're running on external power, and the negative lug is grounded to the chassis.

Anyway, if you're sure this is the problem, and taping up the clip fixes it, then you might consider putting a small bag over the clip and holding it in place with a rubber band. At least you won't get any adhesive gum on the battery clip. Electrical tape is designed to be applied more or less permanently, and it leaves a lot of gunk on whatever your wrap it on.

 

[73171]

YES! The same thing happened to me yesterday with my Hardwire Valve Distortion (great pedal, FYI)



Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Ryan]

Same thing happened to me with my Cobalt. Taped up the battery connector and no problems.

 

[stinkfoot]

The battery clip touching the inside walls of the box won't do anything... like StompBoxBlues said, the positive connector is disconnected at the adapter jack, so it doesn't lead anywhere. The negative connector is connected to ground, but so is the box, so again it won't change anything.

If the negative connector is allowed to touch the circuit board, that could theoretically short something out. But letting it sit freely inside the battery compartment can't cause any interference. Static electricity can, though - the Hardwire series use relay switching, and a static zap might well be enough to mess with the control voltage to the relay.

/Andreas

 

[playthecray]

Let me ask what may be a stupid question. Is there any harm leaving the 9 volt battery in the pedal while it is plugged into a PP2 or another power source?

 

[starfish]

Are these Boss pedals?

The OP said they are Digitech pedals.

Having owned more than 3 dozen Boss pedals over 25 years, I've never once had anything like this happen, nor have I ever heard of it happening with a Boss pedal.

It sounds like a Digitech relay design-related issue. I doubt it is related to relay switching in general, since we don't hear about this with Cusack, Lovepedal, or Eventide pedals.

 

[StompBoxBlues]

Let me ask what may be a stupid question. Is there any harm leaving the 9 volt battery in the pedal while it is plugged into a PP2 or another power source?

No, no harm and it can be a good thing if you ever get power supply problems, Or if you just want to grab a pedal or two and not do a whole power supply thing now and then. The only thing (and I don't even know for sure if batteries STILL do this, but did when I was a kid) if you leave them in too long, and they drain, etc. they can "leak" and that can get nasty.

If you leave them in, you probably ought to change them out every couple years anyway.

 

[Cpt. Picard]

If you leave them in, you probably ought to change them out every couple years anyway.

Plus one on this.

I leave my pedals in, in fact, on some of my pedals, the batt. door's never even been opened.

Heck, there might not even be a battery in there...

But I have had some leak, and it can cause a f***-all mess.

My dyna-comp bit the dust this way.
It wasn't the acid directly, but all that foam somehow maybe "reacted" with the battery acid and "smeared" the caps...

 

[StompBoxBlues]

Plus one on this.

I leave my pedals in, in fact, on some of my pedals, the batt. door's never even been opened.

Heck, there might not even be a battery in there...

But I have had some leak, and it can cause a f***-all mess.

My dyna-comp bit the dust this way.
It wasn't the acid directly, but all that foam somehow maybe "reacted" with the battery acid and "smeared" the caps...

I seem to recall, this usually doesn't happen if they are just in there, but if the pedal (or whatever) is turned on and the battery drains I think it is more likely, but why take chances? Might depend on the battery type also (alkaline vs. carbon) but just making sure they get replaced after a long time I've never had a problem.

 

[cjs42079]

I've had similar issues with my Hardwire Overdrive and Chorus...I didn't even think about checking the battery connnection, so thanks for pointing that out.

I was pretty freaked out that my brand new Hardwire pedals were so sensitive. They would pop on and off quickly at what seemed like random times (like if I stepped on the pedal next to it or something). Now I'm excited to resolve this with a little electrical tape. Thanks!

 

[playthecray]

Thanks SBB.

 

[Sikor]

A never keep batteries inside pedals and immediately after taking it out I wrap the battery connector with an electrical tape.
When I want to use pedal outside the pedalboard I just use battery clips with a DC plug like this one:

I have couple of them laying around and if the battery dies, than replacing it takes seconds only:
unplug empty battery, plug the new one, done

 

[semi-hollowbody]

They were Hardwire (Digitech pedals)
Boss have NEVER done this and Im sure all my boss 9v connections are dangling and sloppy

The closest thing Ive had to this was using a one spot to daisy chain pedals, having ONE of the barrel connectors on the daisy chain empty (not powering a pedal) and everytime it touched my marshall guv'nor 2 (that was next to it) it would short it out...

All I know is TWO hardwire pedals would turn on and off without activating the foot switch...just by touching the side of it or even the knobs...and not just my foot, but when I would touch the overdrive with my hand ...after I taped up the 9v connectors inside the pedal it STOPPED...woohoo...that could just have been a contributing factor...maybe static electricity and bad grounding in the house outlet combined caused this (im not an electrician, obviously LOL)

 

[stinkfoot]

Like starfish said, it's looking like a Digitech Hardwire-specific thing. You can easily check if the adapter jack really disconnects the battery clip positive, as it should. Put a battery in one of the pedals, and insert a plug in the adapter jack (without power). If the pedal still lights up, the battery clip isn't disconnected like it should be.

/Andreas

 

[amp_surgeon]

They were Hardwire (Digitech pedals)
Boss have NEVER done this and Im sure all my boss 9v connections are dangling and sloppy

M'Kay. I'll read more carefully next time.

 

[strat68]

you might consider putting a small bag over the clip and holding it in place with a rubber band. At least you won't get any adhesive gum on the battery clip.

I've always done as a good practice when not using batteries at all particularly, modulation pedals and delays. I've also made paper sleeves for the clips as well.

 

[cedjazz]

...put electrical tape on the 9v connector...

I was having weird electrical/grounding issues...humming when I pulled my fingers away from the strings, for example...my pedaltrains are on carpeted floor and I was wearing slippers, my hardwire overdrive AND distortion were acting funny, and would turn on and off just by touching them with my slippered foot, nowhere near the footswitch

I pulled the distortion pedal off the board, removed the switch and saw the 9v connector was touching the steel housing...I electrical taped it and tuccked it awaw, did the same to my overdrive and they stopped turning on and off intermittantly...the hum from pulling my fingers away from the strings was much less, but still there...im gonna tape the 9v connectors on all my pedals...

anyone else have weird electrical phenominon??

Im also committed to getting isolated power for each pedal, slowly but surely...AND im gonna run a couple outlets to their own seperate breaker...nothing else on them...

Is there a sonic or electrical disadvantage to having batteries but using the power supply? (just in case you have 6+ pedals and the power supply craps out. Yes, it's happened to me)