I have a question about my distortion pedal?
okay basically, i have a clean fender amp, and i need a distortion pedal.. i recently bought a dime distortion from ebay, it arrived all was good except it came with an american power supply (i am from the UK)
this came as a bit of a problem, now i am very very very ineducated in electrics... so i done extensive googling and discovered that i could possibly use a different adapter as a power supply as long as the voltage wasnt over.. it came to a surprise to me that my laptop charger was 18volts, exactly the same. My friend had already been over and plugged a 9 volt charger into it which worked (i.e powered the LED's), but wasnt sending the signal, so after he left i tried it with my laptop charger just because i was just itching so bad to use it (had had the pedal for 4 days and still hadnt even been able to touch it) i plugged it all in, clicked the button, nothing happened, so i turned it all off and unplugged it al immediately
it didnt work, and i am afraid i may have fried the whole thing, because i done more googling and i found out to check the ampage.. the ampage on the original power supply is 0.15 (150 milliamps) and the laptop one is 3.42 amps... yeah ****, thats what i thought, to be sure, i waited for my EMA to come through which took 3 days (today) went and bought a transformer so i could use the original power supply, yet it wont turn on
to sum it all up what i am asking, is did i damage the product, or does it sound unlikely that the steps i took would cause major damage to it, and its more than likely just a faulty buy
thanks
Update:so you're saying that regardless of the ampage it should be fine, what if for example, the power supply was just a half.. or one teeny wattage over? would that cause major damage to it? im asking this for future reference and generally basic education in electronics, as a gigging guitarist i am going to need to know this stuff
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
You really need to go to your local music store and see if they will let you try the right adapter. It is hard to know if you fried the pedal or not. The way to tell this is to get the right adapter and try it. They must make a UK version adapter for your pedal.
The computer supply may not have hurt it if it was the right voltage. But it may have hurt it if it was the wrong polarity ( + and - ). Higher current is ok - higher voltage not ok.
If the LED lit when you used the 9 Volt supply;
it should have worked. I think your pedal is defective.
Trying to operate it on a different supply could hurt it.
Most good pedals will have a protection diode that will
prevent damage if the incorrect polarity is attempted.
If the LED didn't light up when you tried the bigger supply;
your pedal may very well have a protection diode. Try the
9 Volt adaptor again. If the LED lights; your half-way home.
Take apart the distortion pedal/box and inspect the wires
inside. You might just have a bad connection or a wire
came off of one of the signal contacts. Make sure that all
of the cords you are using are known good so that you can
isolate the loss of signal. This should help. Feel free to e-me.
Oh, if it turns out that you can't return or get your money back;
let me know as I can tell you how to make your own distortion
circuit with one op-amp and a few resistors. Real simple stuff!
The Dime Distortion box uses an 18V AC adapter which is supplied with the unit. It doesn't use batteries at all. My guess would be that you applied the wrong polarity from your laptop adapter and consequently messed up the pedal. The extra current the adapter can supply is not important, having the voltage the right way around is. Worth taking the back off the pedal to see if they fitted a fuse which can be replaced as sometimes they are fitted with a diode and a fuse combination to protect the unit against reverse polarity connections.
I used to fairly like distortion pedals, and had the hallowed Boss MT-2 metallic Zone, the BD-2 Blues motive force, an consumer-friendly Tube Screamer, and made my own pedal from schematics as quickly as (it replaced into extraordinarily exciting... you will desire to try it). i'm going to aid you recognize: no longer something beats a needless to say overdriven amp. after i bought a Vox AC15 and commenced in accordance with its customary, tube-pushed classification A overdrive I provide up being concerned regarding the pedals. although, over my Roland JC120 - that's designed to be a independent sounding amp, and so is high quality for outcomes - I did somewhat like the MT-2's selection. for people who've obtained an amp with a outstanding inner overdrive, i does not f it up with loopy pedal setups, as you lose tone with each connection you're making, and after this is long previous by using purely some pedals, you're listening to the pedals, now no longer plenty the guitar. i could nonetheless feed into the two the Tube Screamer or my hand-crafted pedal (a replica of the Maestro Fuzztone; rather trouble-free, 60's circuit... As heard on "satisfaction" by using the Stones) with the AC15, even though it is approximately all the overdrive/distortion i could throw it, because of the incontrovertible fact that it sounded so passable by using itself.