New to pedalboards..

[DestroyMankind]

So I've been playing guitar for over a decade now and a few months ago I invested in my first pedalboard with an isolated power supply. Since then I've added several pedals to the board and now I'm up to 6 pedals for an isolated power supply that has 7 spots. What I currently have on the board is as follows
Polytune 3 tuner, Mxr 95 phaser,Ts808 overdrive, ISP decimator II. Then in the fx loop a mxr 10 band eq and a 2nd ISP Decimator II. My question is once I get past 7 pedals I will have to daisy chain some together and I'm wondering what would be the best way to go about this? Like I said I'm new to pedalboards. Almost all of my time playing has been straight from guitar to amp or only using one or two pedals. So all of this is stuff I'm not to sure about.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

The power supply is probably the most important single piece of your pedal board setup.

Bad (also called "dirty") power can raise your rig's noise floor (the amount of hum and other anomalies heard through the amp), cause your pedals to not receive enough power, which can make them sound bad, or too much power, which can damage them.

Just like with racks, always buy a power supply with room to expand.

Depending on your needs and budget, there are tons of great options out there. I've always been partial to Voodoo Lab's power supplies, but the Dunlop/MXR stuff is solid too.

 

[DestroyMankind]

I guess I should have been more specific. The power supply I'm using is the truetone cs-7.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Avoid daisy chaining whenever possible. Though, you could get away with it for the tuner.

Pick up another isolated power supply. While they make a few larger ones, it's easier to just grab another 5 or 7 unit.

 

[mnemonic]

I haven’t had a problem daisy chaining similar pedals (like analog pedals in front of the amp) though I believe you may get grounding issues by daisy chaining pedals in front of the amp with pedals in the loop.

It will take some experimentation though, some pedals don’t like being daisy chained, some don’t mind at all.

Daisy chaining digital pedals usually not the best idea, if not only due to the high current draw of digital pedals.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Avoid daisy chaining whenever possible. Though, you could get away with it for the tuner.

Pick up another isolated power supply. While they make a few larger ones, it's easier to just grab another 5 or 7 unit.

Granted that it is possible on certain situations (the PolyTune at least has 1 extra jack to power another normal pedal), I wouldn't do it at all personally. At least not anymore as I've ruined 2 old DM2s in the past doing so.

Definitely grab a second power supply if you're adding more, or at least upgrade to something bigger like a Voodoo Lab Mondo to cover all your bases.

 

[Alex79]

Daisy chain works fine for many pedals. Just experiment a bit.

 

[Bearitone]

I would pick a trutone CS12. I love mine and I’ve yet to find a more flexible power supply with that amount of outputs.

 

[Smoked Porter]

Seconded on the CS12. It's also less expensive than the most comparable Voodoo Lab.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

You could power the phaser off of the tuner, but more than that can get messy as far as clean power. Definitely worth it to get a bigger or second power supply if you're thinking of adding more pedals, though. I've been using a pair of MXR ISO Bricks in my rack and pedalboard that are great and were fairly cheap as B-stock units

 

[R34CH]

Avoid daisy chaining whenever possible.

This is surprising to me as I had always heard that as long as your total current draw is underneath what your power supply is supplying you're fine to daisy chain.

I've always daisy chained my low current stuff (like tuners, ODs, etc) together and haven't had issues. If my assumption is wrong, maybe I need to look at larger isolated power supplies...

 

[Soya]

It really depends on the pedals, a lot of them play nicely with each other in a daisy chain but there are some pedals like fuzzes that like to be separated. An isolated supply just ensures everyone plays nicely.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

This is surprising to me as I had always heard that as long as your total current draw is underneath what your power supply is supplying you're fine to daisy chain.

I've always daisy chained my low current stuff (like tuners, ODs, etc) together and haven't had issues. If my assumption is wrong, maybe I need to look at larger isolated power supplies...

As others have said, there are so many variables that it's easier just to take it out of the equation, especially if you're looking to add more pedals in the future.

I'm not saying that you should never daisy chain, but if you're looking to future proof (somewhat) your board, plan to have plenty available power.

 

[777timesgod]

No one is going to comment on how expensive pedalboards are? In my opinion the prices are insane for what is essentially a wooden or metal plunk. There are necessary for many but still...

Also to the OP, since you only use 2 pedals, why daisy-chain? Of course, you may need this for live purposes or just like to have the effects to be laid in front of you for jamming.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

No one is going to comment on how expensive pedalboards are? In my opinion the prices are insane for what is essentially a wooden or metal plunk. There are necessary for many but still...

Also to the OP, since you only use 2 pedals, why daisy-chain? Of course, you may need this for live purposes or just like to have the effects to be laid in front of you for jamming.

No one really mentioned the boards themselves, but it depends on your needs. They make really basic, cheap ones these days. Most of the "expensive" ones have built-in power supplies and cases, which offset the cost.

Cheap:
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/electro-harmonix-pedal-bag

Not bad considering it includes the bag and hook/loop.

Expensive:
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/amp...er-package-with-pedal-power-4x4-and-px-8-plus

That might seem like a lot, but it includes everything you'd need to gig with, including $400 in routing and powering hardware.

Also, I don't think you caught what the OP is using:

Polytune 3 tuner, Mxr 95 phaser,Ts808 overdrive, ISP decimator II. Then in the fx loop a mxr 10 band eq and a 2nd ISP Decimator II

 

[DestroyMankind]

I used to only use one or two pedals for the large majority of my time playing. In the past 4 months I've just started putting together a pedalboard. I guess the way I worded it came out kinda strange.

 

[devastone]

IMHO, as long as you aren't creating more noise, daisy chaining is fine, I mean a typical OD/Distortion pedal draws less than 20mA (most less than 10) so it's kind of a waste not to run a few off of an output.

Some basic rules:

Some tuners are noisy, especially when sharing power with a OD/Dist/Compressor, you'll need to experiment.

It's best not to mix analog and digital pedals, digital pedals draw more current and usually introduce some noise into the line that analog pedals often pick up. Digital pedals are usually best on their own.

Don't mix pedals that are in front of the amp with pedals that are in the loop, sometimes the grounds inside the amp will introduce some noise and OD/Dist/Compressors amplify that noise.

 

[777timesgod]

Also, I don't think you caught what the OP is using:

I know what he is using, he stated that 2 of the pedals are mainly the active ones during most of his playing.

 

[Given To Fly]

http://cioks.pxds.pl/home-1/

Cioks is worth a look if you are in the market for pedal power supplies. It seems the OP is approaching that point.

 

[AltecGreen]

Expensive:
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/amp...er-package-with-pedal-power-4x4-and-px-8-plus

That's not expensive since it comes with a power supply and other stuff.


A Schmidt Array is expensive.
https://www.schmidtarray.com/custom