I’ve been thinking about power lately. When you’re dealing with pedals, power is always an issue. Just when you get it figured out, another pedal comes into the line, and things change. Clean power is important. Daisy chains are good, but can be a problem, especially if you have finicky pedals.
Pedaltrain came out with a great new solution last year (won best-in-show for Summer NAMM 2013) with their Pedaltrain Volto. This is smart. Very smart. Here the brainiacs at Pedaltrain use a Lithium Ion rechargeable battery for a power supply. Basically, the same type of power supply your laptop or smart phone uses. It’s small and very light weight. First concerns I had – how long does it last? I was stoked that it can run 30+ hours loaded with 9V pedals. Second concern – how to recharge? Again, like smartphones, you can plug this in via adapter to a wall, or direct to a laptop, etc with the cable. The cable is a USB to mini-usb cable. Standard type of cable. Third concern – what happens if you’re low on charge, but need to play right now? Again, they have it figured out, you can plug it in and use while it’s charging.
Issues. As far as I know, it can only power 9V. The small profile allows it to fit on almost any pedal boards. For myself, I have to break out a daisy chain to power a partial set of pedals on my board (primary power is Voodoo Lab), so this could be a great ‘clean’ solution to power the others and break out of the chain. Gears. Are. Turning.
Check out this video:
The Pedaltrain Volto is available for only $99. I think this is a great purchase!!! If you have one? Let us know what you think by commenting below!
