Will keeping my effects pedals plugged in reduce their battery life?

January 16, 2007 5:18 AM

Does leaving your guitar effects pedals plugged in (chained) reduce their battery life, or is battery life affected only when you forget to turn them off?
posted by Flem Snopes to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

In many (most?) cases, yes -- having something plugged into the input jack drains the battery.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:28 AM on January 16, 2007

Usually just having either the input or output wire in causes the battery to be used in my experience.
posted by ronmexico at 6:20 AM on January 16, 2007

Yeah, it will. Get the Boss tu-2 pedal. It's a tuner and it let's you daisy chain the rest of your 9v pedals to it for power. So, you're in tune and you never have to change batteries.
posted by jon_kill at 6:21 AM on January 16, 2007

It depends on the pedal. For example, I built a bass fuzz that when the effect is switched off, there's no way for the circuit to be complete, and so the battery can't drain.

With most modern effects though, they are set up in such a way that having the cables plugged in (as ronmexico pointed out) will kill them.
posted by drezdn at 6:39 AM on January 16, 2007

Most effects pedals work this way (cahoots with the Duracell people perhaps?). It used to drive me nuts but sadly, I haven't one effect that doesn't work that way.

Jon_kill is right. If you have a BOSS TU-2, sort of the standard tuner that almost all guitarists have, and purchase an adapter chain, you will never have to worry about battery drain. It really will save you a lot of headaches.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:03 AM on January 16, 2007

Sorry. The TU-2 and adapter chain (sold separately but cheap).
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:06 AM on January 16, 2007

Thanks KevinSkomsvold (and everyone else). That Godlyke thing is exactly what I have been looking for. I have a powered pedal board already that supplies power to my more modern Boss pedals. But the problem is that I have a Zachary Vex pedal and a Vox Wah that don't have ports where you can plug in standard barrel end adapter cables. The Godlyke set up has the cables that plug directly into where the 9v battery would go. Thanks again!
posted by Flem Snopes at 7:29 AM on January 16, 2007

Flem, if you're inclined to DIY at all, Craig Anderton's book, covers how to tame power problems for pedals along with a bunch of other cool guitar things.
posted by drezdn at 7:54 AM on January 16, 2007

As a related aside, if you use battery-powered electromagnetic pick-ups, like EMGs, leaving your guitar plugged into your amp will drain the batteries on those as well.
posted by baphomet at 8:16 AM on January 16, 2007

The Godlyke Powerall is a godsend.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:57 AM on January 17, 2007