Incorporating Digitech Whammy

Steinberg Lounge
1

Music-related but not Cubase-related.

I have a Gator DC power system for my pedal board.

Last Christmas, Kim got me a 1st generation Digitech Whammy pedal (in original packaging, original power supply, etc. :mrgreen: ). Obviously, I’d like to incorporate it into the Gator power system but I haven’t made this a priority because I haven’t needed the pedal on stage until now.

While doing research last night, I found out that (unless the website is wrong) the Digitech pedal uses AC power. Is there any way to incorporate this into the pedal power system that is DC? Are there portable inverters or something like that? Do I need to upgrade from Gator to Voodoo? Or am I simply stuck with a transformer + power strip on stage?

2

I just confirmed by looking at the transformer itself that it outputs 9V AC at 780 mA.

3

Unless you are an electronic wiz and want to build your own inverter there is not much you can do. :frowning:

  • Change out the Digitech Whammy (not likely, I don’t blame you).
  • As you mentioned, somehow incorporate the Digitech wall wart into your pedalboard.
  • Change out the Gator power supply to something like a Cioks AC10 power supply.

Have fun deciding. :wink:

Regards. :sunglasses:

4

Are you sure you’ve got the original external (“wall wart”) power supply? Not sure about the 1st gen, but the current Whammy takes 9V DC.

5

Larry is correct. I am, in fact, staring at an original whammy and it indeed says 9 volts AC 750mA.


Larry, you’re screwed. :laughing:

6

If the pedal takes 9VAC then the “wall wart” is only a transformer. There’s got to be a rectifier circuit in the pedal itelsef, which really won’t care whether it sees AC or DC. Try this at your own risk but I’d bet it will work fine with 9VDC as well.

7

That is a horrible suggestion for a $500+pedal . :astonished:

8

Not if you understand what a rectifier is. :sunglasses:

9

Wouldn’t be the first time in my life. :laughing:

Btw if it’s 750mA and not 780mA then my vision is worse than I thought. :frowning:

10

Gimme 4 diodes and an iron and I’ll demonstrate :smiley:

The truth is we have no idea if there is or isn’t one inside that thing. If there is a certainty, then sure, plug a DC power supply. But no one knows for sure do they?

11

I got the specs right off the back plate of the pedal. If your specs came off the power supply, that makes sense. You typically overrate the power supply.

But then again, you may just have really bad eyesight! :ugeek:

12

If it already takes AC then there’s some kind of a rectifier circuit in it. AC is just DC with the polarity switched 50 or 60 times a second. It may need a little more than 9VDC to compensate for the voltage drop across the internal rectifier diodes though – and of course, all at one’s own risk but at least one total stranger on the internet thinks it would be OK :smiley:

13

Just wondering why you just can’t incorporate the original Digitech power supply into your pedal board? Maybe you can splice another ac plug access point into whatever cable is being used to plug in your Gator PS.

What’s another wire among friends? :wink:

The guitar and music won’t care. :laughing:

Regards. :sunglasses:

14

@Teef: my vision is pretty bad. :frowning:

@Prock: the Gator supply is DC only, so I can’t splice into an existing AC wire since none are present. Thanks for the thought though!