jorsh wrote: Sat Apr 05, 2025 4:20 pm

frighteners wrote: Thu Apr 03, 2025 11:34 am 1975 Guild Starfire IV (this one, specifically): Priced like a used Newark St. reissue, crossed my fingers and sent a bunch of money to a pawn shop based on two pictures on Reverb, mercifully great results. HB1s are my favourite humbuckers. Tiny neck (esp. nut width), but pretty effortless to play, all things considered (ie., I have small hands but am extremely clumsy).

goddam that Starfire is a beaut!

i have a DeArmond Starfire that i love a lot. it was the main rutabega guitar for many years. currently has flatwounds and in DADGAD tuning. a good friend, through thick & thin.

I have one of the Newark St. reissues. I got a pretty good price on one that had been sitting in a shop since 2013, new but 10 years old, $750 with case. I love it. That is a killer price on tha 75 up there. It's wild to me that sometimes you see Guilds for reasonable prices. I like Starfires more than any 335 I've ever played. Guilds rule.

Poly Effects Beebo. There's something to be said about the way you use a piece of equipment and how it inspires you. And, there's so much in this to want to love in this thing... it's amazing how much I really dislike it. It feels kind of half-complete. First, I had to buy a new iso-brick because it takes very specific power (which is fine, I needed to get an updated brick with isolation and a few different power options anyway). Otherwise, it gets really noisy. I thought the pedal was defective, but it turned out I just didn't have the right power rating and the brick I was using was not isolating. Ok, finally it sounds much better, with a slight noise floor, but nothing annoying. This pedal has pretty much everything on it, but there's a caveat: it does some things kind of ok, and some things really well. The things that I got it for, the modulation, is underwhelming to say the least. Even the delay is just meh and doesn't have much options. The controls are harder than they look and the UI overall is just really clunky. I get it, it's just one guy doing all this, but it just doesn't cut it for me. It's really easy to accidentally lose your place and in turn, lose all the work you've done. However, the box itself is extremely versatile and there is some nice things about it. I'm just not into tweaking everything. What drew me to it was the fact that you can create an effect chain however you want, with 2x2 stereo I/O and 3 footswitches that can manage 5 effects. The problem is that the only effects I'm interested in are just not that great. I guess if you love reverbs, convolution reverb, amp captures and IRs, this pedal could work for you... or if you're a nob-noodling synth lover, it's probably an awesome tool for you because it's based on a eurorack. The whole experience has really made me question if I should just go back to using 3 analog pedals, but I would really like to have a MIDI clock with tap tempo for my modulation effects so I can sync it up with delay and other effects on the modeler.

Bonus review: Mosky ISO 10: ok, for $50 you can get something as good, if not better, than a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power. It's got 10 isolated ports: The first 7 are 9v @ 300mA, 8 is 9v @ 500mA, and 9 & 10 are adjustable 9/12/18v @ 500mA. A great option with my modeler, where the 18v @ 500mA is what's needed, and plenty of stuff for other pedals and controllers. For the price, you can't beat it. I tried looking for a more versatile isolation power brick, I could not find one (at least I didn't look for anything over $200, which I think is silly). Its small and fits out of the way, underneath my pedalboard, a huge plus.

cakes wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 10:22 am
Bonus review: Mosky ISO 10: ok, for $50 you can get something as good, if not better, than a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power. It's got 10 isolated ports: The first 7 are 9v @ 300mA, 8 is 9v @ 500mA, and 9 & 10 are adjustable 9/12/18v @ 500mA. A great option with my modeler, where the 18v @ 500mA is what's needed, and plenty of stuff for other pedals and controllers. For the price, you can't beat it. I tried looking for a more versatile isolation power brick, I could not find one (at least I didn't look for anything over $200, which I think is silly). Its small and fits out of the way, underneath my pedalboard, a huge plus.

I've been using the cheapo Donner pedal power boxes for a few years. No idea if they are "Isolated" or not but I have never once had an issue with them being any noisier than any other wall wart supplied power solution and I think they are like $35. Voodoo labs can eat a bag as far as I'm concerned. $200 for a small dc power distro is absurd. For what its worth, I've hardly run into any issue just using one spots. Only pedal I ever had that seemed picky about power was an eventide flashback delay, which not only kinda sucked, but made weird high pitched noises unless it was plugged into its own wall wart.

Kniferide wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 11:45 am

cakes wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 10:22 am
Bonus review: Mosky ISO 10: ok, for $50 you can get something as good, if not better, than a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power. It's got 10 isolated ports: The first 7 are 9v @ 300mA, 8 is 9v @ 500mA, and 9 & 10 are adjustable 9/12/18v @ 500mA. A great option with my modeler, where the 18v @ 500mA is what's needed, and plenty of stuff for other pedals and controllers. For the price, you can't beat it. I tried looking for a more versatile isolation power brick, I could not find one (at least I didn't look for anything over $200, which I think is silly). Its small and fits out of the way, underneath my pedalboard, a huge plus.

I've been using the cheapo Donner pedal power boxes for a few years. No idea if they are "Isolated" or not but I have never once had an issue with them being any noisier than any other wall wart supplied power solution and I think they are like $35. Voodoo labs can eat a bag as far as I'm concerned. $200 for a small dc power distro is absurd. For what its worth, I've hardly run into any issue just using one spots. Only pedal I ever had that seemed picky about power was an eventide flashback delay, which not only kinda sucked, but made weird high pitched noises unless it was plugged into its own wall wart.

I've actually had noise issues with Spots before. The isolation can be good for some pedals. However, what I really needed out of the Mosky were those two adjustable outputs. Most power supplies only offer one.

cakes wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 12:23 pm I've actually had noise issues with Spots before. The isolation can be good for some pedals. However, what I really needed out of the Mosky were those two adjustable outputs. Most power supplies only offer one.

That is a hot detail. And, if you are using an old Android phone as a drum machine or something, you can use that USB to power that too. Fancy. I like it.

Kniferide wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 12:40 pm

cakes wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 12:23 pm I've actually had noise issues with Spots before. The isolation can be good for some pedals. However, what I really needed out of the Mosky were those two adjustable outputs. Most power supplies only offer one.

That is a hot detail. And, if you are using an old Android phone as a drum machine or something, you can use that USB to power that too. Fancy. I like it.

I did find some power supplies that offered a USB power port. That was cool, not that I needed it.

It seems that a lot of new pedals, particularly modelers that have quad core processors on them, do really need isolated power. I never really thought that was a big deal until dealing with noise issues. Experiencing them disappear by switching to an iso power was... let's just say relieving. If you're just powering analog pedals, it's not necessary. But its 2025 and pedalboards are much different today than they were a decade ago!

OneSpots are trash

ChudFusk wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 1:01 pm OneSpots are trash

That seems to be the consensus but I haven't really had any issues. I only ever power like 3 or 4 pedals at a time though. I use them for my synth pedals because I can just run one chain power cable up on top of the organ where the pedals live and don't have to worry about all the individual feeder cables, which are shit everywhere if not tucked inside a pedal board and managed well.

Kniferide wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 1:22 pm

ChudFusk wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 1:01 pm OneSpots are trash

That seems to be the consensus but I haven't really had any issues. I only ever power like 3 or 4 pedals at a time though. I use them for my synth pedals because I can just run one chain power cable up on top of the organ where the pedals live and don't have to worry about all the individual feeder cables, which are shit everywhere if not tucked inside a pedal board and managed well.

There are plenty of reliable wall warts out there. I got some 9v 2000mA units from UsedPedals dot com for just eleven bucks, but I guess that site doesn't exist any more. I've had 3 Onespots and they all found pedals they created hum with. They just don't have adequate filtering or something and make noise with digital pedals or more complicated setups. I think all wall warts should pack at least 1 Ampere if you're going to use them on a daisy chain. If you want something really robust, I suggest this: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... ac-adapter as it delivers 2000 noise-filtered mA and has a detachable 2-prong AC cable. It's the PSU for their drum modules and other devices, and is recommended if you have the Boss tuner pedal and run a daisy chain from its DC output. I've used it with various pedalboards and never had a problem, but I'm sure there is a handmade fuzzbox out there that can thwart any wall wart so I'm not making any guarantees.

cakes wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 10:22 am Mosky ISO 10: ok, for $50 you can get something as good, if not better, than a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power

Interestingly, if I try to visit their site it doesn't load. If I anonymize my connection (so it doesn't look like I'm coming from the US), the site loads. I have to wonder if this is related to trump's tariff bullshit.