Strymon Power Supplies - Zuma

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bxlxaxkxe
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I’m going to test my other Zuma powering an overdrive pedal compared to using an internal battery. If I perceive no difference, I will not be surprised but I’m open minded
 
Bxlxaxkxe said:
I’m going to test my other Zuma powering an overdrive pedal compared to using an internal battery. If I perceive no difference, I will not be surprised but I’m open minded
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I find using a battery usually sounds better (richer, warmer tone imo) than using any external power supply IME. Not to get too far into the rabbit hole, but also it's generally agreed upon that the carbon batteries have a better tone than the more brittle tone of lithium batteries (imho pretty big difference)

Eric Johnson has very specific preferences also within all this for his batteries. It sounds overly picky I know, but for all those who say these little things don't matter, he's one of the most nitpicky I know of lol. He's also how I learned about using a y-cable instead of a patch cable for jumping channels in my old Marshall's. Sounds much better as well as in any amps where you can jumper the inputs. Well really I learned this trick from Alessandro who learned from EJ
 
I'm also on the Cioks bandwagon but I constantly look at other power supplies. The Walrus Canvas power supplies also seem to be great, but they're relatively new, so it doesn't seem as if there's as much info about them as the others mentioned in this thread (TrueTone, Strymon, Cioks, etc.).
 
phillybhatesme said:
I'm also on the Cioks bandwagon but I constantly look at other power supplies. The Walrus Canvas power supplies also seem to be great, but they're relatively new, so it doesn't seem as if there's as much info about them as the others mentioned in this thread (TrueTone, Strymon, Cioks, etc.).
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I just got another Cioks DC7 for my next pedalboard build, which I'll chronicle on here once all the parts show up. It's going to ne nuts.

The Walrus Audio Phoenix has been on my gigging board for years without issue. I would trust the Walrus stuff. That Canvas is probably legit.
 
braintheory said:
I find using a battery usually sounds better (richer, warmer tone imo) than using any external power supply IME. Not to get too far into the rabbit hole, but also it's generally agreed upon that the carbon batteries have a better tone than the more brittle tone of lithium batteries (imho pretty big difference)

Eric Johnson has very specific preferences also within all this for his batteries. It sounds overly picky I know, but for all those who say these little things don't matter, he's one of the most nitpicky I know of lol. He's also how I learned about using a y-cable instead of a patch cable for jumping channels in my old Marshall's. Sounds much better as well as in any amps where you can jumper the inputs. Well really I learned this trick from Alessandro who learned from EJ
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I’ve always used batteries for vintage style fuzzes and whatnot. Not sure it really has any positive impact in terms of high gain environments and boost pedals. Preferred the power supply on the two I’ve tried so far -koko and bb. Not sure I care enough to try any others honestly. But I am going to pull out some single adapter power supplies and see if there’s anything noticeable compared to the strymon. I don’t know why I bother with these rabbit holes lol
 
Bxlxaxkxe said:
I’ve always used batteries for vintage style fuzzes and whatnot. Not sure it really has any positive impact in terms of high gain environments and boost pedals. Preferred the power supply on the two I’ve tried so far -koko and bb. Not sure I care enough to try any others honestly. But I am going to pull out some single adapter power supplies and see if there’s anything noticeable compared to the strymon. I don’t know why I bother with these rabbit holes lol
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Yeah I did notice a bigger difference with my fuzzes (‘70’s Foxx Tone Machine and ‘90’s Russian Big Muff). Preferred it on my boost pedals too. Going deep into the rabbit holes is the fun in being a hardcore gearhead lol. It’s just one of those things we have to do even when it’s a pain
 
BeZo said:
I just got another Cioks DC7 for my next pedalboard build, which I'll chronicle on here once all the parts show up. It's going to ne nuts.

The Walrus Audio Phoenix has been on my gigging board for years without issue. I would trust the Walrus stuff. That Canvas is probably legit.
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Nice, I have a DC7 with the 8 Expander on my stupid big board that never gets built. After looking at the milliamps for a lot of the pedal I want to put on that board, I think the DC7 might have been able to handle it alone. That thing is a fuckin beast, but I'm also talking about using several analog pedals registering 20mA or under.

I just built a board with one of the Eventide Cioks units, which is basically a DC7, but 3 of the outlets are not switchable from 9V, which isn't really a problem for that board. All of the outputs are still 660mA which is plenty for basically all of the pedals I'm running.

For what it's worth, I have one of the Walrus Canvas Power units, but it's one of the smaller 5s and I haven't really put it through any motions. It is great though.
 

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stratjacket said:
I’ve had Strymon power supplies for years and never had an issue, although I don’t really move my pedalboard around much.

I thought I read years ago when I was shopping for new PS’s that the Zuma’s are just rebranded Cioks or maybe made by Cioks? Something like that
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I have a Zuma and I've had a Cioks in the past. Sold the Cioks. Nothing bad about it, but I did open both up and they are most definitely not the same.
 
hmm, only ever used the Voodoo units for power. Haven't experienced any adverse affects vs using a 9V. I have a CIOKs that I use specifically for an H9, but I really like the way that unit sounds... when engaged. I use TB loopers, so I don't keep stuff in my signal path, so buffers don't affect me. What is the verdict on the best supplies for boards?
 
My pro wired board has 2 strymon Ojai, I never had any issue with those in over 4 years
 
35 posts in an hour...hmmm.

Wonder who is looking to get to 50 posts?🤣

Jesus.
 
fearhk213 said:
Thing is mine will only cut out on certain of its outlets and not on others, so the whole thing never completely loses power. I have no idea how that thing is wired inside, so maybe it still is that connector somehow. I just know I have to wiggle the connector where it plugins into the Ojai and then it's good again.
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So there has been some more issues with my Ojai since this. I went to the studio since posting this and guess what? It had only been individual outlets losing power before, but now if you looked at that stupid plastic connector wrong the whole thing lost power. Had to rig the cable up just right to for it work. If anyone bumped something, it cut out. I also just discovered something else super lame.

I had purchased a pedal getting close to a year back. Seemed to work fine, but I noticed it developed a squeal after a week or two. It was sort of an impulse purchase and I had a lot going on at the time, so I stuffed it back in the closet and completely forgot about it. About a week ago I remembered it. I got it out hoping I still had a warranty, but lo and behold it didn't squeal. I had no idea why but ok great. Well today the squeal was back. I changed all kinds of stuff and it was still there. The very last thing I tried was switching to a different output on the Ojai...squeal gone. It's more common for me to only to only have a 3 outputs occupied than all 5 outputs, so that crappy one slipped by unnoticed.

Long story short, my Ojai developed intermittent cutting out on individual outlets, the plastic adapter has now started crapping out, and one of the outlets cause noise with at least some pedals. Yeah, I'm done with Strymon power supplies lol.
 
fearhk213 said:
So there has been some more issues with my Ojai since this. I went to the studio since posting this and guess what? It had only been individual outlets losing power before, but now if you looked at that stupid plastic connector wrong the whole thing lost power. Had to rig the cable up just right to for it work. If anyone bumped something, it cut out. I also just discovered something else super lame.

I had purchased a pedal getting close to a year back. Seemed to work fine, but I noticed it developed a squeal after a week or two. It was sort of an impulse purchase and I had a lot going on at the time, so I stuffed it back in the closet and completely forgot about it. About a week ago I remembered it. I got it out hoping I still had a warranty, but lo and behold it didn't squeal. I had no idea why but ok great. Well today the squeal was back. I changed all kinds of stuff and it was still there. The very last thing I tried was switching to a different output on the Ojai...squeal gone. It's more common for me to only to only have a 3 outputs occupied than all 5 outputs, so that crappy one slipped by unnoticed.

Long story short, my Ojai developed intermittent cutting out on individual outlets, the plastic adapter has now started crapping out, and one of the outlets cause noise with at least some pedals. Yeah, I'm done with Strymon power supplies lol.
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Can you clarify if you have the Ojai R30 full power module or just the little Ojai jumper that runs off the Zuma?
 
GuitarGuy08 said:
Can you clarify if you have the Ojai R30 full power module or just the little Ojai jumper that runs off the Zuma?
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I got the R30 and had similar problems with the power supply staying connected at the black box receptacle. Never gigged, barely even moved it. I should throw that hunk of shit in a trash can where it belongs.
 
Hate to say but battery’s doing best . But a hassle to some
 
VonBonfire said:
I got the R30 and had similar problems with the power supply staying connected at the black box receptacle. Never gigged, barely even moved it. I should throw that hunk of shit in a trash can where it belongs.
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I have the little Ojai that jumps off of the Zuma, not the R30. For a good several months, it was slid/kicked across the floor mutliple times a day every day as my supply and the Ojai were just chilling on the ground underneath. I finally quit putting it off and got some more duallock and now they are mounted up there.
 
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