Power supply shopping, again

[Boudoir Guitar]

Thanks for the detailed responses. Trust me, I really wanted the Zuma to just work too, but I was hearing the noise/oscillation on tracks I'd been recording for clients (and everything else) and that's just not an acceptable bar for me, for any piece of gear. My skepticism of switching power supplies is based on what Source Audio told me, I'd contacted them about the noise thinking my delay pedal was broken - when I switched back to the PP2+, the noise from that pedal and several others went away. I'd like to work out why this type of problem seems to happen to some people and not others, but there's really not a lot of discussion about this problem out there to begin with, and I certainly wouldn't think the manufacturers are going to intentionally cast any doubt over what seems to be the new standard process in building these things.

Thanks also for pointing out the 4-port Cioks expansion, I missed that in my quick Cioks search earlier. I'm really tempted to try the new Voodoo Lab because I've had several of their products over the years and love them, but the Cioks DC7/4 might be the best solution for me. I appreciate the other recs, that Walrus is interesting but I use a smaller board usually (Pedaltrain Jr with the two front holes) and mounting that one plus the transformer might be tough.

Every new power supply option under discussion here is a switch mode power supply -- PP3, TrueTone, Cioks, Walrus Canvas...

 

[Chocol8]

Every new power supply option under discussion here is a switch mode power supply -- PP3, TrueTone, Cioks, Walrus Canvas...

There are good reasons for that.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Yeah, I'd start by:

(1) figuring out if you've got a bum Zuma.
(2) figuring out if there is something about your board that might be causing problems (I don't think I've seen a list of what you're actually powering?)

This level of power problem suggests that there is something more than "this model power supply sucks" going on.

 

[david57strat]

Copy/pasting a little from another thread: I've been using a Strymon Zuma that I bought a few years back as a "be-all, end-all" replacement to a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+ I've had for about 20 yrs...recently I disconnected the Zuma and put the Voodoo Lab back on. The Strymon was introducing all kinds of noise, rendering at least one pedal totally unusable in bypassed mode (Keeley 30ms) and requiring me to leave my Nemesis delay unplugged while the Strymon was powering up, THEN plugging it in after 10 seconds or so, which still didn't really fix the "vacuum in your mouth at the dentist" noise it was causing, and introducing some noise to my SLO reverb too. I did a gig over the weekend at a punk dive with less than ideal power and the Voodoo Lab performed noise free, just like it has in the past 20 years before switching to the Strymon. Source Audio told me that they see this problem with the Zuma because it's a switching-type power supply and can gradually ramp up the power to 9v when it starts, which does not mesh well with digital pedals.

This brings me to the point of the thread...I want to get something with a few extra outputs as I'm maxed out on the PP2+ already and would like to add one pedal back on my board, plus have a couple open if the situation arises where I need to use another pedal off-board or something. I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with the newer Voodoo Lab (Pedal Power 3 or 3+) or the TrueTone CS12 (I've got a CS6 on my bass pedalboard and it's great), or any more insight as to whether these would give me the same problem the Strymon is. Any other options/opinions are appreciated - it would be cool to try and score one with a Memorial Day coupon if they seem like good options Thanks!

I meant to ask:

1. if you're a North American customer
2. if your Zuma was purchased new, from an authorized dealer. If so, as far as I know, the Zuma carries a five-year warranty. You may be able to get the power supply repaired or replaced, under that warranty, at little or no cost to you, if you're local to the United States. You may have to provide a video of the problem occurring, to submit to Strymon, for their review, but it'd be worth the trouble.
3. what exact pedals were you powering on the Zuma when the problem occurred? What is the current draw of all of those pedals, combined? They Keeley 30ms Double Tracker only draws 65 mA, so it's difficult to imagine that would be the culprit, unless you were at or near the amperage output capacity, before. Likely not.
4. What order were you hooking up the pedals?
5. How were you powering the Zuma? Direct from a wall socket? From a power strip?
6. Have you tested each and every one of the power cables to be sure there isn't a faulty one in the bunch?

On page 6 of the user manual, warranty information is discussed.

Here is a link to Strymon's contact page, for technical support, general questions, and other information that may be of use to you, if you haven't already reached out to them. For me, that would be the first step - even if to find out that there was nothing they cold do about it - but it seems there should be some viable solution available.

There is nothing to be lost by contacting them, to find out, one way or another. I know Source Audio chimed in with their toughs on the problem, but it would be nice to hear straight from the horses' mouth (from Strymon), with their take on it.

It's not a cheap power supply. It ought to work properly under normal use (and for far more than just a couple of years), unless the overall draw exceeds that which the power supply is capable of producing, or you bought it used, and it was glitchy before you purchased it.

 

[Fishbulb]

Hey thanks fellas. I'm in the US, bought it new, can't remember when without diving thru my receipts but it has been several years.

Signal chain varies some which I'll note but it usually goes like this lately: Boss TU3 - MXR Phase 90 script with the LED and power plug - Fuzz/overdrive section is some combination of one fuzz and two overdrives, usually MXR Super Badass Variac Fuzz or Walrus Jupiter, Greer Lightspeed, J Rockett Archer Rockaway, Xotic BB Preamp, Maxon OD808, Nobels ODR1...usually I've got one of the fuzzes, something else (lately BB Preamp), then the Lightspeed - Walrus Monument Tremolo with tap tempo or Boss CE2W - Source Audio Nemesis - Walrus SLO reverb (also not friendly with the Zuma it would seem). Occasionally I'll have a Crybaby, eq or a looper off-board that I just hook in when I need.

Pedals depend on what band I'm playing with and what amp I'm using - amps are usually a Victory Sheriff (might just use one overdrive instead of two with this amp) or Deluxe Reverb, occasionally my Dual Rectifier, and have also included some backline Twins, a Vox AC15, and Neural plugins in my computer. There was one particular gig a while back where I had my bigger board set up and also had a Crybaby 535q and the Keeley 30ms and the noise level was crazy. After that gig, I took each pedal out of the chain one at a time and listened for what might be causing the noise (I was thinking it was probably one of the pedals at this point), and ended up stripping the board down to the tuner, a fuzz and two overdrives, the tremolo and delay, which made it a lot cleaner (taking the 30ms and SLO out cut it down quite a bit), but still heard the oscilating which led me to contact Source Audio. I've been kind of getting around it for session work by unhooking everything I don't need for a song, it works out that delay is added in mixing often.

More troubleshooting would include swapping different power cables out, swapping instrument and patch cables, messing with the order of how the pedals are plugged into the Zuma itself, switching guitars, and of course plugging into multiple amps with no pedals at all. This has happened in my home studio, a local studio where I work and rehearse, and lots of other venues, outdoor stages and rooms, plugging straight into the wall or a strip at different times. At this point, especially after hooking the PP2+ back up and having none of the noise I was experiencing before, I don't know what else to blame besides the Zuma. I could be overly suspicious towards switching pwr supplies right now, maybe they're fine in general and I just got a bad one, but in years of building different rigs for myself for both guitar and bass and maintaining other people's rigs during my time years ago as a touring guitar tech, this is the first time I've run into this.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Hey thanks fellas. I'm in the US, bought it new, can't remember when without diving thru my receipts but it has been several years.

Signal chain varies some which I'll note but it usually goes like this lately: Boss TU3 - MXR Phase 90 script with the LED and power plug - Fuzz/overdrive section is some combination of one fuzz and two overdrives, usually MXR Super Badass Variac Fuzz or Walrus Jupiter, Greer Lightspeed, J Rockett Archer Rockaway, Xotic BB Preamp, Maxon OD808, Nobels ODR1...usually I've got one of the fuzzes, something else (lately BB Preamp), then the Lightspeed - Walrus Monument Tremolo with tap tempo or Boss CE2W - Source Audio Nemesis - Walrus SLO reverb (also not friendly with the Zuma it would seem). Occasionally I'll have a Crybaby, eq or a looper off-board that I just hook in when I need.

Pedals depend on what band I'm playing with and what amp I'm using - amps are usually a Victory Sheriff (might just use one overdrive instead of two with this amp) or Deluxe Reverb, occasionally my Dual Rectifier, and have also included some backline Twins, a Vox AC15, and Neural plugins in my computer. There was one particular gig a while back where I had my bigger board set up and also had a Crybaby 535q and the Keeley 30ms and the noise level was crazy. After that gig, I took each pedal out of the chain one at a time and listened for what might be causing the noise (I was thinking it was probably one of the pedals at this point), and ended up stripping the board down to the tuner, a fuzz and two overdrives, the tremolo and delay, which made it a lot cleaner (taking the 30ms and SLO out cut it down quite a bit), but still heard the oscilating which led me to contact Source Audio. I've been kind of getting around it for session work by unhooking everything I don't need for a song, it works out that delay is added in mixing often.

More troubleshooting would include swapping different power cables out, swapping instrument and patch cables, messing with the order of how the pedals are plugged into the Zuma itself, switching guitars, and of course plugging into multiple amps with no pedals at all. This has happened in my home studio, a local studio where I work and rehearse, and lots of other venues, outdoor stages and rooms, plugging straight into the wall or a strip at different times. At this point, especially after hooking the PP2+ back up and having none of the noise I was experiencing before, I don't know what else to blame besides the Zuma. I could be overly suspicious towards switching pwr supplies right now, maybe they're fine in general and I just got a bad one, but in years of building different rigs for myself for both guitar and bass and maintaining other people's rigs during my time years ago as a touring guitar tech, this is the first time I've run into this.

I think you are 100% correct to blame the Zuma you have for the problems you are experiencing.

Given the degree of the problems, though, and the fairly benign setup you are driving, and the ubiquity of switching power supplies in professional rigs that are much more complicated than yours...I think extrapolating the issue to anything other than your specific Zuma seems off. I get the knock to your confidence on this, but quite honestly if Source Audio pedals or the Walrus SLO struggled even 25% of the time with switching power supplies...they'd be in big trouble, or in need of a re-design, because very few people are NOT running a switching power supply on their pedal board at this point.

I would put together a small board that includes the problem pedals and go to a shop and try out whatever power supply you are considering. Short of that, order one from a place with a good return.

 

[Fishbulb]

I think you are 100% correct to blame the Zuma you have for the problems you are experiencing.

Given the degree of the problems, though, and the fairly benign setup you are driving, and the ubiquity of switching power supplies in professional rigs that are much more complicated than yours...I think extrapolating the issue to anything other than your specific Zuma seems off. I get the knock to your confidence on this, but quite honestly if Source Audio pedals or the Walrus SLO struggled even 25% of the time with switching power supplies...they'd be in big trouble, or in need of a re-design, because very few people are NOT running a switching power supply on their pedal board at this point.

I would put together a small board that includes the problem pedals and go to a shop and try out whatever power supply you are considering. Short of that, order one from a place with a good return.

This is fair.