Guitar Lessons Wylie Texas: D.I.Y. Rechargeable Power Supply for Pedal Board

I have been on a mission over the last several months to use some sort of battery set-up for my pedalboard. I like the idea of opening up the case, plugging in my guitar and being ready to go.

For all of my overdrive pedals, I have been using the Tenergy Low Discharge 9v batteries, which has worked out great. But pedals like Reverb, Delay, and Tremolo require more power than a single 9v can offer if you want it to last a decent amount of time.

Side-note: Low Discharge batteries are important, because they hold their charge even when they are not in use. Regular rechargeable batteries lose their charge regardless of use.

You can buy rechargeable power supplies, but they are a bit pricey. So after doing a little research, I decided to make my own.

If you are interested in building something like this, it's actually pretty easy. Yesterday, I would not have thought that it would be possible for me to do something like this. But thanks to the local Radioshack employee, I was able to get the right parts and figure it out.

Here is what you will need:

1. (8) AA rechargeable batteries. You must have 8 batteries as we need our power to run at 9v. Each AA is 1.2v. 8 x 1.2= 9.6. I prefer the Sanyo Eneloop Low Discharge, but there are other brands available. The Sony Eneloops will have an Mah rating of 1900 at 9.6v. So if you have a pedal that runs at 100 ma, you should get 19 hours of use out of it. Most pedals have the Ma rating in the back of their manual.

2. Project Enclosure. This is what is going to cover up the batteries and wires.

3. Battery Holder. This is what you will place your batteries inside as you can see from some of the pictures.

4. 9v battery connector. This gets the power from your batteries to your daisy chain...or your pedal.

5. DC Power Jack. You will solder your wires from you 9v connector to the inside of this part, and your daisy chain cable will plug into the other side.

6. Daisy Chain Cable. Use this if you want to power multiple pedals.

7. Velcro. You don't want your batteries sliding around, so this will keep them secure.

Here you can see the battery pack lifted out of the case.

You can see (below) where the wires from the 9v connector (attached to battery holder) is connected to the DC Power Jack. Solder the black wire to the inside and the red wire on the outside. You will also need to drill a hole in the side of your case for the DC Power Jack.