D*A*M Forum

First post...but long standing question...

I recently traded my Megalith for a Meathead Deluxe. I unboxed it and plugged in a power supply, dug it immediately.

The other day I bought some zinc/carbon batteries at the dollar store and I'll be damned if they don't really make a difference in the quality of the fuzz.

what the hell is going on? why does this make such a marked difference?

cap'n?

The battery is probably giving you close to 10v while the power supply is
giving you about 9.5-9.6v.

That would be my answer but I didn't think an adapter even put out that much over 9 volts.

The internal resistance of carbon zinc (general purpose) and zinc chloride (heavy duty) batteries is often cited as the main reason they sound better than alkaline batteries...

mjab-1 wrote:The battery is probably giving you close to 10v while the power supply is
giving you about 9.5-9.6v.

From my experience its the opposite. A fresh duracell is usually around 9.5v. Cheaper batteries sometimes 10v but they settle down to 9v pretty quickly. An unregulated power supply can give as much as 11 volts.

--Brad

This is the reason alot of fuzz pedals don't give you an adaptor option. They just sound better with cheapo batteries.
Also some people prefer nearly dead batteries in a fuzzface.

I've also got an Ox Fuzz that I've only ever had zinc batteries in, but it doesn't have a DC jack, so I've been unable to compare until I got the meathead. at any rate, it's my first D*A*M pedal and it's pretty clear what all the fuss is about.

stella_blues wrote:This is the reason alot of fuzz pedals don't give you an adaptor option. They just sound better with cheapo batteries.
Also some people prefer nearly dead batteries in a fuzzface.

Actually the reason a lot of fuzz pedals don't have battery jacks is because they are using PNP germanium transistors. The ground reference is positive instead of the much more common negative ground. Not to get too far into it but if you were to share a power supply between a PNP fuzz face and say a modern boss pedal you would destroy the transistors in the fuzz face with reverse voltage. You can power positive ground effects with power supplies but they have to be isolated from the negative ground effects. Fulltone used to sell a sort of "proprietary" power supply for the 69' pedals with the tip/sleeve flipped so people would stick to using it instead of daisy chaining with their other effects and blowing shit up. You'll notice no battery jack on the Analogman Sunface either (germ version). Batteries do sound better in most fuzzes though too. Its like having a tiny, completely isolated power supply. No AC ripple. The effect a worn battery is supposed to have in a fuzz face is that its internal impedance changes as it gets lower in voltage and interacts with the resistor tied to the output cap. At least as far as I understand it.

--Brad

I was looking for some zinc carbon batteries recently and came up empty...where have you guys found them?

Lavely wrote:I was looking for some zinc carbon batteries recently and came up empty...where have you guys found them?

I get mine from places in Hong Kong, mostly. They are dirt cheap, even with shippping. Usually takes about a month to get them. I was told by a pedal building friend that Mouser Electronics has them if you call them up. I bet my Hong Kong suppliers are cheaper, though. Here's one place I've bought from http://www.dx.com/p/gp-1604g-6f22-9v-30 ... eB9SH2WODF.