Using pedals in other countries?

[steveyraff]

Hey guys,

So I live in Ireland - standard UK 230v mains voltage. I built a pedal for a friends birthday, he lives in the US now - which I think is 120v?

Will this cause any problems if he uses my pedal over there? I just make all my pedals the standard 9v centre tip negative.

Sorry for the silly question - I'm still a relative noob with pedal building

[induction]

No problems with the pedal itself, but the power supply must be appropriate to the US. If he uses a battery, no problems at all. If he uses an adapter, it must be rated for ~120V mains voltage. Some adapters will take any mains voltage between 100V and 240V and can be used anywhere. Others are pickier. The relevant info should be printed on the adapter body somewhere.

If he supplies his own adapter, everything should be fine, but if you send him one, just double-check that it accepts ~120V. He'll probably want a US adapter anyway (assuming he doesn't prefer batteries) so that the pins will be the right shape for US outlets.

[steveyraff]

No problems with the pedal itself, but the power supply must be appropriate to the US. If he uses a battery, no problems at all. If he uses an adapter, it must be rated for ~120V mains voltage. Some adapters will take any mains voltage between 100V and 240V and can be used anywhere. Others are pickier. The relevant info should be printed on the adapter body somewhere.

If he supplies his own adapter, everything should be fine, but if you send him one, just double-check that it accepts ~120V. He'll probably want a US adapter anyway (assuming he doesn't prefer batteries) so that the pins will be the right shape for US outlets.

Cool - was hoping this was the case. Yea - he will be using his own adapter - I'll remind him about this though. Many thanks!

[PRR]

9 Volts DC is 9 Volts DC everywhere.

Doesn't matter if it *comes from* 230VAC, 120VAC, a 9V battery, adapted from a 12V truck battery, or even a 13,000 Volt transmission line (all our 120V/230V gets from coal/hydro generator to houses on high voltage lines). The one side is 9V DC right-polarity, and the other side suits your power source. Living in the US he is sure to find 120V wall-warts.

One difference. In much of the world, hum/buzz is 50Hz/100Hz. In US/Can and a few other places it is 60Hz/120Hz. Of course ideally there won't be any hum/buzz so who cares?

[armdnrdy]

You shouldn't have a problem using a pedal built in Ireland in the U.S. unless you used the Irish resistor color code! 

[StephenGiles]

I love it!!

[greaser_au]

That's pretty racist, man...     

david

[steveyraff]

lol Brilliant. 

[add4]

The electrons have an accent too. Be prepared to change some settings because your od might sound like a flanger and your delay like a fuzz. It changes in all countries. The local electrons habits varies greatly and you might be surprised. One friend even told me his klon started to make pizzas during a concert in Greece. But that's a klon so it has to be awesome.

[add4]

It's because the spin of the electrons depends of the coriolis force... Quantum mechanics is a harsh mistress