Quantcast Ryan's Guitars: Sanyo Pedal Juice - Review

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Sanyo Pedal Juice - Review

If you are like me, you can't stand dealing with batteries or wall warts to power your pedals. I have a dedicated pedal board with integrated power for all the effects I use in front of my amp, but I also run a couple of pedals in my amp's loop that I keep close to the rig. It's these two pedals that require wall warts or batteries... and that is where the Sanyo Pedal Juice comes in. What a convenient product this thing is!

I was skeptical at first. I mean, 27 plus hours of playing time for two pedals on a single charge? It didn't seem likely until I charged it up and actually used it for a couple of weeks. After many practice sessions and a couple of jams this thing is still going strong. The Pedal Juice is basically a battery brick (3.7v lithium-ion) with two DC outputs that can power up to ten standard pedals (in order to power more than two pedals, one or more of them needs to have a power pass-through or you'll need a multi-plug cable since the Pedal Juice device only comes with two output cables that terminate in a single male end.) Sanyo claims that a single analog pedal using 10 mA will get about 50 hours playing time, a digital effect like a delay unit using 50 mA should get around 27 hours and a three pedal setup... say, a chorus, od pedal and a delay (with all three using something like 80 mA) should get about 20 hours of playing time. Pretty awesome!

Build quality is superb. It is housed in an attractive, Apple Computers-like white plastic case that feels durable and looks great. The company claims it is water and shock resistant (great for the drunks that spill beer all over your stuff at gigs) and operation is super simple. There's a single power button and 3-stage LED indicator. You get a continuous green light when fully charged, then orange (30%-60% power remaining) to red (less than 30%) when it gets low. With over 20 hours of playing time for two pedals, this thing will last me a long time on a single charge and the best part is that I don't have to worry about AC power cords and the possibility of ground looping noise in clubs with less-than-stellar electrical wiring. When both ports are in use they output 1000 mA each, which means you'll need to check your pedal's power requirements before using something like this and, of course, usage time may vary depending on those power requirements. Oh, and it only takes 3.5 hours to fully charge... which is actually quite fast for nearly 30 hours of up time!

If you are interested in buying one they can be found at your local Guitar Center or Sam Ash store, and online. So far I am really impressed with this device and I plan to make it a permanent part of my rig. I highly recommend this product!

Disclosure: This product was given to me by the manufacturer for review. This in no way influenced my opinion or review of this item.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this review. I am pretty intrigued by this thing.

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  2. Thank you for your great review! (full disclosure: I work for Sanyo)
    I am glad you like Pedal Juice and you are telling your readers all about it.

    I just want to mention one thing:

    You can run as many pedals as you like - not just three as you mention here.

    Pedal Juice will easily power 5 or more analogue pedals from each out if that fits your needs- just get daisy chains (Visual Sound or Godlyke cables do nicely) to hook 'em up.

    So no worries if you want to power many effects pedals - we've got the power for it!

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