Wiring up Battery

This is a short post about how to wire up battery for a DIY pedal project (if you wish to do so).

Here’s the wire-up diagram:

Guitar cable is mono cable – there are only 2 wires. Tip is carrying the signal and sleeve is grounded. If we were not using battery – just omit the battery clip and use mono jack.

But if we want to use battery, there’s an issue of how to preserve it as much as possible. The effect is always on. It is either bypassed and out of the signal chain and does not affect the sound, or it is engaged and it is used. But either way – the effect is on. This would keep on using battery long after you put down your guitar for the day.

The above wiring is working in the following way: when the guitar cable is plugged in into the input jack of the effect – the battery is connected (negative pole is connected to ground). So in order to preserve battery – unplug the cable from the effect.

If you’re using DC power supply – use DC jack that will disconnect positive pole when plugged in. This way battery’s positive pole is disconnected when the power plug is in (even if the power supply is off) and the positive pole of the battery is connected and can supply power when the power plug is disconnected.

I prepared a short video demonstrating this, have a look: