The Needle Finder

I love the internet. There is almost no question that cannot be answered (as long as you are comfortable with an answer that may not be, um, factually correct), and almost no product that cannot be found.

This weekend, I indulged myself by getting a container for my guitar effects pedals. For the uninitiated, the sound of a guitar can be tweaked through the use of little foot pedals that electronically manipulate the sound. These pedals are fun, but they all must be wired together, and they all require power. Unless you are Mr. Duracell, a DC converter is the only way to go. When you have several pedals, though, a powerstrip is required just to provide power to all of the converters needed for the various effects pedals, to say nothing of the snake pit of power and signal wires that results. Portability is also hamped by this arrangement, as all the pedals, wires, cables and converters must be toted in some kind of container, and then must be tediously pieced together before playing. Thankfully, it is possible to buy a travel-worthy case that not only carries the pedals, but keeps them permanently hooked up for both signal and power, with only a single converter powering the whole thing. As is the case with some of my new modeling tools, I've wanted one of these things since I was sixteen, and I finally got it.



As in many markets, however, logic does not always prevail in the land of effects pedals. Although the case comes with a "daisy chain" to provide power to all of the pedals, not all pedals take the same kind of adaptor connection. The case, made by Boss, is well-equipped to handle pedals made by Boss pedals as well as contemporary pedals of other manufacturers. Unfortunately, not only is one of my pedals not made by Boss, it is also about 20 years old. So, then, the search begins. Is there such a thing as an adaptor adaptor, as it were? And if so, where can I buy such a thing?

Enter my pal, Google. After a few different searches, I finally found an online retailer that sold a DC converter that not only had a daisy chain of connnectors, but also had a variety of adaptors for the various different kinds of DC sockets that various manufacturers use. The problem, of course, is that I did not need the whole converter outfit, just one of the adaptors. So I tracked down the manufacturer's website, and sure enough, they sell the adaptors separately. Four dollars (plus six for shipping) later, I have a six inch adaptor cable on its way to me, the perfect solution to my problem.