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Ryan, what kind of adaptor do you use to get 18V? Will any 18V power supply do, or do you recommend one in particular?

No problem Goroth !

For your information Bartimaeus, with a any voodoo lab kind of power supply and this kind of cable you're able to feed 18v to the elements from two separated 9v outputs. Don't know if Ryan have any better suggestion but if this can help...

cheers from Belgium !
;-)

Ryan wrote:I've never heard the pedal at 12V as I don't have a regulated 12V adapter...the PP2+ isn't regulated in that position and will hum with the Elements.. so 12V is a bit of a mystery...

I had a chance to try the Elements at 9v, 12v, and 18v last night. I would agree that I like the saturation of 9V, but 12v was very nice and tempting. 18v seemed very open, but the gain felt a but more subdued than I like. The gainstructures definately change in interesting ways in each mode. If you are able to, I would definately play with it in 12v mode as well.

Thanks for the feedback graelignites, i'll definitely have a try as soon as I get the 4 x 4...!

hmm, still trying to find THE favourite settings

Recorded 9, 12 and 18 volts last night. Will post after work. Differences aren't that enormous, at least not with my rig.

Hmm, weird. If I get a chance I'll record mine at 9v,12v, 18v, to show the differences. I'll just set all knobs at noon and try each of the three clipping modes and it does affect each a little different I think.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/centre-of-gravity/the-elements-9-12-18v[/soundcloud]

Will edit this post when I take a photo of the settings but it's pretty similar to http://www.ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=18617&p=484827&hilit=centre#p484827

A little more treble, less volume and the bass cut up I think. Relatively close mic'd (ca 4 cm from grill), on axis. 2x12, Eminence Texas Heat speakers. Lab series L11 solid state head. Fairly hot humbucker, but not stupidly so.

It should also be stated that the cleanup with the gain switch down is great. Like, really, really GREAT. I normally don't give a rat's arse about cleanup (volume knobs are for keeping quiet between songs and that's it), but The Elements makes me want to ride the volume knob every now and again and become a Slayer blues lawyer.

On the other hand maybe that's not such a bad thing after reading about the latest debacle with Dave Lombardo. Slayer probably needs more lawyers.

Oh yeah, I like 12 volts, but that's mostly because that's what I'm used to hearing and I initially rolled with 12v because I had a spare 12v output on my power supply haha.

Thanks a lot Goroth ! Nice playing !
I agree that it's hard to hear any big difference here, but, when I play with my mouse over your sample, and quickly switch betweens sounds, seems that the 18v got a little more definition (hard to explain) like if a small amount of compression was added...

big thanks anyway !

That's my impression too, but I like that 12v is just a little ragged. If I had more time I'd do this a little more "scientifically" and test different settings. I don't think I'm overdriving the input if my amp but I could be (elements has monster volume potential) and maybe the additional distortion (and compression) is masking the differences. Or maybe my pickups are hotter than I think they are and a similar thing is happening, except on the input side of things. In the end I'm just happy being able to get rad sounds out of any output on my power supply, haha!

Thanks for putting up with my cheesy thrash riffs!

Which power adapters are fine to use with The Elements. I have a 12v power cord from an old Tascam portastudio sitting around would that be fine to use or will it fry it?

Never just plug in anything laying around, that's a really easy way to destroy your new guitar pedal!

You need something center negative, regulated, and filtered. I suggest only using adapters that are specifically designed for guitar pedals, otherwise you'll have hum.

I don't know if it's a good / bad / neither thing but I clicked between the 9 volt and 18 volt parts of that clip, the same riff, and I couldn't hear any difference (at all) between the two; Not tonally and not in terms of volume.. weird! Maybe it's my ears?

I own an Elements and I swear I've always heard a difference between those two voltages (preferring the 9), but perhaps it's all been in my head..

I'm kinda with you man, the differences I "hear" are pretty minimal. It was recorded on a good mic and uploaded at a good sample rate, so I don't think the results are masked by any technological factors. But my setup is perhaps different to most dudes, given that it's solid state and a lundgren m6 pickup.

Dunno?