supplies, which includes the Fuel Tank Classic, the Juicy Lucy, and
the Fuel Tank Junior. With a list price of $249, the handsome green
Chameleon is the most expensive and the heaviest of the three power
supplies we review here. It’s also the most versatile.
One thing that distinguishes the Chameleon from its cousins is that it
offers five outlets that are switchable between high and low voltage—
three between 9V DC and 12V DC (300 mA each) and one between
9V DC and 18V DC (also 300 mA), all with negative center pins. A sixth
outlet provides 12V AC, and you can use up to five of the outlets simultaneously. The Chameleon includes a bounty of cables for plugging
in your gear: nine pedal links ranging between 20 and 100 centimeters
in length, plus a barrel-to-mini-jack cable, a red AC cable for the T-Rex
Replica Delay, a blue AC cable for Line 6 pedals, and a daisy chain with
five connectors.
VOODOO LAB
PEDAL POWER
ISO- 5
By Adam Perlmutter
Feel the Power
At the 2010 NAMM show, in Anaheim, California, Voodoo Lab unveiled
their Pedal Power ISO- 5. The little brother of Voodoo Lab’s Pedal Power
2 Plus, the ISO- 5 is intended to power small to medium rigs.
Weighing in at 3. 1 pounds, the Chameleon is the heaviest of the power
supplies we audi-tioned. But with its heavy steel casing, it’s
extremely sturdy, and measuring 6. 3" x 3. 2" x 1. 7", it takes
up little real estate in a pedalboard.
The ISO- 5’s dimensions are 9" x 3. 4" x 1. 8"—perfect to drop into a
pedalboard or rack-mounted rig. It weighs in at 1. 24 pounds and has a
sturdy metal chassis that would hold up well against the inevitable and
inadvertent foot stomping. And with its grey-black box and white-and-red labeling, this power supply looks pretty sharp.
To test the Chameleon, I played my recent Gibson ES-335
1963 Historic in conjunction with a Dunlop Crybaby wah
(9V), a Frantone Brooklyn overdrive pedal (9V), a Boss DD- 3
digital delay, (9V), a Pigtronix EP- 2 Envelope Phaser (18V),
and a blackface Vibrolux Reverb amp.
It was easy enough to connect each pedal to the
Chameleon, but adjusting the voltage was slightly tricky.
To change settings, you have to flip tiny switches, and at
first, when I tried to change the voltage for just one outlet,
the switches in close proximity followed suit. Once I had
everything set up, I played around with the pedals for a
while, gladly observ-ing that the Chameleon was noiseless,
and, true to its color, quite green, for it precludes battery
consumption.
RATING:
BUY IF…
you’re looking for maximum flexibility in
a power supply.
SKIP IF…
you’ve got a smaller rig with less complicated power requirements.
T-Rex Engineering
Street $199
t-rex-effects.com
The ISO- 5 contains five isolated, regulated, and filtered outputs—three
9V, for pedals that run on 9-volt batteries and require 100 mA or less;
a high-current 9V, for devices requiring up to 300 mA; a 12V, for those
requiring 12 volts at 300 mA (or those that use an unregulated 9V
adapter); and an 18V, for pedals requiring two 9-volt batteries, like the
power-draining digital offerings of Eventide, Line 6, and TC Electronic.
The ISO- 5 in-cludes enough cables for connecting a pedal to each output, and Voodoo Lab sells individual cables for all purposes.
I auditioned the ISO- 5 with the same four pedals I used for the
Chameleon—the Crybaby wah, the Frantone overdrive, the Boss delay,
and the Pigtronix envelope phaser. While the Chameleon has more flexibility than the ISO- 5, the latter is slightly more user-friendly and has a
red LED light to indicate operation. Like the Chameleon, the ISO- 5 in no
way colored my tone, and the effects ran quietly, too. And costing a bit
less than the Chameleon, the ISO- 5 would be preferable for users with
less complicated rigs.
200 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2010
www.premierguitar.com
