Harley Benton has unveiled a pair of super-affordable pedalboard power supplies that feature an integrated lithium-ion battery that makes them rechargeable, your pedalboard portable, and could well be a life-saver for buskers or anyone who needs juice for their stompboxes but is not near a mains outlet.
The Thomann-owned budget gear brand is offering these new PowerPlant PowerBanks in two sizes, both with the capacity to serve high-current stompboxes such as feature-packed digital delay pedals and guitar multi-effects pedals.
The PowerPlant ISO-Li05 promises noise-free power from four 9V isolated outputs – two at 300MA, two at 500mA – and one non-isolated. The PowerPlant ISO-Li09 gives you eight isolated outputs and one non-isolated.
The non-isolated outlet on both units has a switchable 9V, 12V, or 18V output offering 2000mA, 1500mA and 1000mA respectively. One of the PowerPlant ISO-Li09’s eight isolated outputs has switchable 9V/12V/18V voltages supplying 500mA, 375mA and 250mA respectively, the other seven comprise five 9V/300mA outlets and two at 9V/500mA.
Each outlet has an LED status lights, taking some of the pain out of pedalboard troubleshooting. There are LEDs along the top of each unit to display the status of the battery.
The power bricks have a low-profile design that should make them easy enough to mount underneath many pedalboards. Both will also charge your smartphone, too, with a handy USB-C output.
Both PowerPlants are served by a 12V/2000mA adapter, which can charge the PowerPlant ISO-Li09 in three-and-a-half hours, and its smaller five-outlet sibling in approximately two hours.
When fully charged, the PowerPlant ISO-Li05 should give you a solid hour of playing time – that is with all outlets in use and the power brick operating at full capacity. The PowerPlant ISO-Li09 will give you around one hour, 45 minutes under similar operating conditions.
These PowerPlants ship with a bunch of cables for feeding your pedals the juice and the wall wart adaptor for charging the units or running them from the mains.
While we all recognise the importance of good, clean power for a reliable, noise-free pedalboard experience, few of us enjoy spending a lot of money on it.
Harley Benton’s ridiculously low pricing should takes some of the pain of out of power procurement. You can pick up the PowerPlant ISO-Li09 for just £99/$128/€118, while the PowerPlant ISO-Li05 is a snip at £75/$97/€89.
These are available now direct from Thomann. You can check out more details at Harley Benton.
