THE SOURCE
November 24, 2009 | Reviewer: Reza Nasseri
Distributor: www.guitarbits.com.au
Quite a few months back a nice guy named Matt Henderson contacted me about the possibility of trying out his new product. He named it the “Source’. It isn’t a pedal or a set of pickups, nor is it a battery-powered practice amp. The Source is a rechargeable power supply that you can run your pedals off.
So how much money have you spent over the years on 9 volt batteries? Have you ever thought of investing in a power supply? As I am a big pedal buff, I have suffered the annoyance of heaving my favorite analog delay “die” in the middle of a show…embarrassing! So I advocate the use of power supplies for most applications.
The day came when a large box arrives in the mail… it’s here. Upon opening the box I was immediately struck the sturdiness of the unit. It is about 30 cm long and about 7 cm wide and made of extruded aluminum … you could really knock out the sturdiest of drunken, abusive punters with this sucker. The entire unit is finished in a powder-coated dark red. The powder-coating adds to the unit’s overall toughness.
The unit features 6 independent voltage and current protected outputs and comes with all power leads and a 240 volt charger. Now, let’s get statistical. Digital Delay pedals are traditionally the vampires of the effects world. The Source can run 6 digital delay pedals for 8 + hours fully charged! Also, this unit puts out the equivalent of 30×9 volt batteries and that breaks down a saving of $120- per charge! With a saving like that you could buy yourself a new guitar every year…and if your partner enquires as to how many guitars really need, you can reply with “how many pairs of shoes do you really need?”
I decided to take this unit out to some shows. Once I did some pedal board rearranging, the source sat beautifully on my pedal board with no problems. It is probably about the cleanest my old pedal board has looked for a while. Playing the gig I was struck by how clean and quiet the unit runs my old effects. I use a bunch of old 70’s Electro Harmonix and Melos effects and was impressed the signal to noise ratio. Another plus is that the unit runs most effects pedals; I would have liked to have a 12 volt and 18 volt output option … maybe I can get this mod done to my unit. Another cool thing that Matt is doing is the option of a car charger as well! Imagine recharging the unit on route to your show. This product is surely one of the best, if not the most well thought and user friendly pieces of kit that I have come across in my 20 years of playing. Other companies just haven’t covered the bases like Matt has. You can run it straight off the wall power, or off it’s internal power once charged and recharge on the way to the next gig … WOW! You could also run a multi daisy chain off just one output and run more than just one pedal per output.
At a RRP of $349 and a 12 month warranty, this represents insane value for money and by buying this product you would be supporting a great local small business. Savings, versatility and sturdy construction make this product one of the best in its class!