Centre-negative polarity
The common pedal power convention in which the centre pin of the barrel socket is the negative connection and the outer sleeve is positive.
Most guitar pedals follow the centre-negative convention, but a minority of older and some modern designs use centre-positive, which means connecting the wrong supply can destroy the pedal immediately. Power supplies that share outlets across pedals therefore risk feeding the wrong polarity to one unit, which is one of the practical arguments for an isolated supply with individually specified outputs. Checking the symbol printed beside the socket before plugging anything in is a habit worth having.
Example: A pedal labelled centre-negative must not be powered from a supply whose plug is wired the other way round.
See also
Related
- PagePolarity
- PageBarrel plug
- PagePower supply
- Page18-volt operation
- PageAnalogue delay
- PageAuto-wah
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley