Bass Effects: Step Up/Step Down Power Converters

Alrighty, so i'm in the last stages of ordering an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory chorus/vibrato unit from a source that will remained unnamed in this thread ( ) when I come across a little note giving fair warning that the thing is a 220 volt a la Britland.

What i'm wondering is if any old regular Step Down 220-to-110 V converter will work with the thing and leave all involved pieces of hardware intact?(Currently residing in Yankland, home of the wimpy 110 V outlet) The reason i'm asking is because having an effects unit that costs twice as much as my bass spontaneously combust on me wouldn't the best :\ohwell:.

Hannett of the Apes wrote: Alrighty, so i'm in the last stages of ordering an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory chorus/vibrato unit from a source that will remained unnamed in this thread ( ) when I come across a little note giving fair warning that the thing is a 220 volt a la Britland.

What i'm wondering is if any old regular Step Down 220-to-110 V converter will work with the thing and leave all involved pieces of hardware intact?(Currently residing in Yankland, home of the wimpy 110 V outlet) The reason i'm asking is because having an effects unit that costs twice as much as my bass spontaneously combust on me wouldn't the best :\ohwell:.

1. Bastard on finding a clone (is hooky selling you one of his 100's?). Mine got nicked.
2. Yes, any bog standard 110-220/250 convertor will do the trick.
3. getting one rated for audio might be a plan, since they do have a horrid habit of humming, and you're going to have enough noise problems with the Clone.
4. hope your amp stinks, clone theories sound awful through good amps, and amazing through bad ones :)
5. if you can find one get a 240V distribution board, in case you want any other Brit gear (except of course EH is American aint it?).
6. Don't do anything until you see the pedal, I THINK it actually has a selector switch on it somewhere, but may be wrong.

When we were in the states, I got a lip shock from a mic, and as per instruction, told our tech...."dry your fuckin eyes you poof, these numpties are terrfied of electricity, it's only 110V, it'll only hurt, not kill ya" Cheers.

Cheers thanks, I wasn't sure as the sum total of my experiences with converters was back in Christmas of 2001 when I visited my aunt in London, unplugging her X-mas tree nightly to charge up my mp3 player with that 110 dongle it had on it. Come to think of it, in Munich I got to irking the entire conceirge desk at the hotel by rummaging through their drawers looking for a convertor after I realized something in the airport metal detactors (or something.. ) had zapped all the chargeable NiMH/Lithium batteries in my electronic junk.

What's funny is that this Clone is 220 V, but the title right on the front of the thing says "Electro-Harmonix, Made in N.Y.C., USA" . Oh and don't worry, my amp is suitably crappy and has enough 'Omph' to irritate a family of termites a little bit. Hell even my bass isn't that great!

Hannett of the Apes wrote: Cheers thanks, I wasn't sure as the sum total of my experiences with converters was back in Christmas of 2001 when I visited my aunt in London, unplugging her X-mas tree nightly to charge up my mp3 player with that 110 dongle it had on it. Come to think of it, in Munich I got to irking the entire conceirge desk at the hotel by rummaging through their drawers looking for a convertor after I realized something in the airport metal detactors (or something.. ) had zapped all the chargeable NiMH/Lithium batteries in my electronic junk.

What's funny is that this Clone is 220 V, but the title right on the front of the thing says "Electro-Harmonix, Made in N.Y.C., USA" . Oh and don't worry, my amp is suitably crappy and has enough 'Omph' to irritate a family of termites a little bit. Hell even my bass isn't that great!

that's how I knows it'll work...My Moog's a buffalo NY girl, and I blew it's power supply to ribbons (20 years it lasted til it met me, then about 3 weeks). I just bought a transformer (the Moog runs on unfiltered AC.....Geee i wonder why they're so unstable at times at big gigs hmmmmmm) that provided the 24v input it wanted down from 240. Whereas the original one was a 110V that had "stuff" shunted onto it for the UK.

The EH factory being just down the road, and the two being of simmilar ages (not to mention the fact you can run computers off even the crappiest convertor), pretty well proves it'll be cool. TBH, if you open it, you'll almost certainly see the same thing....a 110V input transformer with "stuff" (usualy shorts accross the coils...I have only VERY hazey memories of the internals of my Clone) to adapt it to 240. The best mod would be to rip the crap off, or swap out the input coil altogether for a shiny new one from Radio Shack. Depends on your views on modding classic gear really....but you can always claim it's being returned to it's correct US configuration. It'd save another annoying external thingy.