Grateful Dead Music Forum

Can this damage it? Does it sound/operate the same? Thx, Ed.

Well what is the actual voltage? 14 I think, but that's a guess. As I recall the Ac adapters come with the Q-Trons. I'm guessing you don't have the original Q-tron AC adapter and have an 18v instead? I would not recommend it. Nothing is worth getting broken by going the cheap route. Besides would a 18v adapter even fit a smaller (say 14v) adapter input? ...maybe somebody here knows better but I would just go and buy the right adapter in order for it to work properly.

it's a 24v pedal. 18v won't hurt it. It may sound a taste anemic or distort on loud bassier notes but I doubt it. If the adapter is a regulated, proper polarity for the pedal, it should work.

thought it was less than 18v. I guess it would work the same way a 8 ohm speaker would react to a 4 ohm amp output

I have the 24v adapter....I thought if I could use an 18v connection from my pedalboard's power block it's one less thing to go out or lose at the wrong time.

Sounds like it won't do any harm, so I'll give it a try. Thx.

I believe the Qtron is a 24 volt and like it was mentioned above by Hogan, the lack of voltage will only hinder the clarity, tone and frequency response. It may even cause unwanted distortion when you really dig in with certain frequencies. While you can operate it safely with 18 volts, you just may not be getting the most out of the pedal at extreme moments. like Hogan said, make sure the polarity is right, I popped an input electrolytic using a rigged setup and it was the wrong polarity. I wound up ordering the right one in the end and solved that issue.

I don't know about the q-tron but I have the Mutron re-issue it runs on a 12v but I run it out of my Boss tuner inline 9v and I think it sounds better with 9 than 12 noticed the difference right away so I think the voltage will effect the sound if nothing else

I have actually been running mine on 12 volts. I didn't think anything of it, because it worked fine.
Then in the last week or so, it seems to be stuck on high pass, and if you go from LP>BP>HP it just gets higher pitched.
I had been noticing the distortion on bass notes (think intro to Estimated), but I had been just playing it softer and it sounded pretty good, I thought it was just how the pedal worked.
I took it into the local fix it shop, and the guy there told me to try a 24 volt supply (along with fixing the crappy input jack).
Will this fix her, or is it something else? Should I just buy another Qtron off the bay?