Review: Eventide PowerMax

(Image credit: Eventide)

This is gonna sound weird, but I kinda get excited over pedal power supplies. Mind you, this is coming from a guy who came from an era where a power supply consisted of 9-volt batteries and a bunch of wall warts strung together on a crappy power strip. So, when compact power supplies started to materialize for pedal users, well, you can imagine that for guitarists like me, it was the best thing since sliced bread! [*facepalm* —Ed.] So, among the many power supplies available for guitarists nowadays, the one I’m absolutely obsessing over is the Eventide PowerMax, mostly because they partnered with CIOKS — a premier Danish power-supply manufacturer — and it’s Eventide, the most preeminent audio engineering and innovative effects-processing company in the world.

So what’s so cool about PowerMax? Well, weighing in at one pound and being one inch thick makes it incredibly lightweight and slim enough to mount underneath most pedalboards without it scraping the floor. It’s a worldwide power supply (switchable 100/120/230V operation) that delivers 38.4 watts of clean, hum-free power and can capably juice seven high-current pedals (660mA @ 9V). That means up to seven Eventide H9 pedals or any power-hungry Strymon boxes — just to give perspective — can be properly powered from its seven fully isolated outlets, with each outlet being switchable, via mini DIP switches, to 9, 12, 15 or 18 volts. It also has a courtesy USB outlet for quick-charging your mobile devices. Neat.

PowerMax also includes 13 Flex cables, with five for Eventide pedals, and features advanced LED monitoring of each outlet and is expandable for more outlets via the Eventide PowerMINI (available this summer). After wiring up PowerMax to feed my Strymon, Eventide, Fulltone and TC Electronic pedals, along with a few others, I can tell you it’s dead quiet and one of the most efficient power supplies I’ve ever used. It’s so reliable that there’s no going back to anything else, and by the way, thanks to that USB outlet, my iPhone was fully charged after the gig so I could Waze my way back home.

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**

Join now for unlimited access

US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year

UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year

Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Prices from £2.99/$3.99/€3.49

Paul Riario has been the tech/gear editor and online video presence for Guitar World for over 25 years. Paul is one of the few gear editors who has actually played and owned nearly all the original gear that most guitarists wax poetically about, and has survived this long by knowing every useless musical tidbit of classic rock, new wave, hair metal, grunge, and alternative genres. When Paul is not riding his road bike at any given moment, he remains a working musician, playing in two bands called SuperTrans Am and Radio Nashville.

Latest

Gordon Giltrap is photographed with his Fylde acoustic – a guitar built in the '70s for his hero, the folk legend Bert Jansch.

“At the end of a tour Bert said to his roadie, ‘Do you want a guitar? Take your pick.’ And the guy said, ‘Well, I’d like that Fylde...” Gordon Giltrap on why Bert Jansch changed his life – and how he ended up with the folk icon’s ’70s acoustic

See more latest ►

“My friend talked to Joe Walsh and gave him my number. Awhile later, I got a message: ‘Adam Jones, this is the Talk Box fairy. Give me a call’”: Tool's Adam Jones on taking cues from Meshuggah, unorthodox pedals, and the trick he learned from Robert Fripp

“Verböten played right across the street from Wrigley Field. Dave Grohl came with his sister when he was 13 and saw us play”: Jason Narducy on inspiring Dave Grohl, getting R.E.M. cover tips from Peter Buck – and being Bob Mould’s bassist

“I love driving people crazy. They come and say, ‘How did you do that? I’ve been working for months trying to get that.’ And I say, ‘It’s just a pedal!’” A guide to the untapped guitar playing of David Gilmour’s solo albums

“My custom-made classical guitar with the synth module was stolen while we were on tour. I got it back thanks to some people who worked with Joe Bonamassa”: Steve Morse on gear-buying, his ‘FrankenTele’ and why he needs four pickups – no more, no less

“Was that open-string a mistake or pure brilliance? Who cares? It’s a masterpiece”: Did bass maestro Willie Weeks miss a note on this Donny Hathaway classic?

“Jimi Hendrix was my superhero, and so I threw a bit of his style into the bassline”: How a young Bootsy Collins took the James Brown bass chair to its busiest level on this Bootsy-fied recut from 1970’s Sex Machine

“Lots of what I play, I wouldn't know how to describe it… I’m following my nose all the time. It’s a process of instinct and desire”: Meet Lazy Day’s Tilly Scantlebury – the UK guitarist-producer summoning sparkling indie tones from secondhand setups

“Aqualung was Ian’s riff. The solo was all done on the fly. If I hadn’t got it in two takes then it would have been a flute solo. That’s when Jimmy Page came up to say hello”: Martin Barre on Jethro Tull, the Aqualung sessions – and supporting Hendrix

“The idea of lead guitar is that there’s focus put on it, and during this period I just didn’t want any focus to be on me”: How Devin Townsend relied on his production process to deliver his new album from the depths of depression and grief

“Wolfgang knows more Intervals songs at any given moment than I do – on guitar and drums”: Intervals' Aaron Marshall on making the impossible possible, and jamming with Wolfgang Van Halen

“The Janie’s Got a Gun solo had a ratty sound. I had a Chet Atkins signature guitar plugged into a 15-watt Marshall practice amp... the producer said, ‘It sounds terrible’”: Joe Perry on 50 years of Aerosmith, and what it takes to nail his “working tone”

Get The Pick Newsletter

Most Popular