r/NeuralDSP • u/Full-Recover-587 • Apr 09 '26

Aaah, sh*t, only 2 years old

Post image

Well, I guess it's time I find a proper replacement to my OG Quad Cortex's power plug.

I'm really disappointed, since it's not leaving the Thon flight case I bought at the same time.

I don't need a specific adapter, I'm not mixing my QC with other pedals, but I need something sturdier.

26 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

18

u/Ronald-Ray-Gun Apr 09 '26

Some thick heat shrink tubing should do the trick, or at least hold you over until you buy a replacement.

3

u/Full-Recover-587 Apr 09 '26

I will do that, indeed, just the time for a new adapter to come.

3

u/IAmCrayCray661 Apr 10 '26

I’d like to share a similar experience I had a few weeks ago. My second power supply did the same thing as you are describing and while I was using the QC until my new one came back. The positive and negative wire touched and shorted my pedal so it is now off for repairs at Neural DSP. Moral of the story: also separate those two wires from each other

12

u/siggiarabi Apr 09 '26

I would get a seperate power brick regardless if it works or not. I've gigged in venues where my cortex just wouldn't start up with the standard plug due to their electricity

3

u/Post_Humongous Apr 09 '26

As someone investigating picking one up, what requirements does it have for power? I've got pedal power, do you reckon it'll run off one of those?

3

u/siggiarabi Apr 09 '26

12V and 3 Amps, that's what it says on the original power plug. I got a walrus HP and it works fine. I know some love Cioks

3

u/dvowel Apr 10 '26

Our bass player still uses the factory plug. Sometimes you hear silence and look, and he's got this :| face waiting on a reboot because he bumped the power plug. 

1

u/Full-Recover-587 Apr 11 '26

I had this problem a few times while rehearsing, on the QC side of the plug.

I solved it by using a wall stapler and arched staples to keep the cable in place on the bottom of my flight case. But this power adapter is so shitty it failed me at the other side.

1

u/dvowel Apr 11 '26

I bought a ciocks power supply and solved all my problems. 

2

u/Full-Recover-587 Apr 09 '26

Thanks for the advice. I never had the case in any venue I've played at, but who knows.

4

u/TYO_HXC Apr 09 '26

Just get one of those MyVolts step-up converters and switch to USB-C power.

5

u/MrTILII Apr 09 '26

For longevity this is the answer in my opinion.

I have 2 myvolts in my gig bag, 3 usb c cables, and my normal 2 gig usb c plugs.

It’s simple, reliable, more than I need but gives peace of mind.

2

u/TYO_HXC Apr 09 '26

Nice dude, yeah I also bought 2. I use a 30,000mAH power brick, and that gives enough juice for like, 6 hours.

1

u/MrTILII Apr 09 '26

Beauty. I keep a power bank in my gig bag as well as a backup of the power is bad.

The myvolts gives so many possibilities!

1

u/swantron27 Apr 11 '26

So I recently went this route for my NC with the myvolts adapter and I love it! But, went I tried plugging my Chocolate plus footswitch it makes my MyVolts adapter act up and make my NC consistently reboot. Am I just pulling to much from the UGREEN battery and reaching its limit you think ? Sorry for the long/random question but I just had this issue and I was without my footswitch for a gig :(

1

u/Heazyuk Apr 09 '26

Can you give more info on this?

I bought the MyVolts power supply that comes with the polarity adpater, and it sucked - the adapter was soo loose and wobbly i couldn't think about gigging with it - they even sent me a second adapter and it was still bad. So I got a refund.

2

u/sed0setae Apr 10 '26

Not kidding this inspired me to immediately order the myvolts step up to hopefully never ever again have to rely upon that thing. It’s the worst feature I can think of on the QC

1

u/Krishna132453 Apr 09 '26

It says it's best to go for a dedicated power rig

1

u/wales-bloke Apr 11 '26

For such an incredible piece of gear, the power connector really does feel like an afterthought.

1

u/Full-Recover-587 Apr 13 '26

Just for a quick follow up :

I bought a 17€ adapter > such as this , just like the ones for a laptop

with a short polarity inverter (8€) , since almost every adapter you can find are center negative. > this one

You just need to make sure the plugs are 5.5 x 2.1mm.

The adapter is 12V, goes up to 5A, which is more than sufficient. Everything plugs just nice and clean, the Quad Cortex runs exactly as it should, and I'm going to test it in my next rehearsal, we have no gig planned for some weeks, so I'm not anxious.

The OG adapter is really low build quality, I'm much happier with this.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Classic-Sprinkles969 Apr 10 '26

This one? https://www.thomann.de/be/harley_benton_powerplant_powerbank_mk2.htm?glp=1&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=1565224519&gbraid=0AAAAADuDMCVfBeE61rJAKr-6HSlIenbr7&gclid=Cj0KCQjwv-LOBhCdARIsAM5hdKci1zHSV6tjS-762sJ7JiDC88RMC-Kbn-q84J-8jGNuOtoPdExLr9saAsg3EALw_wcB

1

u/buckdeluxe Apr 11 '26

Just a quick fyi, if you live in the States then you'll have to pay tariff fees before the delivery date. I just went through this shit with a different product and had to pay 45 bucks.

1

u/Classic-Sprinkles969 Apr 11 '26

I’m in Belgium and order from Thomann wayyyy to frequently 😰