Batterys

The Great Battery Enigma

Once upon a time, we wound up trying out zinc-coal batteries. A lot of the vintage-obsessed folks had told us about the superior qualities of zinc-coal batteries for stompboxes. We let them talk, nodded and thought about nice things like strawberries, apple pie and strangling them with an original 1966 high E nickel string from one of Jimi's burnt guitars.

Sad we were, little did we know back then. Zinc-coal batteries do indeed sound better. Damn. The old codgers were right! Zinc-coal batteries worked especially well with overdrives and distortion units.

So we dusted off our measuring equipment and tried to solve this perplexing enigma.

Putting our arcane alchemical knowledge to use, we discovered that old fashioned zinc-coal batteries have a higher inner resistance than their alkaline counterparts. A zinc-coal battery reacts far better to guitar and picking dynamics. In other terms, the effect is similar to using an amp with a tube rectifier (which has a high inner resistance)  in comparison to a modern day, transistor-based rectifier.

We consulted the crystal ball to find a maker of such zinc-coal merriments and found one in China. Zinc-coal batteries, built the way they used to be 30 years ago. And what's best, the price seems to be have stayed the same!

Regular zinc-coal batteries won't last as long as modern alkaline batteries. They're best used with Wahs, distortion and overdrive pedals, or other kinds of pedals which don't need too much power. An LED will drain the battery even quicker. That's why we also stock a long life zinc-coal battery for pedals with a larger appetite ? the Super Heavy Duty. Both zinc-coal types are manufactured without quicksilver and do not contain that vile substance.

It must be noted that zinc-coal batteries won't work wonders for digital stompboxes, chorus pedals, delays etc. Such effects should be used with alkaline batteries ? and guess what, we're selling them as well.