Hack du jour: Powering Europlug wall warts from UK power strips

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I have a few guitar pedals and effects units that came from continental Europe and therefore have a two-pronged “Europlug” for power.

Inspired by power extension cords, I’ve built some adapter cords that solve a couple of problems neatly.


The traditional method of plugging a Europlug power supply into a socket uses a travel adapter or shaving adapter, as shown below.

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Using this on a power strip (which is the ubiquitous method for powering guitar pedal or effects units) leads to a couple of problems:

  • the asymmetry of the power supply coupled with the general mechanical crappiness of the contacts in shaver adapters means that power supply at the very least sits at a funny angle, and at worst has a unreliable electrical connection to the mains;
  • the positioning of the power supply can potentially block the socket next to it in the power strip.

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Gathering together materials: Some 13-amp plugs fitted with 3A fuses; some 6A two-core electrical cable; and some inline Europlug trailing sockets. The latter took a bit of finding; I bought mine from eBay seller mikdan75

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