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So, why are center positive barrel jacks risky when used with rechargeable batteries? I tried googling and asking ChatGPT about that to no avail.

• ssl232 3y ago
  I wondered about that as well. My best guess is that it's something to do with which pin makes contact first in the barrel, and having the battery parallel to the barrel's contacts, it might matter which one contacts first (though I can't think why).
• r2_pilot 3y ago
  Not an electrical engineer but I dabble; I believe it would be because center positive could have electric current going to the battery before the ground connection is made. Center-negative would guarantee the ground connects first. {edited} Based off a quick Kagi search and reddit results guitarists use center negative connections and most wall plugs provide center positive, but I don't really know why.
  • tzs 3y ago
    > Based off a quick Kagi search and reddit results guitarists use center negative connections and most wall plugs provide center positive, but I don't really know why When it comes to electric guitars if something is done backwards compared to everything else it probably comes down to some pioneer in that thing got it wrong and then everyone else copied them. That's why the arm on many electric guitars that you can jiggle to cause pitch variation (which is called "vibrato") is often called a "tremolo" arm. Fender put a vibrato system on their 1954 Stratocaster but called it a tremolo system and that stuck in the electric guitar world. Then in 1964 they introduced the Fender Vibrolux amp. That included a circuit to rapidly vary volume (which is called "tremolo") but they called it a "vibrato" system, thus completing Fender's complete reversal of the meaning of vibrato and tremolo.