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Hey guys,
I decided after owning amps with FX loops and amps without that I would make myself a simple pedalboard interface to automatically switch my pedals between "everything in the front of amp" and "split to front of amp and FX loop" depending on what was plugged in. Most people would probably rip the pedals up off the pedalboard and just patch and plug where needed, but I'm lazy and wanted a quick solution while having all of my main connections from one interface (and it fits under a Pedaltrain 1).
I had been looking online for solutions and was going to order a XTS Flexiface, but heard back from the company a little over a week later after I had already gathered a little research and ordered the parts. This is very basic, but it fits my needs and only cost me something like $20 in materials shipped from Mouser. If I had wanted to make myself something more complex (like with an integrated buffer), I probably would have outsourced it to those folks because their work looks extraordinarily clean.
Anyhow, I figured I'd share some pics. I'm happy with the way it turned out as I've never toyed around with making any guitar pedals before. I did a fair amount of planning, but ended up lucking out in a few key areas, such as finding that a Hammond 1590B has *just* enough real estate to fit 8 jacks. The gut shot pretty much says it - I hadn't really considered about how close the jacks would be together, but it came out great. I also found that drilling a pilot hole and enlarging it with a varibit/unibit was remarkably effective for adding jacks to the pedal and masking tape kept it from getting the surrounding chewed up. Since I couldn't mount the jacks dead center (the terminals on the inside would have shunted to the back) I'm glad I didn't pay to have them pre-drilled.
As a quick breakdown, the "(L) out" is the out to amp when using the fx loop and the "ret/(F) out" means if the fx loop is being used it's used as the return and if no fx loop is being used, the entire chain is outputted to the front of amp through it. The "(L) out" and "send" jacks switch to a different set of contacts when not in use and that's what links the two pedal loops together. Simple. Effective.
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I decided after owning amps with FX loops and amps without that I would make myself a simple pedalboard interface to automatically switch my pedals between "everything in the front of amp" and "split to front of amp and FX loop" depending on what was plugged in. Most people would probably rip the pedals up off the pedalboard and just patch and plug where needed, but I'm lazy and wanted a quick solution while having all of my main connections from one interface (and it fits under a Pedaltrain 1).
I had been looking online for solutions and was going to order a XTS Flexiface, but heard back from the company a little over a week later after I had already gathered a little research and ordered the parts. This is very basic, but it fits my needs and only cost me something like $20 in materials shipped from Mouser. If I had wanted to make myself something more complex (like with an integrated buffer), I probably would have outsourced it to those folks because their work looks extraordinarily clean.
Anyhow, I figured I'd share some pics. I'm happy with the way it turned out as I've never toyed around with making any guitar pedals before. I did a fair amount of planning, but ended up lucking out in a few key areas, such as finding that a Hammond 1590B has *just* enough real estate to fit 8 jacks. The gut shot pretty much says it - I hadn't really considered about how close the jacks would be together, but it came out great. I also found that drilling a pilot hole and enlarging it with a varibit/unibit was remarkably effective for adding jacks to the pedal and masking tape kept it from getting the surrounding chewed up. Since I couldn't mount the jacks dead center (the terminals on the inside would have shunted to the back) I'm glad I didn't pay to have them pre-drilled.
As a quick breakdown, the "(L) out" is the out to amp when using the fx loop and the "ret/(F) out" means if the fx loop is being used it's used as the return and if no fx loop is being used, the entire chain is outputted to the front of amp through it. The "(L) out" and "send" jacks switch to a different set of contacts when not in use and that's what links the two pedal loops together. Simple. Effective.
Album:
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