Need help with amp footswitch

moog1000

moog1000

New member
Forgive me, but I know nothing! I have no electronics knowledge whatsoever, so please don't laugh too hard at my post.

I have a footswitch for my amp that is connected to it via a stereo jack lead. The footswitch has two metal switches on; 1 for volume 1 for gain. To get a decent clean sound I leave the gain off and the volume on. For a gain sound I put the gain on and volume off. I do this by (trying to) press both buttons at once, which doesn't always go to plan. Is there a way that another switch could be added and do this in one press?

Cheers
 
Re: Need help with amp footswitch

This is fairly simple, but hard to describe. I'll post a pic as soon as I get home. ;)
 
Re: Need help with amp footswitch

What you have now probably looks close to whats in the top diagram:

reverse_foot_pedal.png


You need to "mod" it to look like the bottom. If your footswitch's are DPDT instead of SPDT, then you just use one side of the switch. The neat thing about doing it this way is two-fold:

1. It doesn't matter how you set the vol/gain switches, the "reverse" switch changes both. So if you had them both "on", reverse would toggle both of them on and off.

2. It doesn't matter which position you leave any switch in. All switches continue to work as normal, regardless of any other switch position. That makes it nice if you aren't using LED's to show switch status.

For example: If you turn the volume "off", and the gain "on", then hit reverse, the volume switch still toggles volume on and off.

Let me know if you have any questions. Also, if you could post a pic of the insides of your pedal, that might help.

One warning: I have seen foot pedals, (like the one for the J-Station), that use diodes to perform the switching. This will only work if yours is strictly wires and switches.

Artie
 
Re: Need help with amp footswitch

Thanks Artie I really appreciate that! I haven't got my amp at the moment to open the footswitch up, but I will as soon as I get it. The amp is a Cornford MK50 so I reckon it's going to be all wire and switches - I don't think they've heard of diodes in the Cornford factory!

Many thanks again
 
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