Bypass looper that switches between pedals instead of just on and off???

[aksman]

Hey, I'm new here, but I wanted to build a bypass strip that would hold 4 or 5 overdrives, maybe even just 2 or 3, but switch between them instead of cascading them...

i.e. i want my heavy distortion to go off when i switch my big muff on or my overdrive on, etc.

also, the ability to turn them all off and run clean (not just bypass the strip, but so i wouldn't have to say turn the strip from the heavy to the overdrive and then release the bypas... instead just hit the overdrive loop and it would engage it instead of the heavy distortion that was engaged prior to bypassing it... make sense?).

any help on this?  cuz some of my pedals sound bad cascaded, while others are great.

[Skreddy]

[aksman]

thanks for the reply, Marc, but I'm talking more than just loop a or loop b...

I'm talkin more like a strip with a footswitch for loop a, one for loop b, and one for loop c, then one for bypass.  then when you step on loop a, it turns on... then when you step on loop b or c, it will turn off loop a as well as engaging the loop you just stepped on.

is this around?  (short of a complicated programmable selector like the combinator or wobo thing)

[CGDARK]

Check the Programmable FX Switcher with Amp Controls at http://www.geofex.com/, specially the Footswitch Logic section.

CG

[aksman]

that looks too daunting and complicated (and capable of far more than i need/want)... uh oh

[CGDARK]

Don't be afraid just look at the Footswitch Logic section alone. The 74c373 chip do what you want to do, arranged as presented in this section (by the way you don't have to used all the inputs/outputs). The rest of the circuit presented can be replaced with your loops, etc. I can help you if you want.

CG

[jonathan perez]

dont be afraid of challenge. 

[shoegazed]

you could just put the switches close to each other like the kendrick abc box, and turn one switch of so when you step on both of them it switches the effects...?

-andy

[aksman]

that wouldn't cover going from A to C, just A to B, or B to C...

The only thing that could come close would to be an A/B between loops 1 and 2, and then another AB between that first loop box and a third loop...but that would take up a lot of space and use 12 jacks.

[Mark Hammer]

Skreddy's diagram (Hi guy!  Long time no see) will work just fine.

Note that you can "branch out" further with toggles.  So, for example, your stompswitch selects between alternative A or B.  A DPDT toggle can be wired in almost the identical fashion to select between option A-1 and A-2, and another toggle wired up to select between B-1 and B-2.

Alternatively, you can use rotary switches to create more than just 2 choices for each of those A/B binary decisions.

[R.G.]

I'm talkin more like a strip with a footswitch for loop a, one for loop b, and one for loop c, then one for bypass.  then when you step on loop a, it turns on... then when you step on loop b or c, it will turn off loop a as well as engaging the loop you just stepped on.

You only have a few choices.
Mechanical switching to do that is very, very complicated.

There are some relay circuits which will do this with just the relays themselves, but they need at least 3-Pole relays to do it, and that makes the relays expensive.

The cheapest - and frankly simplest - way to do this is to take the one-of-eight footswitch selector I showed in the "Programmable footswitch" article at GEO and use that circuit to select one of three or four, then use the outputs to drive the cheap NEC EA2 series relays to do the switching. I know it looks scary, but the other choices are actually either much more expensive or more complicated by the time you get them to work.