Green muff bypass alternatives

[wavley]

So I've had a tall skinny letter green big muff since it was new, ran right out and got it as soon as a store in my area had one.  It's been a good friend over the years but I kinda just put it on the shelf to use for recording only.

Anyway, I have a bubble letter one that I re-housed and did the true bypass yackety schmackety to, I'm not interested in doing that again.

I want to do something less intrusive and using the original switch so I can put it back on my board and it will look the way it always has.

Has anybody around here done a better bypass without hacking everything up?  Maybe a millennium or something?  Honestly I always just build with the blue switches because it's easy that way and have dedicated always on buffers in various places.

I guess I should just throw it back on my board as is and see how it sounds, but I seem to remember it not being so hot in bypass and it's why I took it off.

[boog]

if i'm reading this right, you want to keep that big, gnarly switch from russia? the spdt one? stays down when engaged? if you plan on using the pedal, i don't recommend it. my old bass player went through about 4 of those things (yes, one of the music stores in town had them, i'm guessing they were used) before he let me go all true bypass on it. i'd recommend if you don't wanna do all the hack&slash involved in making it true bypass, take some washers and a dpdt stomp and wire it like an spdt. which should be: jumper the center two lugs together. attach the wire from the original switch that's on it's own to one of those two lugs. attach the two wires on the other side of the original switch to either end lug of the new switch, on the opposite side of the other wire. does that make sense?

early in this article http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/bypass/bypass.htm RG shows an illustration of whats going on. hope that all helps!

[nocentelli]

I had my Green Russian (actually a Smallstone) true bypassed using a relay and retained the old switch - No mechanical problems fifteen years down the line....

[newfish]

If you really don't want to change the look of your Russian Green Muff, I'd suggest building a separate true-bypass looper. 

You get a dependable 3DPDT switch - and a status LED (if you so choose) - and you get to keep your RGM as 'stock'.

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/PedalHacker/index.htm

Cheers!

[dthurstan]

I did a simple millennium 2 mod using the original switch. Works great, I've not had the switch fail on me yet, however I don't gig so...

It's a DPDT switch, but the contacts/poles aren't in the same order as a standard DPDT switch.

Sovtek footswitches lugs are as follows, this is how it converts - (forget the numbers on the actual switch, this is how it relates to a regular DPDT)

Regular:
14
25
36

Sovtek:
14
36

25

Youl notice a bigger gap between the bottom lugs than the top two,these are common (2 and 5), this is how you wire a sovtek switch for truebypass:

Nevermind that its for a muff, just examine the switch and see how its different to the switch wiring(which is exactly the same) in the second link:
LINK1 SOVTEK SWITCH FOR TB

LINK 2 regular DPDTTB wiring

The lugs of the soviet military switches is all messed up compared to what we are used to. if in doubt use your DMM to check for common.(lugs 1 and 1 on the sovtek switch numbers)

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=39896.0

I thought mine was broken and I'd have 2 buy another (smallbear had them at the time, not anymore for $14!), I eventually figured it out using a connectivity test.

[wavley]

if i'm reading this right, you want to keep that big, gnarly switch from russia? the spdt one? stays down when engaged? if you plan on using the pedal, i don't recommend it. my old bass player went through about 4 of those things (yes, one of the music stores in town had them, i'm guessing they were used) before he let me go all true bypass on it. i'd recommend if you don't wanna do all the hack&slash involved in making it true bypass, take some washers and a dpdt stomp and wire it like an spdt. which should be: jumper the center two lugs together. attach the wire from the original switch that's on it's own to one of those two lugs. attach the two wires on the other side of the original switch to either end lug of the new switch, on the opposite side of the other wire. does that make sense?

early in this article http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/bypass/bypass.htm RG shows an illustration of whats going on. hope that all helps!

I've read RG's thing a bunch of times, I just wanted to know if someone had done it before because time is at a premium at my house.  I've had the muff and a green small stone since like '93 and gigged a lot with them and never had a problem with either of the switches.  I kinda like the big dumb switch, that pedal has been a good friend over the years.

If you really don't want to change the look of your Russian Green Muff, I'd suggest building a separate true-bypass looper. 

You get a dependable 3DPDT switch - and a status LED (if you so choose) - and you get to keep your RGM as 'stock'.

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/PedalHacker/index.htm

Cheers!

I currently have it in the loop of my Truly Beautiful Disaster which is pretty much like doing this when the feedback is turned off, but I'm not sure that I want to keep the TBD on my board anymore.  I actually have a true bypass box with a boost on the return with my Morley PFA and green Small Stone in it to take care of the volume drop.  I don't really want to take up anymore real estate with another bypass box considering the muff has so much room to work inside it, so building a daughter board with a bypass seems like the way to go.

I had my Green Russian (actually a Smallstone) true bypassed using a relay and retained the old switch - No mechanical problems fifteen years down the line....

Awesome! exactly what I'm looking for, I've never built relay bypassing myself but I did change my English Muffin and Wiggler to remote bypass using the relays.

I did a simple millennium 2 mod using the original switch. Works great, I've not had the switch fail on me yet, however I don't gig so...

It's a DPDT switch, but the contacts/poles aren't in the same order as a standard DPDT switch.

Sovtek footswitches lugs are as follows, this is how it converts - (forget the numbers on the actual switch, this is how it relates to a regular DPDT)

Regular:
14
25
36

Sovtek:
14
36

25

Youl notice a bigger gap between the bottom lugs than the top two,these are common (2 and 5), this is how you wire a sovtek switch for truebypass:

Nevermind that its for a muff, just examine the switch and see how its different to the switch wiring(which is exactly the same) in the second link:
LINK1 SOVTEK SWITCH FOR TB

LINK 2 regular DPDTTB wiring

The lugs of the soviet military switches is all messed up compared to what we are used to. if in doubt use your DMM to check for common.(lugs 1 and 1 on the sovtek switch numbers)

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=39896.0

I thought mine was broken and I'd have 2 buy another (smallbear had them at the time, not anymore for $14!), I eventually figured it out using a connectivity test.

I've been curious about using Millennium bypass also.  It's always been just easier to build with the blue switch, plus I tend to shove so much in a box that I was trying to keep the parts count down.




Thanks a lot for the help guys, I was just trying to see what everybody else had success with before I tore into it.  Great ideas, now I just have to choose one and build myself a little daughter board.