Effects pedal switchboard

[madstayen]

Okay so I saw somewhere on a thread here someone posting a diy mufti-effects pedal. Which of course is not a bad thing, but now I'm thinking, what if you get board with it, you now have to tear it apart, and start over. So I thought (yes, I know, thinking is a new experience for me, HOOAH!) why not build just the board with all the switches and LED's, but with send/return jacks, so you can hook your favorite pedals up to it, use it, and then when you get board, simply exchange some/all pedals with other ones.

Which led me to do this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e0ks0hz1cpuvvdq/Home%20made%20effects%20switch%20board.bmp

Now I know this has probably been done before, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the net (eh, mostly because I'm too lazy to search), so I decided to build my own. I didn't start with it yet, but this is my design thus far. Do note that I didn't add the ground wires (didn't think it matters that much on this drawing, just connect them all to one place will do by my standard), and that it uses NUTRIK jacks, capitalizing on the fact that if you remove a pedal, the (Normally Closed) state of the jack will insure total bypass. Oh, yes, and I also didn't add the wires for the LED's here, which is also pretty straight forward I think, hence the 3pdt switches (Yes I know this is overkill, I just didn't want to redraw everything again, and it might be of some use later on, who knows.)

One more thing, You can obviously just add on, or subtract from the design to your liking.

Now, the basic mechanics is pretty straight forward: There's two sets main BANKS, A and B, and switch H switches between the two of them, so you can have two totally different setups and switch between them. Then, each bank is made up of two sub banks, SUB BANK A and SUB BANK B. Now I figured SUB BANK A would be for distortion/overdrive, so switch C can switch between two OD/DISTOS, with the option of a third unit (I'd put something like a compressor or octaver here). Switch B enables or bypass SUB BANK A (basic on/off). SUB BANK B comprises of the rest of the pedal inputs, with switch D switching it (on/of). Switch A is added for tuner out on/off. I did add a buffer at the end of the chain to boost the signal a bit. the values could be tailored to suit your needs of course.

I do however, have a question. Do I have to put a 1M0 resistor from signal to ground on the jacks to prevent popping? If so, just on the input and output, or on each jack?


Any comments are welcome, so thank you in advance.

[mth5044]

I can't view dropbox, but up until your detailed explaination, it sounded like you were just building a true bypass strip, probably the most commonly built thing with even full business dedicated to building them, such as loopmaster.

After yuo detailed explaination, I'm not totally sure, but it seems like you are limiting what you can and cannot have on at the same time. Again, maybe the picture is more clear, but it sounds like there is a root that has two selections for each loop.

Either way, the anti-pop resistor is used to drain capacitors, so it's doing you no good putting in on the wrong side of the effect. They are best used on board. There was a thread recently that explained it all pretty well, try the search function.

[blackieNYC]

It's not what I thought you were describing, but I get it.  But it looks like the output of the compressors are tied back to your input. Looks like trouble.   I think you have a little parallel loading going on, no? which I gather may or may not affect the sound depending on pedals.
I'm thinking of going a different route and stuffing maybe 5 boards/pedals/projects into a 1u rack mount chassis.  If I get tired of any one pedal I could take out the one, and use its switch and pot holes for something else. It sounds like you are doing a bypass looper switchboard but instead of one daisy chain you have the banks - simpler than elaborate order-switching, though you might look into that, which mth would probably agree with.   You'd have bank A on deck while playing thru bank B. Hm. You had been considering stuffing boards into a big box?

[madstayen]

@ blackieNYC, thanx for the replie. No, never thought of putting a bunch of pedals in a box. You are right about the output linking back up to the input, but the switch will bypass that line, rendering that part useless, right? I'll look into this order switching you're talking about. Thanx for the advice mate.
@ mth5044, willing do so, thx

[blackieNYC]

Maybe it's because I'm viewing it on a little phone, but the output of your compressor is always tied on to the input of switch D, which means your output volume control on the compressor will be loading the signal down, according to where it is set, all the time.  You have some unused poles of the switch, right?  Can you bypass the input AND the output? Switches are expensive - looks like you are using only one pole.  Check a true bypass 3pole double throw drawing at beavis stompbox wiring (geofex, amz)and make sure you are bypassing everything.  Unless this is a abbreviated representation of switches and you're leaving out wiring details.

[mth5044]

Is there to be a bunch of summing and splitting circuits added in?

[madstayen]

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=F1678BB1C29589F!122&authkey=!ACqAQi3--YETxOg&v=3&ithint=photo%2c.bmp