Patch bay for pedalboard

[adewalker]

Hi All,

Newbie here, just found your amazing forum!  So much stuff, so many projects etc.  :shock:   Congrats to Aron and all.

A question which I hope someone can with me with.

I want to build a small 8 way (jack) patchbay for my pedalboard to handle the connections to and from the amp and guitar, amp fx send and return and the 2 effect chains on the board.  In other words, 4 pairs of jack sockets mounted in a box, the sockets of each pair wired together, but each pair is independent.  I've seen something similar on looper.com.

My question is, are there any precautions I need to take to avoid any ground loops, noise, rf interference etc?

Hope my question makes sense.

Thanks,

Ade.  

[james t]

Hi Ade,

 Being new to this stuff as well, I welcome you and encourage you - as I am learning, these devices can be constructed on your own with patience and understanding.

 My hope is that this is of some help to you.  I do not know where you will locate exactly what you seek.  I have found, however, that R.G. Keen has an excellent article regarding using a remote footswitch at //www.geofex.com.  I do not know him personally, but have seen enough stuff with his name associated with it to know that he knows what he is talking about (and that if there are issues associated with a task he is undertaking - like ground loops, interference, etc... - he has most likely considered them in his design).

 It may not be exactly what you need, but it may be a good starting point in your quest for switching capabilities.  It does have enough jacks for what you described - if I am reading it correctly, you can connect up to six pair of fx in/out jacks not including overall input and output jacks.

Good luck,
james t

[Ansil]

Hi All,

Newbie here, just found your amazing forum!  So much stuff, so many projects etc.  :shock:   Congrats to Aron and all.

A question which I hope someone can with me with.

I want to build a small 8 way (jack) patchbay for my pedalboard to handle the connections to and from the amp and guitar, amp fx send and return and the 2 effect chains on the board.  In other words, 4 pairs of jack sockets mounted in a box, the sockets of each pair wired together, but each pair is independent.  I've seen something similar on looper.com.

My question is, are there any precautions I need to take to avoid any ground loops, noise, rf interference etc?

Hope my question makes sense.

Thanks,

Ade.  

metal box, high quality jacks. good grounding.  other than that it should work fine

[adewalker]

james t,

Thanks for your reply and encouragement.  I have a feeling i'm being sucked into a strange new world.  :lol:

I'll check the site you mentioned.

Ansil,

Thanks.  Can you be more specific about "good grounding"?

Thanks again guys.

Ade.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Welcome, guys

Good grounding can mean a lot of things Just make sure that you connect all the ground points together, like the rings of the jacks and any active circuitry you might have in there. Also use a metal box to stop radio & electrical interference.

I use a daisy-chain for powering my 6 pedals and I never have any trouble with the ground loops. If I'm correct my amp should be screaming in agony but then again I have a 100 dollar PSU (in the 70's though) which is silent as a mouse.

But ade, I'm not quite sure what you want this thing to do. Is it an extension of the amp plugs, so you can mess with the FX loop from 20 feet away? Or am I wrong?

[Ansil]

just make sure that all of your grounds are solid..last time i did soemthinglike this. i used a solid piece of steel and actually ran it through the ground lugs of the jacks. and soldered it to the case.   use some high quality wire for the rest of the connections

[adewalker]

Ansil,

OK, I understand what you mean.  Thanks.

smoguzbenjamin,

Thanks also for your comments and welcome.  The idea is to plug the leads from guitar, amp and amp fx loop send and return into one side of the patchbay.  The other side (sorry, I can't think of a more technical way of describing this) handles the ins and outs for the two fx pedal chains on the board.  One chain goes between guitar and amp, the other is for the amp fx loop.  My idea is to have a little patchbay to keep all the cabling and connections a bit tidier.  

I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers,

Ade.  

[smoguzbenjamin]

Clever. I don't have an FX loop on my 10W practice amp, but that's actually a quite good idea