Super Champ footswitch

[chrisjuby]

Hi there, I'm new to building stompboxes, and fairly new to electronics. My only completed project so far is a (great sounding!) customised Fuzz Face. This website has been a huge help, so many thanks!

I'm hoping you might be able to tell me if I've done anything stupid here...

I decided to try building a footswitch for my Super Champ X2 amp this evening. I found the schematic online (see bottom). As far as I understand, it switches channels and fx by changing the voltage coming back from the pedal. I don't have the zener diode to hand so I decided to see if I could make it work with resistors instead. I hooked up a 1k pot and a multimeter and found that the circuit operates (approximately) as follows:

0-2v - channel 1, fx off
2-5.5v - channel 2, fx off
5.5-9v - channel 1, fx on
9-12.5v(max) - channel 2, fx on

So here's what I came up with:



Somewhat to my surprise, it seems to work perfectly!

Have I misunderstood anything? Is there any reason why my method is a bad idea? Would there be any advantage in using diodes (as below)?