swapping the boss switch for a toggle?

[msurdin]

Is that possible? I know the stock boss switch is momentary. Is this something that i would have to change a lot?
I really want to have some of my boss pedals in a rack with toggle switches...
Thanks
Matt

[Mark Hammer]

I hope you are aware that you could stick the guts of all your Boss pedals in a rack unit and still actuate them remotely with a momentary switch.  That way you don't have to modify them electronically, just rehouse them.  If you ever get bored with any of them, just stick the guts back into the pedal chassis and sell them.

[msurdin]

Can i take the 2 wires that go to the switch stick them on a mono jack then take a spst momentary switch and wire that to a mono jack?

[RickL]

Yes, in fact you don't even have to disconnect the wires from the switch, just run parallel wires to the jack.

Be careful about which remote switch you choose. Some switches are "bouncy". When you press the switch it's like you hit the switch several times before it settles down, effectively switching the effect on and off several times. It's okay if the bounce is an odd number of times, you end up switched the way you want to but half the time it will feel like it hasn't switched (even number of bounces).

Boss used to make a little plastic momentarry switch for use as a sustain pedal and as an on/off switch for drum machines that works fairly well in this type of application. Old keyboard switches work quite well too but beyond that you'll have to experiment.

[Mark Hammer]

And if that weren't enough, since all those switches only have to be grounded to work, that means that a remote footswitch for your rack-mounted Boss pedals only need N+1 wires to work (where N is the number of pedals).  Any pedal can be switched on and off by connecting its respective "hot" wire to ground, and since you only need one ground wire.....

The caveat is that the indicator LEDs need to stay put with the rest of the electronics or else it's a lot more wires.  If you can content yourself with all the pedals in one big box at waist height where you can see it, and a bank of momentary switches at your feet, you've got it made in the shade.

One of the advantages of the rackmount approach is that you can score yourself a couple of rotary switches (at least 2 pole) and use those to direct where the signal goes.  Assuming that each input and output lead from effect X goes to each rotary switch, you can treat each rotary switch like a "station" and assign a particular effect to that "station".  Voila.  Instant re-ordering of effects.  Something that is tricky to do with floor-mounted pedals and a bunch of patch cords.  One of the "sources" at one or more stations can also be a pair of send/return jacks you can use to patch something else into your rackmount effects.  That will have to be footswitched separately from your bank of momentary switches unless you build some sort of FET-switching module that you can also control from the floor unit.  Do-able, though.