Box to switch between guitar-through-FX and JamMan-through-FX

[LocalToast]

So I've had this idea for a while that would allow me to really experiment with my sounds a lot easier. I have a handful of pedals and a Digitech JamMan, so naturally I like to throw down an idea and play over it. A while back I decided that keeping the JamMan at the end of the chain was really limiting my options.

For the longest time my setup flow went like this: Guitar/Bass input -> various effects -> looper -> amp

However when I would come up with a particular riff that I wanted to experiment with, I'd turn everything off, put the Looper at the front of the effects, turn everything back on, loop the riff, and play with my pedals. This is quite cumbersome so I came up with the following solution. Currently it lacks a presentable name, but the basic idea is there:



As you can see, state A represents the "normal" looper configuration. Play the guitar, throw some effect on, record the loop, and have it play through the amp... with the freedom to play anything else on top of it.

State B represents the result of moving the JamMan to the input of my FX chain. This cuts off the guitar as an input so the only sounds you can work with are those you have stored on the JamMan. Like I said before this is desired so that I can not worry about playing guitar but can alter the sound how I like with the pedals.

Problems to be considered:
> May need some lengthy/creative cabling between switches
> Probably need a fourth switch at the amplifier input where the two wires are joined. (very rough draft here)
> Possible grounding and loading issues
> Want to avoid sound when switching modes

I had this idea when I learned of the existence of the Boss LS-2. The only problem is, I need 4 things switched at once!

I've never built a pedal from the ground up. I'm an EE undergraduate with a few courses and some lab exposure under my belt so I'm willing to tackle the project. So, any advice is greatly appreciated.

[slacker]

Interesting idea. Your block diagram looks like it should work fine.

Problems to be considered:
> May need some lengthy/creative cabling between switches

At it's simplest you only need one physical switch, a 3PDT you can get these in stomp switches or normal toggles. The whole thing can be built in a little box with in/out jacks for guitar and amp and a pair of send/return jacks for the effects chain and Jamman. If you placed the JamMan close to the box the only real extra cable would be back from the FX chain to the box.

> Probably need a fourth switch at the amplifier input where the two wires are joined. (very rough draft here)

I can't see why you would need an extra switch, what you've drawn now does everything it needs to.

> Want to avoid sound when switching modes

This might be a problem with a simple switch, especially if the JamMan is playing when you switch. You might want some sort of fade in/out to happen when you switch. This would require an extra switch to trigger it and some active circuitry to do the fading.

[LocalToast]

This might be a problem with a simple switch, especially if the JamMan is playing when you switch. You might want some sort of fade in/out to happen when you switch. This would require an extra switch to trigger it and some active circuitry to do the fading.

Any suggestions on how to achieve this? I was thinking I could make an RC circuit that causes an LED to fade in or out when the channels are switched, which would work in tandem with a photoresistor in a volume control circuit. If I calculate the time necessary to silence the "pop" just enough so that the hiccup is almost undetected, I can probably work backwards and find the values I'd need to make the magic happen.

This was just my initial reaction, I'm open to other ideas if there are simpler methods