Poll: Do you prefer Side- or Top-mounted jacks?

[amptramp]

Top in, top power, top out.  There is no need to take up valuable space sideways on a pedalboard and the cables are protected from a stomp in the wrong spot.

[robthequiet]

Side for the first in chain then top for all others, otherwise all top.

[Rob Strand]

I've grown to like top jacks. 

Top jacks on those smaller boxes like the old MXR pedals pushes the pots down too far.
So I guess that's where the side jack culture comes from.

[anotherjim]

Don't forget the left handed option with input on the left side.

[ElectricDruid]

I'd prefer attacking the systems thinking for modern pedalboards.

I'd prefer 1/8" jacks for pedals, with an "off-pedalboard" minibox to convert to the 1/4" jacks we can never get rid of.

Sounds like you might like a modular eurorack effects system - bipolar +/-12V power (none of this low headroom single-ended 9V rubbish) and 1/8" jacks to interconnect anything to anything.

I *could* go that way ( and I have been involved in many Eurorack synth designs) but then I wouldn't be building stomp boxes, would I?! While the format might not be ideal, it's what we've got, like the QWERTY keyboard, and we're stuck with it.

This question reminds me of a similar inquiry to see whether people in the early 1900s would prefer a surrey or a buckboard. And that's a contemporary question. The 1/4" phone plug goes back to about 1878. 

Here we are still (ab)using it 138 years later.

Hey, don't knock it just 'cos it's old. We still use lots of 19th century technology. If it's a good design that does the job well, there's no reason to replace it. Unlike the QWERTY keyboard!

Tom

[duck_arse]

top, but my boxes are different.


[kipper, you always want a sausage.]

[vigilante397]

Top jacks on those smaller boxes like the old MXR pedals pushes the pots down too far.
So I guess that's where the side jack culture comes from.

That's exactly why I prefer side jacks

[Paul Marossy]

Side.

[bluebunny]

Side.  Get a bigger pedalboard.   

[deadastronaut]

Yeah, man up...

[ggedamed]

As an user, all on top. As a builder, hmm..

[ElectricDruid]

Oh, that's just *great*! You're pretty evenly split...

So not only can't you please *all* the people, it looks like at best you can only please *half* the people!

Well, at least I know now.

Tom

[Beo]

I find myself making 2 or even 3 or 4 versions of PCB layouts. Often top vs side jacks, and sometimes with onboard relay switching.

I've come around to preferring bigger boxes than minimum needed to fit a circuit. More options for placing jacks and knobs, better spacing between neighboring footswitches, and more real estate for pedal graphics. Also, I hate knobs and toggle switches too close to footswitch.

[EBK]

Oh, that's just *great*! You're pretty evenly split...

So not only can't you please *all* the people, it looks like at best you can only please *half* the people!

Well, at least I know now.

Tom

can't you put the input jack on the side and the output jack on top and half annoy everyone equally?

[ElectricDruid]

Now that's not a bad idea! And the two people who actually use the pedal first in their chain would think I was some kind of saviour sent down from heaven!

Maybe there's ways to design things so that both possibilities remain possible, if you see what I mean, without shoving the pots into the middle of the pedal (which I also hate). I'll be thinking about this. Perhaps if the jacks were in the upper-left and upper-right corners, you could have a footprint on the PCB which allowed mounting them either vertically sticking out of the top/back, or horizontally sticking out of the sides. Then again, if it was that easy, someone would have done it by now, right?

Any bright ideas on how to square this particular circle gladly accepted...

T.

[digi2t]

In a blatant show of electoral fraud...

Top mount. Power too.

[samhay]

>Oh, that's just *great*! You're pretty evenly split...
>So not only can't you please *all* the people, it looks like at best you can only please *half* the people!

Told you.
Maybe it's time to go wireless?

[Ice-9]

Lets just not put any jacks on, that'll learn em.   

[digi2t]

>Oh, that's just *great*! You're pretty evenly split...
>So not only can't you please *all* the people, it looks like at best you can only please *half* the people!

Told you.
Maybe it's time to go wireless?

I could vote more if that helps.

[cloudscapes]

Top mounted is my preference. But sometimes I put them on the side because of the room the PCB can take up, and depending on the shallowness of the enclosure.