Rehousing several different efx into one enclosure?

[manson]

Hi folks,

Lately I've been thinking about rehousing some of my efx pedals into one enclosure. But I do not want to hardwire anything together because I want to be able to reorder them when needed. So maybe they should be interconnected with short patchcables, just as if they would still be in their original boxes. It would also be cool to have them in a 19" rack, but that would call for remote switching and fancy stuff. And I want it to be simple to begin with.

What should I look out for? Can i just pull the guts out of every pedal and tie them into a large metal box or something? How about switching, boss pedals do not use 'regular' switches. Can I change that into a s/d/3pdt ? I don't really care for true bypass or not, but that would be cool if it were possible.

My Efx: digitech bad monkey, boss bd-2, homemade fuzzface, mxr phase 90, ibanez el-cheapo delay.

So is this possible and if so, how?
Thanks already for sharing your thoughs and experiences on this!



I put this picture here, because this old cornish board looks like it's just some boss boxes put into one large enclosure.

[Pushtone]

I'm looking at my first multi-effect too.
I would like to suggest, and hear opinions on,
using terminal strips to distribute power, ground, and signal.

I picturing a 12 position terminal strip for signal wires in and out on one side of the enclosure.
And another strip on the other side for power and ground.

Whadaya Think?

[manson]

Hasn't anyone here done something like this before? 

[petemoore]

  I started with an aluminum channel, 6'' x ~*18'' x ...well it has two [*18'' long] 1.5'' high sides...it is an old stereo front panel, framed in wood.
  All pots to one side of each board, all boards in a series row, long shielded output wire back to the switch, then output jack.
  This build style makes it very easy to get to the bottom of the board, and see all board tops with bottom panel removed, access to wiring is friendly.
 
 

[Dragonfly]

you'll find some diagrams for ways to wire them in the Layouts Gallery, "Dragonfly" folder...go to the "mods" page...

hope this helps,
   AC

[Mark Hammer]

One of the advantages of a Cornish board like the one shown is that it provides better "targets" for the stomping foot. as well as permanent patching.  Of course, if someone walks off with the unit, they've walked off with everything, so in a way you can think of the clumsiness of a bunch of pedals linked by patch cords as a sort of insurance. 

The ability of Boss and DOD pedals to be easily adapted for remote switching is too often overlooked.  It is a pretty trivial exercise to install a mini-phonejack on the side of one of these pedals, and run a patch cable from there to an "easy target" stompswitch array on a separate board, similar to what Cornish has.  The nice thing is that the extra switch housing is optional.  Just unplug the patch cords from the pedals and the pedals will work fine as is.  The proviso is that all pedals involved in such a scheme need to normally use a momentary grounding switch for actuating their internal flip-flop circuit.  That doesn't include ALL well-known and well-loved pedals, but it sure as heck includes a very large number of them.

The other nice thing this lets you do is little stunts like paralleling "targets" to get interesting combos.  For instance, imagine an arrangement in a kind of "A"-shape, where you have a switch at each base and on each side of the "crossbar".  The two middle switches parallel the two at the bottom.  If you want, you can step near the bottom and actuate them one at a time, or you can step a little higher and hit two buttons at once for the same two pedals.  You could, in principle, use this to switch between two different distortions in one step (assuming one is in an on-state and the other is off at the time).  Can't do that easily on your grandmother's pedalboard.

The other thing I worry about with units like the Cornish one shown is that they often have a fixed sequence or signal path.  If you are absolutely happy with the sequence of pedals you have, or if you are a well-known artist who MUST use the pedals in a fixed sequence to get specific recognizable tones, then that's fine.  But if you feel like experimenting, changing the order can be hard.  You end up having more flexibility if the big-target switches simply actuate whatever you decide to plug them into, and have the latitude to change what they go to.

[petemoore]

One of the advantages of a Cornish board like the one shown is that it provides better "targets" for the stomping foot. as well as permanent patching.  Of course, if someone walks off with the unit, they've walked off with everything, so in a way you can think of the clumsiness of a bunch of pedals linked by patch cords as a sort of insurance.
  >>Why pack everything up neatly into loads with handles? I said this after inquiries about 'is it safe to leave my stuff here' were brought out. I used to chain my cabinet and amp [and other peoples] to say a steel support pole in the basement, or even to itself...think about trying to take two 4x12'' cabs and a couple heads upstairs when chained together...lol...anything to save time and require criminal tools...
   The other thing I worry about with units like the Cornish one shown is that they often hae a fixed sequence or signal path.  If you are absolutely happy with the sequence of pedals you have, or if you are a well-known artist who MUST use the pedals in a fixed sequence to get specific recognizable tones, then that's fine.  But if you feel like experimenting, changing the order can be hard.  You end up having more flexibility if the big-target switches simply actuate whatever you decide to plug them into, and have the latitude to change what they go to.
  >>That's why my multi-pedals never got alot of floorboard use and just sit there, I was always building the next bester Fuzz or Phase and tweekin' that to tip toppenist status ['1rst string' use].
  >>And the really cool, can't hardly live without items would then get yanked out.
  I did think of a system which'd let you use many of the same pots for different plug-innable effects 'modules'...more like a board with offboard wires to multipin connector to...what will be the offboard wiring [pots, supply V, switching, jacks...etc], then just plug in the ribbon cable, mount the board...EZ...[not]
  Could be...if everything was totally figured out...which I never got to that point.
  As much as I like building all kinda effects, Itta notta been such a bad idea to implement such a plan, as I would have the chosen from batches ability, and would have thus gone through 1 enclosure, 1 'set' of jacks, 1 set of power supply issues,
  Pickin' the pot values that'd match different circuit values, or have 'em switchable to fixed resistors altering their values...etc...etc...getting all the noises and bugs and...whatnot...all the wirings to match [but you'd of course improve your methods during development]...lots to think about.

[Paul Marossy]

The other thing I worry about with units like the Cornish one shown is that they often have a fixed sequence or signal path.  If you are absolutely happy with the sequence of pedals you have, or if you are a well-known artist who MUST use the pedals in a fixed sequence to get specific recognizable tones, then that's fine.  But if you feel like experimenting, changing the order can be hard.

Some DIP switches could take care of that. Kind of like the thing offered by the original www.thegigrig.com unit. That would allow you change the order of the effects pretty simply.

[hairyandy]

The other thing I worry about with units like the Cornish one shown is that they often have a fixed sequence or signal path.  If you are absolutely happy with the sequence of pedals you have, or if you are a well-known artist who MUST use the pedals in a fixed sequence to get specific recognizable tones, then that's fine.  But if you feel like experimenting, changing the order can be hard.

Some DIP switches could take care of that. Kind of like the thing offered by the original www.thegigrig.com unit. That would allow you change the order of the effects pretty simply.

I actually did a tour with a guy who was using one of the early GigRig units.  It was cool in its functionality but it had some noise issues.  In effect it's like having a Digital Music Corp. system all enclosed in the pedal board and the routing flexibility with the dip switches was cool.  The GigRig guys actually put his board together for him and there were still noise issues, so much so that he eventually ditched it and went back to his old board with just a couple PedalPower2's and everything in series...

[petemoore]

  I figured out there will Always much stuff to figure out, and I have never even figured out what all there is to think about...
  Couple that with the noise 'n other issues...I just tweek 'em 'n box 'em anymore...a thoughfully chosen and tweeked out [from many designs], for your usage, dual stage boost / dirt box deluxe with at least 2 switches being a reliably usable exception.

[Paul Marossy]

I actually did a tour with a guy who was using one of the early GigRig units.  It was cool in its functionality but it had some noise issues.  In effect it's like having a Digital Music Corp. system all enclosed in the pedal board and the routing flexibility with the dip switches was cool.  The GigRig guys actually put his board together for him and there were still noise issues, so much so that he eventually ditched it and went back to his old board with just a couple PedalPower2's and everything in series...

Well, I wasn't doing a plug for TheGigRig.com, I was just saying that the use of dipswitches to re-route the signal paths was clever. 

[manson]

I still want to rehouse some of my pedals, including Boss ones. True bypass is of no concern to me. Can I use this switch to replace the Boss switching? And is it easy to rewire?
http://www.banzaieffects.com/product.php?productid=18178&cat=333&page=1

This is what it should be 
http://img499.imageshack.us/img499/2247/pcinsidewholeunit2mw7yc.jpg

[petemoore]

  Long Ago...in the 70's...
  Stuart put together a very large multi-unit effects 'bay', from Stainless Steel Refrigerator material [cool, but 'hard stuff to work with].
  He had his BMP, Wah, and a host of other items housed in it, mostly 'whole'...he'd just drilled carefully the top plate for knob, switch...anything he wanted to show atop the finished unit [leaving the effects in their respective boxes inside the multi-box.
  This worked well for him, until the power supply reportedly shorted and fried much of the innards [like starting from behind 'scratch'] quite depressing to have a chain-mail malfunction..kinda like..set him back..just a little there.
  I never found out the reason or extent of the damage, he wasn't really a circuit builder/debugger, mostly he'd managed to avoid that and had just rehoused carefully, simply...until the ill-fated fry event.

[manson]

With that in mind, I'll put a fuse in there too

[R.G.]

With reference to http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/FXRack/fxrack.pdf:

Can i just pull the guts out of every pedal and tie them into a large metal box or something?

The rack as shown lets you mount one effect on one front plate. They then mount on the back chassis like mini "rack" enclosures.

How about switching, boss pedals do not use 'regular' switches. Can I change that into a s/d/3pdt ?

You can actually mount the whole existing pedal under the front plates by cutting holes matching how the circuit boards were mounted in the original pedal.

I don't really care for true bypass or not, but that would be cool if it were possible.

Plenty of room, it's possible.

Hasn't anyone here done something like this before?

Yes... 

... units like the Cornish one ... often have a fixed sequence or signal path.  If ... you feel like experimenting, changing the order can be hard.

Covered. Rearrange units as you like.

As much as I like building all kinda effects, Itta notta been such a bad idea to implement such a plan, as I would have the chosen from batches ability, and would have thus gone through 1 enclosure, 1 'set' of jacks, 1 set of power supply issues,

Covered. The effects input and output jacks can just as well be *inside* the rack as coming out through the top. So you unscrew one module, unplug the 1/8" jacks from the back side of the panel, swap in another unit, and get back to gettin' down.

Pickin' the pot values that'd match different circuit values, or have 'em switchable to fixed resistors altering their values...etc...etc...getting all the noises and bugs and...whatnot...all the wirings to match

Put the pots, switches, etc. on the front plate, then plug and play. The whole effect goes with the effect board and is easy to swap.

Some DIP switches could take care of that. Kind of like the thing offered by the original www.thegigrig.com unit. That would allow you change the order of the effects pretty simply.

No DIP switches needed, just plug and play.

Some other notes:
- The channel can be longer than the 17-20" between the holes if you for instance soldered a flat piece of steel over it with a torch. Not that hard for us amateur plumbers.
-  If you prefer a remote "big target" switch bank, that can be remoted on a second section of channel. Another use of a second channel is to house more effects. This can be attached to the first in parallel, or be separate avd have a wire umblicus between them.
- If you're not much on metal work, I have an article in preparation to make this into a woodworking exercise. You can buy lengths of pre-drilled, pre-tapped 19" rack rails. They're cheap. A 24" pair cost me about $10.