Remote switching your Boss, Ibanez and similar effects - a photo essay

[Mark Hammer]

        I've mentioned this before but figured I'd show folks how its done.

        Boss, Ibanez, and many other brands of pedals that use momentary switches to electronically actuate a flip-flop, simply ground a connection to alternate between effect and bypass mode. The momentary contact does not HAVE to be made internally, and since the momentary switch is a normally-open type, anything that momentarily closes a contact will do.

        This means one can use duplicate switches wired in parallel with the on-board switch. I've illustrated this below, using an old Boss HM-2 pedal. I simply soldered a pair of wires to the same terminals on the underside of the switch that the stock pedal uses. Identify which lead is ground by looking for continuity between that pin and chassis ground. Make sure that pin gets wired to ground on the jack.

        I simply popped a small hole in the rear skirt of the chassis, and installed a 1/8" mono phone-jack. You can see it doesn't take up much room. Depending on the particular pedal, you may have to situate it elsewhere on the chassis, but I imagine many will accommodate that particular location.

        The pedal will function completely as normal. But if you want to stick it somewhere on a pedalboard that is convenient for signal routing but not for stepping on, you can simply run a 2-conductor cable from a mini phone plug inserted into the jack to a momentary switch somewhere else. For those folks who are tempted by the low price of Behringer pedals (many of which are Boss clones), but not by the plastic boxes and foot treadles, you can not replace the on-board mechanism with another switch that has a better feel and more convenient location for you.   Heck, if you wanted to, you could run a multi-conductor cable  (e.g., an abandoned MIDI cable) to your guitar and install a bunch of little push-buttons on the pick-guard, if your felt like it.

        Do the mod neatly, and I imagine it should not detract from resale value. May even increase it.

        Is this better or worse than using a loop-selector pedal? Good question. It will NOT provide true bypass, but since the wire runnng to the external switch does not carry audio signal, you can use short male-to-male patch cords or those solid male-to-male adaptors for interconnecting your pedals, and not have to obsess about cable quality for whatever you run to the remote switches. Besides, those buffers in the pedals are there for a reason.

        I might not this also provide the option to situate a pair of remote momentary switchesnear enough to each other that you can hit them both at the same time with your foot. Imagine you have two pedals set up for contrasting sounds, and you're playing something like "The End" from Abbey Road. Set one pedal on and the other off. Now you can step once and flip between pedal A and B. Step again and they flip once more. How's that for convenient?

 

[Ben N]

Cool, Mark. Can a few pedals rigged this way use a common ground connection between the 1/8" jacks?

[R.G.]

Cool, Mark. Can a few pedals rigged this way use a common ground connection between the 1/8" jacks?

If the signal wires go between them, they already have a common ground.

[Johan]

cool. sometimes its worth taking it even further. like i you have a harmonizer and want to switch between moods/keys
here is a "satelite" (the grey box with 4 stompswitches) attached to my behringer US6, for on/off and four different keys(or 8 if you count major/minor relations)

J

[Hans]

Hello,
thank you for posting this.

I would like to do this kind of remote switching with my Ibanes Tube Screamer Mini, but it has some kind of 3PDT-switch with 9 pins on it. Does anyone know how to wire a remote switch on this?

[blackieNYC]

Welcome! You've plunged into chapter one - the tube screamer has a true bypass switch, it is actually switching audio from here to there. The method above is for another kind of switch - one that tells a simple logic circuit to switch this here and that there. This would not apply to your pedal. Start with Google - "DIY pedal wiring". And check all the links above like AMZ

[Hans]

Thanks a lot!
It's probably a really stupid question but what does"AMZ" mean?

[Mark Hammer]

AMZ is Jack Orman's site.  The initials stand for Analog Music Zone http://www.muzique.com/.  Between Jack's AMZ site, and RG Keen's GEOFEX site, there is a wealth of great information.

Your mini TS does not lend itself to what I described, unfortunately.  The history of "true-bypass" is a long one that I won't go into, except to note that it was, historically, a response to the way older pedals in the 1970's were switched, that degraded the tone of the "bypass" signal.  While it is, or at least can be, sonically "purer" than what it replaced, there are pros and cons to TB versus buffered electronically-switched bypass, as used on most Boss pedals and many others.  For me, the opportunity to have emote switching, as described here, is one of the pros of e-switched pedals.  It doesn't override everything else, but it's a nice feature, and a "lagniappe", as Jack Orman would say. 

As they say, six of one, and a half-dozen of the other.

[robthequiet]

Thanks Mark, never thought of this idea. Way easier than trying to set up relay- or IC-based switchers, although they certainly have their charm if your pedals are TB.

[electrosonic]

If you have a uC that can sense if the pedal is engaged (checking if LED part of the circuit is activated) and can switch the pedal on/off, then you could build a setup with presets, turning multiple pedals on and off with a single button press.

Andrew.

[Hans]

Thanks!

[Mark Hammer]

Personally, I think that the remote-switching jack I illustrated should be an industry standard for e-switched pedals that use momentary switches.  Particularly in an era when pedalboards have gotten as big as they have, and pedal form-factors have become so diverse.  You can't always stick a pedal where you need it to go for tonal or convenience purposes. How much easier life and pedalboards could be if the location of the pedal and the bypass switch could be uncorrelated.  A pedalboard could have a row of momentary switches in an inexpensive box, with each having its own input jack.  The user would simply run control cables from the relevant pedals to the preferred jack for the preferred momentary switch.  Since the cable doesn't carry audio, you're not concerned about length.  Meanwhile, the patch cables carryingthe audio betwen pedals can be kept mercifully short.

It's a far better alternative than the more familiar true-bypass loop selectors.  TB loop selectors are more standard, and amenable to every possible pedal.  However, the switches are more expensive, and the cables connecting pedals have to be decent quality because they carry audio.  Moreover, the jacks and plugs have to be 1/4".  Also more space and cost.

One would still have to use TB loop selectors for everything that is NOT e-switched, but one could acquire a whole lot of convenience for e-switched pedals.  Makes sense to me.  Whether it makes sense to manufacturers is another thing.

[blackieNYC]

But I sold all my Boss pedals after my very first DIY build!  Didn't everyone?


OK, I didn't. This would be a great way to hide them in the bottom of the amp. I can hear it now:
"Dude, you built you own pitch harmonizer?"  Why, yes.  Yes I did.
"Build me one!"

[Kipper4]

Neat solution Mark

[Mark Hammer]

Thanks Rich.

One of the things that I haven't mentioned is that, if one is modding a Boss, DOD, Yamaha, Behringer, or similar e-switched pedal, it's not like you're ruining the resale value of some obscure vintage pedal in most instances.  Heck, if you've done it neatly you might even tout it as an improvement when you go to sell it.

[Frank_NH]

Hi Mark,

I recently picked up a non-functioning overdrive from eBay - the Carvin T-01 "Tube Overdrive".  After inspecting it and tracing the circuit, it turns out to be a clone of the Boss SD-1.  Anyhow, it has an unusual feature shown below (the bottom jack) - a remote footswitch option!  I haven't tested it out, but I think it's basically what you have described here - a connection for an on/off footswitch.  I believe the other effects in this series (chorus, delay, distortion, EQ) also had this feature.

[Mark Hammer]

Outstanding!  If there is one thing I can be counted on for, it's predicting the future long after it has happened. 

[electrosonic]

I have an early 80s TC Electronic Line Driver / Booster which has a 1/8" jack for an external remote bypass. Not a common feature though.

Andrew.

[Hans]

I am going to try this one out:
http://www.nuxefx.com/index.php?m=search&c=index&a=init&typeid=1&siteid=1&q=pml-2

I believe it works like other TB loop switchers but is much cheaper. I hope that I can remote control this with the relay jacks on my Behringer FCB-1010 or my TC Electronic G-major 2.

[Mark Hammer]

Interesting unit, and idea.  Note that what I illustrate at the start of this thread only requires a momentary stompswitch, while the NUX unit requires a latching SPST for each loop.  Still, the principle remains the same: the effect pedal can go wherever you want, and the actuating switch can go where it is the most convenient and makes the most strategic sense.