Mark III Footswitch thoughts...

Hey all,

I was thinking of using a standard two-button boogie footswitch (that has the single stereo cable out for the eq/reverb) and making one switch side into an R1/R2 selector, and the other a Ryhthm/Lead channel selector. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I suppose the most straight-forward thing to do is to ditch the built-in stereo cable and drill/install two 1/4" jacks and just hook up two cables to their respective jacks in the amp. Any other more intersting, cleaner, or elegant soutions are most welcome! Thanks!!

Edward

I would do a y cable from the footswitch. When I had my Mark III I built a footswitch that had all 4 buttons in one pedal and ran a stereo cable to the eq/rev and a y cable to the r1/r2 and lead. I didn't put any led's or anything in it, but they would be easy enough to get in there. Cost about $15 in parts from radio shack, maybe $20.

I did the same - the Y lead is the way...

Hey guys,

What do you mean by "Y cable"? ...as in two guitar cables coming out of the box?

I was thinking of two separate guitar cables running from the switches, either from the existing hole, or maybe drill/install a pair of 1/4" jacks. But frankly I'd like to avoid using guitar cables since they're so thick, and a pair of them would be bulky. Anyone have an idea of a decent 4-conductor cable that could be used for these two switching tasks?

Edward

edward said:

Anyone have an idea of a decent 4-conductor cable that could be used for these two switching tasks?
Edward

Click to expand...

XLR ...

I'm building a footswitch like that aswell, and found that using an Y-Cable produces audible hum. The Rhy 1/2 switch and the Lead/Rhy switch cannot share ground, at least on my MkIII. (The Rhy 1/2 jack on the chassis is isolated, maybe that's the reason why :wink: )
So you would need a cable with four cores, then you could use a XLR plug on the switch.
Btw, 'Y' Cable has one plug on one end and two on the other

One idea for the footswitch: someone mentioned in another thread, that the lead sound suffers with R2 engaged because R2 is an 'overall' boost. On my footswitch R2 can only be engaged if lead is off, switching to lead always turns R2 off. All I needed was a DPDT switch for Rhythm/Lead with one side switching R1/2 in series with the R1/2 switch.

How would XLR work: XLR is two conductor with shielding (ground).

I found out through Mesa (as you apparently discovered too) that you cannot use a common ground for the two switches as it will result in hum in the R1. Which is why I originally was looking for a 4 conductor cable.

I mean worse comes to worse, I can simple use the boogie footswitch as two separate physical switches, jacks, and cables within the same housing. But I would like to pare that down to one cable if I could. Just fishing for ideas as I know some of you good folks out there have done up yer own switches to opt R1 or R2, and also switch to Lead channel. Thoughts welcome

Edward

XLR has three pins and the housing = shield. You are right, its commonly used with two conductor + shield cable, but you could use it with four conductor cable for the footswitch.
Or you could attach the 4-conductor cable directly to the footswitch ...

Brain fade!! High, Low, Ground, and braided shield ...thanks for reminding me, doh!!

So I could use the shield as one of the footswitch's grounds and end up with two discrete switch operations. That works for me. Thanks for straightening me out

Edward

I use Boss FS-6s. I know, they use batteries, but they last a long time and you can see the @^*%&! LEDs when you're outdoors.

Interesting tip on the Boss unit. For $50 bucks shipped, it's a bargain considering the guy on ebay selling his 2-button unit for MkIIIs is asking $60+ for his. If I didn't get my Boogie one for $21 I'd consider the Boss.

Edward