Good idea,or Bad Idea?

[soupbone]

I was working on a friends Vintage Jen Fuzz/Wah a little back,and It had a dpdt stomp switch and a heavy-duty dpdt toggle switch.(to switch between the fuzz wah/standard wah).It got me to thinkin'....What if you used a dpdt heavy-duty toggle switch,instead of a dpdt stomp switch for a Wah?Here's a couple of links of two of my ideas... www.robosoftsystems.co.in/roboshop/index.php/switches-joysticks/dpdt-switch.html   www.perfectionequipment.com/p/truck-parts/electrical/dpdt-momentary-toggle-switch-mom-on-off-on  The 2nd link should be a on-off dpdt toggle switch.So,my question is this a good idea,or a bad idea?If this is a genius idea,I call first dibbs!lol

[soupbone]

I was working on a friends Vintage Jen Fuzz/Wah.It has a dpdt stomp switch,and a heavy-duty dpdt toggle switch.(to switch between the fuzz wah/standard wah).It got me to thinkin'....What if you used a dpdt heavy-duty toggle switch,instead of a dpdt stomp switch for a Wah?Here's a couple of links to two of my ideas... www.robosoftsystems.co.in/roboshop/index.php/switches-joysticks/dpdt-switch.html   www.perfectionequipment.com/p/truck-parts/electrical/dpdt-momentary-toggle-switch-mom-on-off-on  The 2nd link should be a on-off dpdt toggle switch.So,my question is this a good idea,or a bad idea?If this is a genius idea,I call first dibbs!lol

One thing I wanted to add,is you can position the switch to where it's easily accessible,but not at a position where it could break it.

[merlinb]

wut?

[deadastronaut]

sorry i dont get it either..

do you mean you want to swap the toggle that switches fuuz/wah to a footswitch?..

[Mark Hammer]

What if?  Well, I suppose you'd have something like this, where separate footswitches are used:


I have an older Morley Power Wah that I built a Muff Fuzz into, and wired it up for wah-on/off and fuzz-on/off, controlled by footswitches.

The choice about how to enable choice is a tricky thing.  Certainly one of the enduring challenges in wah design is to make the engaging of wahs as seamless as possible.  he thing is, the user is expected/expecting to have to use the same foot to both engage the effect AND work it.  The same is not true for a great many other effects.  You don't have to stop playing to turn a fuzz on and off, in the same way that you'd have to temporarily deploy your foot to hit a switch before moving the same foot to use the wah treadle.  One way Morley addressed this was to have the switch facing the bottom of the wah, such that when you put your foot on it, you engaged it, regardless of the position of the treadle, and when you lifted your foot, it was bypassed.  I'm sure others have come up with similar schemes, but I mention Morley just as an illustration.

There are plenty of instances where I've thought "You know, I'm never going to be in a position where I want that option at a moment's notice, so may as well make it a toggle" (e.g., order flipping), and other instances where I thought "It'd be nice to be able to engage that option on the fly".  At least part of that decision is mediated by the nature of the chassis, and switches.  I have an Echobase awaiting final packaging that has a latching stomp installed for bypass/engage, an adjacent lower-altitude momentary for momentary-engage, and another adjacent momentary (on the other side of the latching one) for momentary enabling/suppression of the LFO modulation.  A toggle selects whether that latter switch kills the LFO for as long as you hold down the footswitch, or enables it.  Those are great little performance features, but they depended on using a larger box (1590BB) and orienting the installation with the widest edge facing forward, such that switches could be safely spaced (here is where I imagine those recently-issued trapezoidal boxes from Hammond might be useful for spacing switches).  The same circuit installed with the box rotated 90 degrees would not work nearly as well - I know because I made one  .

[samhay]

I think the OP wants to use the toggle as a footswitch.
It might work for a while, but requires a little added dexterity at the cost of greater fragility.

+1 for using 2 foot switches.

[Mark Hammer]

Even trying to use a heavy-duty toggle as a footswitch, space is pivotal.  Unless one has a super-long/elevated handle that permits it to be foot-accessed regardless of its proximity to controls (which would, in turn, be subject to a variety of other risks and stresses), you'd need to assure sufficient space to access it from both directions.

So, I guess I'm saying that it's definitely NOT a good idea.

[soupbone]

Even trying to use a heavy-duty toggle as a footswitch, space is pivotal.  Unless one has a super-long/elevated handle that permits it to be foot-accessed regardless of its proximity to controls (which would, in turn, be subject to a variety of other risks and stresses), you'd need to assure sufficient space to access it from both directions.

So, I guess I'm saying that it's definitely NOT a good idea.

Well darn.I thought I had a cool idea.lol

[amptramp]

Unless you have the stompbox firmly bolted to the pedalboard, I could imagine someone kicking the stompbox off the pedalboard and maybe into the crowd.  I don't accept the fragility argument - the 3PDT stomp switches are plenty fragile as it is.  One thing about it, you will not need an indicator LED because you will be able to see whether the unit is on by the position of the switch.  Replacing a 3PDT stomp switch with a DPDT toggle should improve the reliability and give you many more design choices.

I have never been too taken with the common design idiom of 3PDT stomp switches, 9 volt power supplies with the outer shell positive, jacks on the side of the box, no flanges for mounting the stompbox solidly to the pedalboard and all the other things most people just seem to accept.  Anyone who can shake up the complacency is doing us a service.  BTW the flanged lid series of Hammond boxes allow you to bolt the unit to the pedalboard so it doesn't fly away when you use it or walk away when you are not looking.

[soupbone]

Unless you have the stompbox firmly bolted to the pedalboard, I could imagine someone kicking the stompbox off the pedalboard and maybe into the crowd.  I don't accept the fragility argument - the 3PDT stomp switches are plenty fragile as it is.  One thing about it, you will not need an indicator LED because you will be able to see whether the unit is on by the position of the switch.  Replacing a 3PDT stomp switch with a DPDT toggle should improve the reliability and give you many more design choices.

I have never been too taken with the common design idiom of 3PDT stomp switches, 9 volt power supplies with the outer shell positive, jacks on the side of the box, no flanges for mounting the stompbox solidly to the pedalboard and all the other things most people just seem to accept.  Anyone who can shake up the complacency is doing us a service.  BTW the flanged lid series of Hammond boxes allow you to bolt the unit to the pedalboard so it doesn't fly away when you use it or walk away when you are not looking.

Interesting stuff!I generally use a dpdt carling switch for wah's.Mainly because the Carling Switches are good quality and durable.I would use R.G. Keen's "Millennium Bypass" for my stompboxes,but I haven't figured it out yet.The Carling's are a lot more expensive,but will last a lot longer than your standard 3pdt switch.Just my two cents.