2 IN 4 OUT switch pedal. Help.

Started by GAAS78, December 30, 2017, 02:15:52 PM

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GAAS78

Hello guys, I have a question for you experts.
Unfortunately I am almost illiterate on electronics and wiring, nonetheless I tried to build my own pedal, and failed miserably, please bear with me.
I was trying to find a pedal that would work with my setup but I couldn't find anything for the life of me. Therefore I decided to build my own:
I basically need a 2 IN 4 OUT switch pedal with a killswitch. All my guitars have independent outputs on bridge and neck pickups, I use 2 amps simultaneously and switch the signal with the regular 3-way or 5-way toggle on the guitars. Now: I would love to bypass the guitar entirely (2 of my guitars have no knobs, just a 3-way toggle and a killswitch) and have a pedal for all my switching having it so that the signal of the guitar would be:
Bridge PU -> IN1 on pedal -> OUT1+OUT2
Neck PU -> IN2 on pedal -> OUT3+OUT4
driving 4 amps (2 for bridge PU and 2 for neck PU) all with a killswitch to mute the instrument if needed.
I thought that a 4PDT latching switch for the signals and a regular DPDT as a killswitch would work but I must've messed up the wiring. Or the idea entirely. Perhaps everything. I drew the schem on a piece of paper knowing nothing about it and searching the web for resources but...yeah, I made a booboo.
I'm gonna need some input from you guys to try to figure this thing out.
Thank you in advance for all your help,
Tony

PRR

Welcome.

> I drew the schem on a piece of paper

Better shoot and post that. You know what you want, you just-about know what you are doing, I don't and am not clear. Picture worth more than words. Crayon on paper is fine.
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GAAS78

Thank you very much PRR.
Here's the schematic (I know it's horrible...sorry).





ElectricDruid

Quote from: GAAS78 on December 31, 2017, 06:21:52 AM
Thank you very much PRR.
Here's the schematic (I know it's horrible...sorry).

That's not horrible at all. In fact, it looks very clear and logical. It could use a bit more resolution though. I can't read the labels at only 320x226 pixels, and that's not helping me figure out what you're doing.

T.

GAAS78

Thank you very much ElectricDruid. Apologies for the small pic, I hope this new one would be readable.
I don't know in which part of the world you guys are in but let me wish a happy new year to all.

Tony




PRR

I started looking at your fine diagram (I love WiteOut) and found a real no-go.

Look at the left switch. 4 of 6 lugs are wired together. The two other lugs are wired together. Whichever way the internal contacts flip, ALL lugs are Always connected. So the switch does nothing.



I like to start with a User Diagram. How does the user see it? I've mocked-up guitars and amps and drew lines for signal flow, several possibilities. I don't know your rig so I don't know what combinations make sense. (Or maybe it is too cold to think here tonight.) But something like this may get the intention across. With a clear result in hand, some folks here can cut right to an implementation.


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GAAS78

You guys are awesome. Thank you for all your help.
I draw a little diagram in paint (I suck at this), I hope that'll make it clearer although my english is probably what confusing you guys the most and I apologize for that.
Thank you again for everything,
Tony


GGBB

Sorry for the crude drawing - all I can manage with just my phone at the moment. What you really have is both pickups connected to their respective amps at all times, a switch to mute one or the other, and a switch to mute both. So you don't need to switch anything, just mute things. To do that with LED indicators, you only need two dpdt switches. One mutes either bridge or neck pickup and grounds an LED for the unmuted pickup, the other mutes both pickups in one position and turns on an LED in the other. The diode symbols are the LEDs -.dont forget to use current limiting resistors with the LEDs.


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GAAS78

Awesome! thank you so much for all this.
Tony
Apologies for the stupid question: in your drawing I see only one wire going to 2 outputs, either 1 and 2 or 3 and 4. How would I do that?

GGBB

Good question - something I forgot to mention - you need to split the signal to run to the amps. Basically each pickup/input is just being split into two so that you can connect both amps for each pickup. I have no idea about the level of your knowledge regarding splitters, buffers, loading, etc. so I'll just say that you need to make a decision about whether or not you want to use a passive splitter or an active buffered splitter. If you don't know what they are, Google is your friend. But in a nutshell, the "OUT 1 + 2" and "OUT 3 + 4" should each be replaced by a splitter circuit of your own choosing and two jacks.  A basic active splitter circuit would be - for most of us around here - a very simple build, but if you want to buy a splitter pedal, then just run those directly to a single jack each and connect the outs to the splitter pedals' inputs. Here's an example of an active buffered splitter pedal (no affiliation - just the first thing that came up in a search): https://www.jhspedals.com/products/bass-pedals/buffered-splitter/.
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GAAS78

Guys, you have been amazing. Thank you GGBB and all of you for the help but I'm afraid I bit way more that I could chew with this project. I googled some of the splitting diagrams but I can't understand how to translate it to reality with what I need/want.
Anyway, thank you again for all your help.
Tony