Clean boost, treble boost, fuzz in one box?

[gnugear]

I've got all the parts to house them in one box, but I'm wondering if noise would be an issue? Just guessing so maybe it's no different than each having their own box?

[vortex]

Done it, works fine! Maybe the size and layout could be an issue. The box I used was reasonably roomy. The three effects together can provide massive gain so there's that kind of noise, but I assume you are talking about circuit interaction.

Have fun!

[Mark Hammer]

Whenever more than one effect is jammed into a single chassis, there are essentially 3 practical issues (all solvable) to contend with.  

One is power.  Keep in mind that power is still supplied to the circuit even when bypassed.  The current drain may not be as much, but there is still drain and three circuits, each in bypass mode, are still busy at work sapping your battery dry.  The upshot is that you should approach the combo pedal as if it *needed* to be powered with a wall-wart, rather than *could* be.  Once they are all sharing the same power source, you'll need to decouple each effect from the other.

A second consideration is layout and keeping stray signals away from each other.  Obviously one of the advantages of a separate chassis for each effect is that the wires and pot leads of one are never near the other, and even when your pedals are jammed up against each other, they are all likely conveniently and safely situated in their own shielded enclosures.  If they are going to sit in the same box, the control layout and wiring should be arranged so that signals don't get picked up by other sections that then create bizarre and misbehaved feedback loops.  One way of assuring that is to use shielded multi-conductor cable for wiring all pots, but obviously there are some practical problems with that since you can't always fit such wire where you want, and can't always fit the controls where you want.  Some sort of compromise solution might generally be needed.  Just make sure you do it.

The third consideration is switching arrangement.  Multi-FX floor units provide opportunities for more sophisticated switching, but also more accidental switching.  Your switches should be laid out such that you can activate the things you want and not turn off or on the things you DON'T want accidentally.  Plan your switch layout well.  

A related sub-problem is the question of order.  In some instances, multi-FX pedals have an implicit order to them that the player desires and will never diverge from.  In other cases, the player may be more flexible, and the effects used may be of a nature that they encourage changing around the order.  When they are individually packaged, re-ordering is a simple matter of unplugging and plugging patch cords.  When they come in one box, one either has to commit to a sequence, or else devise some means of re-ordering.  That doesn't mean anything terribly complex.  It may be as simple as switching effects B and C around, and leaving effect A where it is.  In other instances, the player may want the option to stick any effect in any serialposition.  All of these can be done, to be sure, but you will need to plan it out and wire/drill accordingly.

[gnugear]

Thanks guys, since this is personal use only I'm going wall wart only and don't care about battery drain. I think I'm going to run guitar > boost > rangemaster > fuzz.

Do you think shielding each board internally would be a good idea? Maybe a little aluminum "wall" seperating each effect?

[TheBigMan]

You could use switching jacks like the FoxRox Captain Coconut.  That way you can change the order or patch in other effects if you want to.

Personally I'd think shielded wire was the way to go.  You're going to need a reasonable sized enclosure anyway, so that your stompswitches aren't too close together, so there should be plenty of space for the bulkier wire.

[gnugear]

I didn't even think of that! Might as well use regular old input jacks so I can change the order or take one out of the circuit.

[vortex]

I found that Guitar-Rangemaster-Boost- Fuzz-Amp is the best way to go if you are hardwiring the three effects. That way you can milk the dynamics of the Rangemaster from your guitar volume knob.

I love the sound of a Rangemaster driving a Mosfet booster into a decent tube amp. That's the best kind of overdrive IMHO!