Crazy switching needs...

[Stormleader]

I have a friend who needs some interesting instrument switching abilities for the band he's in. I still have to clarify a couple of things with him, but what it boils down to is this:
There are four members up front who swap instruments around. There is a Ukulele, a Guitar, a Banjo, and a Mandolin that get passed around and each instrument has it's own outboard preamp pedal. They want to be able to stand in the same place (so they can keep their same vocal mics, etc) and just be able to switch between preamps depending on which instrument they are holding in their hands at the time.

What he described to me as wanting was for each player to have a box at their feet that has a single input for whatever instrument they have at the time, and then four outputs that they can switch between to go to any one of the four preamps. But before the cables go into the preamo there needs to sum the four cables for that particular preamp into one. Now, only one of those four cables will be carrying signal at one time, but I have a few qualms about this method that I'll explain later. For now, here's a hastily drawn MS paint picture that should help show what I'm describing:



To help you make sense of the picture, the P1, P2, P3, and P4 are the different positions. P4 could end up feeding the guitar preamp, P1 could feed the mando preamp, P3 could feed the Ukulele preamp, and P2 could feed the Banjo preamp, or any combination you can imagine.

Now, my qualms about doing it like this:

#1: That's a crap ton of cables to run everywhere. 4 out front per player plus an cable going to the instrument? Crazy me thinks.
#2: I figure to sum the four inputs into one output to feed into the preamp I would have to use some sort of summing mixer, that's not my issue though. My issue is that even though there should only be one signal feeding each preamp, I'm afraid of what will happen when they switch instruments and the guy now holding the banjo leaves his switch set to feed the guitar box, etc. At the very least it's going to sound awful, it'll probably clip to crap and back, and maybe damage the preamp I guess. My question to you guys is do you know of a system that would work better? As I said, I still have a lot of stuff to iron out with him, but I'm trying to get a general idea of what it will shape up to be.

[J0K3RX]

Get Nady systems for all - $60.00 a person... Then you can pass the instruments to the audience if you want or walk off stage and go to the crapper with your guitar, banjo, kazoo etc.. 

[trixdropd]

The neatest way I think would be a box with relays in it remotely switched. This will cut down on cable clutter.

Each one being wireless is the best way though.

[Quackzed]

wireless! 
if each instrument is always fed into its own discreet preamp then its sensible/
but i still dont get why they cant simply use long chords and just pass em back and forth.
you could say that the cables will get tangled, but learning to avoid that isnt any harder than learning to use a switching scheme...
but wireless makes all that disappear.

[markeebee]

What about a single box, mounted on a mic stand, four inputs, four outputs, four rotary four way switches to connect any input to any output.  Then one band member (Dave, probably) is the 'switchman' between songs.  Simple construction, and should reduce the chances off two sources being inadvertantly connected to the same preamp.

But wireless would be better.

[slacker]

Could you attach the preamp pedals to the instruments straps or to the instruments? Then they can just swap leads.

[Stormleader]

Thanks for the replies guys! Wireless really seems to be the ideal thing to do here, I'll talk to him some more and see what he thinks. I also like the idea of a single box with four inputs and outputs, I'll have that as a fall-back plan if I can't convince him to go wireless hehe. Thanks again guys!