building a custom footswitch - some questions (Boss RV-6 content)

[marqueemoon]

Maybe more amp questions, but whatever.

I'm toying with the idea of building a custom footswitch for my Swart STR Tremolo. I'd like to do a "portrait" orientation (so I can fit it on a Pedaltrain Nano+), and might want to leave the reverb as "always on" and just switch the tremolo.

The cable for the stock footswitch is TRS. I assume sleeve is ground and tip/ring are the other leg of the connections for the "reverb on" and "tremolo on"

Assuming there's no significant voltage on this I can just take a TRS cable plugged into the footswitch jack and short tip/sleeve and ring/sleeve to determine what's what, right? Then if, say tip/sleeve is reverb could I just solder on a little jumper between the tip and sleeve connections on the TRS jack to give me "always on" reverb?

Also, I'm considering adding a momentary switch for the adjacent Boss pedal on the board. The thing is I'm not sure if that pedal will be a DD-7 or an RV-6. For tap tempo on the DD-7 I know I'd need a normally closed momentary switch, but would that same switch do anything meaningful with the RV-6?

[marqueemoon]

I may have answered my own dumb question here. The expression jack on the RV-6 is TRS, yeah?

[Logrinn]

It might not be that simple (as I myself thought when trying to hook up just such a switch to my Morningstar FX MC6).
Evidently that unit needs something like this:


And then I found out that you CAN use the Boss FS-7 footswitch, BUT only if you connect a powersupply to it

[marqueemoon]

It might not be that simple (as I myself thought when trying to hook up just such a switch to my Morningstar FX MC6).
Evidently that unit needs something like this:


And then I found out that you CAN use the Boss FS-7 footswitch, BUT only if you connect a powersupply to it

Power is not a problem as the theoretical switch will live on my pedalboard.

That FS-7 actually looks pretty cool for the amp switching. Does the “polarity” switch switch the tip/ring assignment when using the “both” connection (TRS I assume).

I don’t see any way to use it for amp switching AND tap tempo, but either/or would be ok. I’ll research this more. Thanks!

[Logrinn]

Maybe GFI's triple switch could be the thing for you?

[marqueemoon]

Maybe GFI's triple switch could be the thing for you?

Thanks. It says all three switches are momentary.

For DD-7 tap tempo I’d need momentary /normally closed. For the amp both would need to be latching.

Gotta all cram onto a Pedaltrain Nano + with the jack for amp footswitching readily accessible.

Since the amp has onboard reverb and trem I really like the goal is to eliminate two stompboxes for those effects, put the dual footswitch in one spot, and add a fuzz in the other newly created spot.

Tap tempo delay isn’t really a must have for me, at least not for playing live so right now I’m thinking the RV-6 will stay and the DD-7 will get kicked off the board. The RV-6 has a nice sounding reverb/delay option that will cover the delay base adequately.

Basically instead of having a big board I prefer to overthink a small one.

[somanytoys]

I have the FS-6, because it can do momentary or latching. I plan to control one of my SPX-90s with it. I thought that the power was only necessary for the LEDs to work. Maybe wouldn't work if you want portrait instead of landscape.

I got a Vox VFS2A dual controller for my AC-15's reverb and tremolo - no LEDs but you can tell when the reverb and tremolo are on anyway, but it doesn't require being plugged in.

[marqueemoon]

Yeah. Gotta be portrait. LEDs are not essential, but would be nice.

[somanytoys]

Seems like there are people that make switches like that with a pretty small footprint, especially single switches for the temolo only.

Maybe like Disaster Area, Saturn (more loopers, but I think they make switches), and probably many others.

[marqueemoon]

Well, I tried an FS-7 today and it’s a no-go. In one polarity B switches the reverb and A does nothing. In the other it does nothing. Very glad there was a local shop where I could try this before throwing money away.

[marqueemoon]

Anyone want to vet my shopping list?



My work has a drill press and a solder station, and I can just use some scrap wire from there.

Going to skip the DD-7 tap tempo Idea, so this will be strictly reverb and tremolo switching for the Swart. I know there are a few builders that could do this, but I figure it could be fun, and by DIYing I could be sure no corners are cut on the components.

I'm thinking I can just jumper a TRS cable to figure out if tremolo/reverb are tip or ring or just leave enough slack in the cables to switch the positions of the footswitches as needed.

Thoughts?

[marqueemoon]

Parts came today and I laid everything out and marked for drilling. Check out the difference in size with the stock Swart footswitch (which is just a generic jobber, obviously).



Since I already bought a TRS cable I just shorted tip/sleeve and ring/sleeve with a paper clip to determine what was what. Tip is tremolo is Ring is reverb. Go figure.

Drilling and soldering tomorrow.

[Logrinn]

An idea could be to place the two switches as far away from each other as possible (leaving the placement of the jack in the middle) so that you don’t step on them both by mistake when you shouldn’t.

[marqueemoon]

An idea could be to place the two switches as far away from each other as possible (leaving the placement of the jack in the middle) so that you don’t step on them both by mistake when you shouldn’t.

The purpose of this is to fit it in the middle of a Pedaltrain Nano + between other pedals, hence the jack on the end. I’m concerned there won’t be quite enough vertical clearance to get the jack under the switch.

If it becomes a problem I’ll just disconnect the reverb switch, but this will usually get used in a band where I can look down and see what I’m doing.

[fuzzjunkie]

It looks like you’ve found a solution, but if it doesn’t work out, check out mine:

https://www.boss.info/us/products/fs-5u_5l/

I use a few of these, they have little grooves in the side so they can be snapped together and have LEDs powered by batteries.

I use one FS-5U, that’s the unlatched momentary switch, for tap tempo, and several FS-5L, that’s the regular latch switch for bypassing an SPX-900 and a DEP-5. The 5U is silver and the 5L are black, so no mistakes when stomping.