Anyone Incorporate Pedal onto amp build

[Nudger]

Recently finished an amp build in which added an inbuilt Surfybear reverb kit "controls in/out jacks" in place of the normal channel..




Bolted to underside of chassis, it has its separate power supply so basically a pedal that shares amps chassis for the knobs /input/output jacks.

I use patch lead from the surfy to the amps input "vibrato channel"

Seemed a good plan but for some reason the surfys mixer and tone knobs interfere with the amps signal?

If either the mixer or the tone knob go over 8 ish it sucks volume out of the amp?
Even weirder, it only does it with one of the knobs at a time?!?
Whichever I nudge into the zone 1st.

If I plug the surfy into a separate amp it works perfectly with no interference with amps signal/volume.

Anyone experienced something along the same lines? If so, is there a fix?

[øøøøøøø]

So can we verify:

1) “normal” channel is entirely disabled, and the jacks/pots share no internal connection with the rest of the amplifier?

2) the Surfy device is entirely stock and entirely separate from the amp—it has just had its potentiometers moved to the front panel of the amp?

[CorporateDisguise]

Pretty cool!

I thought about trying to incorporate my Carl Martin Headroom into one of my amps for a while. Still do sometimes, just because it is so huge. But I’ve never really taken any steps to making it happen.

[Nudger]

So can we verify:

1) “normal” channel is entirely disabled, and the jacks/pots share no internal connection with the rest of the amplifier?

2) the Surfy device is entirely stock and entirely separate from the amp—it has just had its potentiometers moved to the front panel of the amp?

1 This amp has no normal channel.

2 Stock surfy kit fitted in a aluminium box bolted to amps chassis, holes drilled through chassis/box for wires to feed pots/jacksockets.

Had a bias meter on one of the tubes, when the mix or tone hits the spot, the reading nearly doubles!

Wondering if I need to decouple the box from the chassis "poss screw to inside of pine cab", but how effective would this be if pots/jack sockets still share the chassis with vib channel?

[øøøøøøø]

You can decouple the pots and jacks using nylon shoulder washers

But first, remove it from the chassis and see if the issue is resolved

If removing it resolves the issue, then you need to decouple

[Nudger]

You can decouple the pots and jacks using nylon shoulder washers

But first, remove it from the chassis and see if the issue is resolved

If removing it resolves the issue, then you need to decouple

Thanks for the tip! Do you have a link for the nylon washers?

[JSett]

Any nylon shoulder washer will do, just measure the size you want and buy a bag of 10 for £2-3 on ebay.

If the mounting holes in the chassis are drilled to a tight tolerance then you might need to widen them to allow for the shoulder, but that's a super easy thing to do.

[øøøøøøø]

Yeah, I don’t have a link to a specific product, sadly—whenever i needed them i just found some with a web search and bought too many over a decade ago, so i always have some when i need them

[Nudger]

If the mounting holes in the chassis are drilled to a tight tolerance then you might need to widen them to allow for the shoulder, but that's a super easy thing to do.

Yup, holes will need opening up to 12mm to accommodate shoulder washers for full size pots.

[øøøøøøø]

But that bridge can be crossed when it’s arrived-at

First step—remove the unit from chassis and see if the behavior goes away