John Hendow

As noted in a previous post, I’m planning to completely redesign and rebuild my guitar pedalboard. Over the past week I’ve placed orders for everything I need, including parts for a true-bypass A/B switch box. The reason for this part of design is to allow me to switch the input from the wireless system to a direct cable connection. I don’t always go wireless and I don’t want to disconnect my input each time I change.

Building the A/B switch box should be pretty simple. I have a basic schematic in hand already, slightly modified from a fairly standard circuit. I wanted to ensure that the unused input would be grounded in order to prevent extraneous noise from entering the circuit, and the LEDs are just for convenience. The 1K resister is basically a guess. Its actual value will be determined by the voltage of the LEDs. Also, I don’t need a battery clip in this circuit since I’ll really be powering the whole pedalboard from a single source. The hardest item to source in this circuit will be the 3PDT footswitch, but I believe Small Bear Electronics stocks them. Once I get the pieces together I’ll document the build process.

Over the next week or so I’ll be receiving all my modified pedals from Keeley, and then I can begin the fun process of assembling my toys on the new board.

Update: I decided the previous schematic had a minor flaw: I was making the assumption that the two LEDs would have the same forward votage requirement. I’m intending to use different colored LEDs and it’s possible they’ll have different voltages, so splitting the 9v+ feed seems like a better approach.