concert lead footswitch..or not...

[cchuckc]

Well, I thought I had finally found one. Over one button it has"vibrato/distortion' and over the other it has "reverb/boost". The problem is none of it seems to work. I fear it may not be a compatible footswitch as I had thought, and it has no model number or serial number on it that I see anywhere. Does anyone know what I have and whether ti will work somehow?

[Brad Crasher]

I have the same footswitch you have with my concert lead.  It seems like the only thing that does anything is the reverb/boost.

[cchuckc]

Even that doesn't seem to work on mine. The boost kicks in a little, but there is no reverb control at all. As a practical matter, it doesn't make much difference, because in this day and age of effects you can run anything you want!

[JoeArthur]

Hmm... since a concert doesn't have vibrato/tremolo... why would anyone think a footswitch that mentions vibrato/tremolo be for a concert?

[cchuckc]

Hmmm...that's a pretty good point. I had been told it might work because some of those would. Apparently this one is not one of them!

[LGnome]

Hi,

Hopefully, the below will get you on your way with the footswitch.

It would be best if you have a soldering iron, solder, and a multi-meter.

You do have a footswitch that will work, but you you will need to do a couple of experiments so you know what is happening.

First though:

since a concert doesn't have vibrato/tremolo... why would anyone think a footswitch that mentions vibrato/tremolo be for a concert?

Please refer to this images:


or image here: http://dangpow.com/~sunn/misc/fs1.gif

As it says, one footswitch, multiplte amps. The circuitry in question is controlled by a one pole switch; which means that either the cuircuit is interupted (swtch open) or complete (switch closed.)

So what do I do?

First, I would make 2 RCA male jacks that ground themselves out. The easiest way to do this is to cut a jack off an RCA cable that you dont want. Then, pull the wires apart, strip both, and then either twist them together, or better yet solder them together.

I made mine by using metal RCA jacks that one would use to make cables.  It's cleaner looking in the end, but the RCA cable method is easy to understand, and will work if you dont have an iron.

Test the cable. If you have a multi-meter, set it to continuity check, and put one probe on the middle pole of the RCA jack and the other probe on the outter flange of the RCA jack. Meter should beep.


2. Take the 'ground jacks' and go test your amp. There are 4 options you will be able to test:

Looking at back of amp:

[ RCA plug 1 ]   [ RCA plug 2 ]

1.  [ no jack ]   [ no jack ]

2.  [ no jack ]   [ ground jack ]

3.  [ ground jack ]   [ no jack ]

4.  [ ground jack ]   [ ground jack ]

As you are testing each, twist the knobs, plug and up plug.. etc..

And most likely, you will find what the jacks do if your amp is working correctly.

At this point, if you can desern the differece between plugging and unplugging the jacks, plug in the footswtich and see if turning the footswitch on and off creates the same results. if it does, you are in business.. if it doesnt, you know the wiring of the footswitch is to blame..

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ok im out of time, once you get these results.. post them.. and we'll see what we can do..

[cchuckc]

Thanks!