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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Upgrade footswitch

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7/24/1998 9:50 AM
Lou	Upgrade footswitch Gents,I'm trying to add a led to my ch switching footswitch box. It's just a spst switch (I think ) connected to the amp with just a guitar cord.Any schems. or ideas out there,Do I need a dpdt switch,stereo jacks, what value LED? Thanks a million Cheers Lou

7/27/1998 6:25 PM

Lou, I don't know what type of amp you have. But MesaBoogie uses a low voltage through the footswitch line to power the led in its footswitches. This is a pretty invasive procedure. I am not an engineer, but experience tells me this should work. Assuming you have a standard 2 conductor wire...Just connect one end of an LED from Radio Shack or somewhere to one of the switch contacts. Get a battery and a holder that will power the LED. They run on less than 2 volts, maybe two AA. Connect one wire from the battery to the other lead of the LED, connect the other lead of the battery to the opposite switch contact. So, now you have 4 wires on that one switch. Mount your LED and batteries inside the box, and jam on.......Mark

7/28/1998 5:56 AM
Lou	Thanks Mark will give that a try, get back to you soon. Cheers Lou

7/28/1998 8:15 AM

LEDs drop a constant 1.5 to 2V so if you want to power one from a battery you really need a resistor in series with it. You could use the usual 9V battery and a low current LED with a 4k7 resistor in series. Change the switch to double pole and use one pole for the LED and the other for the signal. You could just switch it off when not in use but it’s bound to get switched on in the gig bag sooner or later so a stereo jack in series would be a good idea.

Dave

7/28/1998 2:01 PM
Lou	Thanks Dave H. Cheers Lou

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