By the way, I don’t see any reason why, regarding my above thread, you can just buy an old Gallien Krueger footswitch and, after verifying the wiring and contact setup, use it with the BB.
I decided to take some photos of my stuff and dig a little deeper at my Gallien Kruerger GK210 amp (circa 74)
Here is the male pin connector, made by Switchcraft , which appears to be an XLR type socket. The female on the footswitch is a Switchcraft A4P female 4 pin XLR type connector as marked.
This is for Norbert. Took my BB and removed the headphone jack. Don’t ever use it, just unplugged it. Used the hole where the jack was, fed Coax Cable through the hole and soldered the ends to the small circuit board inside. The other end was fitted with a 1/4" Mono Plug and plugged into a FS-5U Pedal. The phase was switched to “Closed Contacts” and that was it. It’s up and running. I already had FS-5U Pedals mounted on my pedalboard which I use with the Beat Buddy in place of the remote pedal that BB makes.
Now, here is the trick. I mounted the BB Pedal a little higher on my pedalboard and mounted the FS-5U just below it. I now rarely ever have to touch the BB Pedal other than to change to a different folder. I have everything contained within the (3) FS-5U Pedals mounted in a row on the Pedalboard. Works for me and didn’t cost me a dime, just my time. Here is a drawing of my pedalboard the way it is now.
You might also notice just above the mixer, a Stereo Control Box with Volume/Tone Potentiometers for the BB as well. It works well for taking the sharp edge off the Drum Sounds and gives me a smooth sounding “Drummer”. Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
I made the modification by removing the Headphone Jack and unplugging the leads. I don’t use it anyway. I took a small piece of Coax (8 inches long) with a right angled plug already on the other end, and fed the wire through the hole and soldered the leads to the board very carefully, not overheating the connection which is different now. The single connections are being bridged across two pins on the switch so I had plenty of room to make the solder connection. I just plugged the other end into an FS-5U Boss Pedal with the Polarity in the open position, plugged it in and was going. Everything is fine and I can put the jack back in at anytime just by unsoldering the two leads carefully. I remounted the Beat Buddy higher on my pedalboard and put the FS-5U just underneath which is parallel to the other two FS-5U switches mounted for the remote function of the original remote pedal. Absolutely Great. I wouldn’t have it any other way now. I have 3 Switches all the same type and rarely have to touch the BB Pedal anymore and it doesn’t get the wear and tear of constant use. Here is a drawing I made up showing the location of the Switches and the Beat Buddy.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
I finally got around to doing this mod (after many gigs of bending over, I heard my back actually speak, and say “thank you!”). Works great, however there is one thing worth noting from the original video that I discovered.
The center contact has continuity to ground where the red lead is shown in the video. I didn’t measure the electrical resistance, but being the PCB designer I am, I did notice the solder pad has ground connections to the rest of the ground plane on the small switch board. I was also using the continuity function on my multimeter, and when it beeps, resistance is usually lower than 30 ohms.
Therefore, connecting the wire leads - red, which is normally associated with “hot” or positive, and usually connected to tip, and black, which is normally associated with “cold” or ground reference, and usually connected to sleeve, in the manner shown in the video, can result in the switch being connected to ground through a metal jack installed in the BB casing, and cause improper operation. Mine would not start via regular pedal switch (with nothing plugged in), but rather toggled between the song and Tap tempo. I reversed the wire leads and all was good.
Just wanted to point that out for anyone who may do the mod. Also, I placed thick scrap paper and tape when drilling, and when soldering. The thin ribbon cables are very delicate, and if your iron comes in contact with it, you’ve probably ruined your pedal.
I used a Cliff jack which has a flat bottom, and the chrome nut closely resembles the stock jacks. Bent the PC pins sideways, and insulated the cover with a piece of Cambric (5000V insulating material) and tape.
Nice to see people getting some use from the mod, good point on the ground, I used the tip and ring and avoided the sleeve ground on a stereo jack to not mix grounds.
I looked around through my vast collection of “pack rat materials” i.e. junk, and couldn’t find anything suitable for mounting the BB, so I got out my saw, scrap wood, wood screws, glue, and spray paint, and made the stand shown in the photo. The mic stand mounting bracket was given to me by one of the guys I play with regularly.
You’re welcome, appreciate your posts too, it was a fun project, and just to keep poking at SS to keep doing more with it, like oh, Midi In commands that could control it, just sayin either way can’t beat having controls at play height. I don’t know why vendors aren’t doing more with stomp box controls at player height. I ended up making a shelf from a mic stand and plexiglass to hold mixer and few pedals. Patiently waiting for next firmware and hoping double tap to outro on main switch can go away as a selectable option.
Now! I really like that idea and it looks great too. I don’t play out anymore, but I have a large pedalboard on the floor right in front of my keyboard bench I use for guitar. The pedalboard is in three sections, that’s how big it is but nothing is on there for a free ride. I use it all and actually have some things hidden underneath the pedalboard that stay on all the time. I am somewhat disabled so I use my canes to push on the buttons such as the Beat Buddy and Peterson Tuner. The rest, I use my feet on in my stocking feet of course. I never played on stage with my shoes on. I wore out a lot of socks and saved my shoes. Does anybody have their Wah-Wah Pedal anymore? I still have mine and maybe I’ll dig it out and start using it again. I still use a Phase 90 by MXR. Actually, I have two of those. Plenty of Delay units and a couple of loopers. I have more fun than “Rabbits”. Well, maybe not quite that much fun, but! Just to let you know, I mount my pedals, not with velcro, but I take the bottom plate off the pedals, tap a couple of screws in the bottom and drill holes and mount them thru my pedalboard with washers and nuts on the backside. They don’t move around, and if anyone wants to steal a pedal, they have to take the whole board which isn’t too light, so there you go.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
love those mxr phasers… if it isn’t an mxr, it doesn’t really even sound like a proper phaser to me!
I also usually play without shoes for major gigs… don’t know many others that do this but it makes me feel more in the moment. I have a large black tablecloth that i put down in my “area” so that i don’t have to walk around in stage goo.
Fingerstylepicker.(I take the bottom plate off the pedals, tap a couple of screws in the bottom and drill holes and mount them thru my pedalboard with washers and nuts on the backside. They don’t move around, and if anyone wants to steal a pedal, they have to take the whole board which isn’t too light) …
lol …I do the same thing. I didn’t know of any better way. mine is locked w a chain connected to something heavy.
sh*t happens.
“Stage Goo”. Now that’s a very good description of the stuff down there and we will leave it at that.
I have all kinds of MXR Pedals. I have the Carbon Copy stuck to the inside of my Kustom 72 Coupe that I run through the “Send and Return” jacks, that’s absolute heaven. I have a “Prime Time Distortion”, a “Classic Overdrive”, “Classic Distortion”, and a “Doubleshot Distortion” all mounted in-line into the Phase 90. The only one I really use for distortion is the “Prime Time Distortion”. I’m not into hard distortion and the Prime Time gives me just the right amount with plenty of sustain “Pure Velvet”. I still have my old “Line 6 DL4 Delay” and a very good Boss DD-20. I found out something about the DL4 that I didn’t know until I compared the Dual Delay Setting with the BBE Sonic Maximizer. It has a Sonic Maximizer built in. That’s why the “Separation” sounded so good. Also, the Kustom 72 Coupe (set with the Vibrato/Tremelo effect to zero and turned on) also has a Sonic Maximizer effect as well. That Coupe is now a “Classic” because they stopped making it last year. The 100watt Kustom Defender is now in it’s place. You talk about a great sounding amp, the 72 Coupe has that sound. I play “Fingerstyle” so to get the “Thump” on my thumb better, I have the Coupe plugged into an Ampeg 1X12 Classic Bass Enclosure. Awesome bottom end. The other side of my “Stereo Sound” is a Fender DeVille, USA made with 2X12’s in it. Another awesome amp. Oh, I still have my “Solid State Amps” that I used on the road. One is a Peavey Session 400 LTD and the other one is a Peavey Session 500. I have JBL’s in both of them. That Session 500 will “Eat You Alive”. They only made those a couple of years and I couldn’t afford it when they came out. It was like $1200 with no cover. I picked it about abouy 10 years ago for $400 and it’s still in pristine condition. The first stage amp went out so I just put a booster in the send/return loop. It works great that way and didn’t cost me a dime. Well, that’s about it besides a few of my “Custom Tele’s” that I have built or “Hot Rodded”. Still having fun at 74, B-Day on Oct 4, 2015.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
Sounds like alot of great gear. I have a Mesa Boogie Mark 2 B that I bought right from Boogie in 1981. Love the amp. Last year it started to sound different to my ears and then it started blowing fuses. Hoping someone can give it a major overhaul. When I gig now I usually borrow a couple of Blues Juniors. Sounds fine mic’d through a P.A. with lot of volume and a good match for the Strat and Tele. I usually run in stereo if I can. For years I slaved a Jazz Chorus off of the boogie and patched in my effects so that the boogie was dry and the effects were added after the clean sound of the boogie into the power amp of the jazz chorus in stereo. Loved the sound. Don’t gig much anymore. Glad to hear that you are still playing. I will be 53 in April. I am a music teacher at a local school in my hometown and I am eligible to retire at the end of the year. Lots of time to start playing then.
I’ll bet it needs new capacitors. A good tech can replace them for not too much money… I’ve heard this process has brought life back to many a tube amp!
Ahem… if anyone is close to Birmingham AL. That’s exactly what I do. Amp tech/builder by day. www.grangeramp.com
Musician at night.
p.s. If anyone is near Myrtle Beach SC tomorrow (Friday 10/9), one of my bands (The Wildflowers) is playing House of Blues.
This is a great hack, thanks for posting. My BB arrives on Monday and this is one of the first things I’m going to do to it (after confirming firmware version and figuring out how the thing works). I’m going to use the FS-7 footswitch and a cheap sustain pedal. I’ll also use Norbert’s original solder method since I’d prefer a 5 second solder job to a bunch of messing around with connectors. I have plenty of mono and stereo 1/4 jacks laying around so I’ve got that handled.
Also, thanks to the poster who mentioned the grounding issue! I wondered about the jack grounding to the case.
I’ve been using mine for weeks, it’s great. I got a cheap sustain pedal off Amazon, ~$14, with a 1/4 plug. I also got a Monoprice 3 ft TRS cable to extend the 2-switch foot switch.
Soldering worked great for me. I decided to locate the jack on the opposite side of the pedal as Norbert’s - between the midi jack and the R output jack. I got the drilled hole just a little low and I had to sand the jack casing a little bit to get it all to fit. When you locate the hole for the new jack, just make sure you leave enough room above the circuit board for the body of the jack to fit.
either way can’t beat having controls at play height. I don’t know why vendors aren’t doing more with stomp box controls at player height. I ended up making a shelf from a mic stand and plexiglass to hold mixer and few pedals. Patiently waiting for next firmware and hoping double tap to outro on main switch can go away as a selectable option.