Let's talk about jacks...and a question to you builders

[Jwar]

So this subject has been discussed possibly to death here and other places, but it pops up still enough to make it interested.

I'd like to discuss the pros and cons of top vs. side mounted jacks.

So these are all my opinions obviously from my perspective.

Seeing as how I do not have a custom board that is really that great, my opinion may be different than others just based on that alone.

So I honestly have started to prefer side mounted jacks over top. Why? Well, I've found over the years that it's easier for me to put things on my board with either a combination of top mounts/side mounts or to just have side mounts. So what I mean by that is, let's say I have all my pedals ready to sit on my board. I map them all out and have everything planned the way I want. Then I put them on and cannot connect them all because some are top mounted. The top mounting makes it more difficult for me to put a pedal above the top mounted pedal especially if it's a larger enclosure. I've had it happen numerous times, where I could have comfortably fit a pedal in one spot but couldn't because the jacks stick out too far regardless of the cables I'm using. Now some cables are better than others, obviously. I've found EBS to be the best so far for flexibility, price and overall value. They are lacking in some areas, but that's going to be any cable.

So to me, you're losing room regardless of if you top mount or side mount. The only way you could potentially not lose room ever, is to face mount jacks. The pedals wouldn't look as cool, but you could literally stack enclosures on top of each other with no space issues ever.

So to me the pros and cons are kind of obvious, but there are a lot out there that will disagree obviously.

So my thoughts about why I don't care about the jack placement.

-I'll be losing out on trying lots of cool stuff because not all builders will top mount, no matter what you say.
-To me it doesn't save any space and I don't like pedals being stacked on top of each other. I'd rather have a bit of room between each of them.
-For most standard boards, they seem to have side mounts in mind and not top mounts. Pedaltrain for instance. Try using all top mounts with that fucking thing. It's pretty hard. I know I've tried.
-Cable options make the issues pretty much obsolete.

So I wonder, why is it such a big thing? I personally don't use and never will use over 30 pedals. I just don't, but I'm not playing live and if I was, man, I'd be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYyyyyyy too lazy to carry all that. LOL. But I understand why some do. So I'm generally curious, why it matters.

On that note. A question to builders out there.

It's apparent, and has been for a quite some time, that most folks want top mounted jacks. So why do you not provide them? Is it out of convenience? Habit? Principal of some kind? This question I would ask myself every time I'd rehouse something and see a huge amount of room in an enclosure. On the one hand I was happy to have the work. On the other I was baffled by the fact that 75% of the enclosure was empty, yet the jacks were on the side when most ask for the top .

So...yea. Hope this thread is ok. LOL. Discuss you want! Hugs and kisses.

[Eivind August]

I tend to prefer top mounted jacks for the first (lower) row of pedals and side mounted on the second (higher) row. Then I patch it in a sorta WW pattern. It is glorious.

[Jwar]

See I'm just like you! But all the effects I like seem to have such a mixture and the way I want to put things together, sometimes prohibits me doing so because of jack placement. Sooooooooo annoying. LOL.

[fcknoise]

I tend to prefer top mounted jacks for the first (lower) row of pedals and side mounted on the second (higher) row. Then I patch it in a sorta WW pattern. It is glorious.

I do the exact opposite? My top mounted ones at the top of the pedalboard mostly, as there is nothing above them to make things annoying. But my pedalboards have the weirdest dimensions so I struggle with squeezing shit in a lot (new pedaltrain novo shit)

Saying that, I generally won't care too much where the jacks are placed. And face mounted jacks look fucking badass IMO

[11A]

side jacks

top jacks always seem to be a pain in the ass to wire up

[J.Miller]

If you're using low profile plugs it really doesn't make *that* much of a difference IMO

[D.o.S.]

I think the quality of the pedal will always be more important than the jack placement, and that most people will adapt accordingly.

[Uncle Grandfather]

tl;dr
pretty irrelevant to my interests with making music

[indianDYsummer]

I like top mounted jacks, but I actually find that having a mix of top and side is the best combo for me, for similar reasons as jwar. In a lot of cases having a 3-4" pancake cables go from the side of one pedal, to the top of another works REALLY well. Going top to top can be OK, but its hard finding short cables that work well with 125B enclosures stacked side by side with no gaps, since you really only need like 1". It can be difficult for me to route cables under my pedalboard, since the slats/gaps on my pedaltrain don't always line up with the tops of pedals. Maybe it's just me, though.

One thing that I think is important is power jack placement (compared to IO jacks). For example, I don't really like when a manufacturer puts the power jack on the top, and IO jacks on the sides (let's call this "mix mounted jacks").I think they should at least pick top or side, and not do both. This way, you could conceivably rotate the pedal to your preferred jack orientation, or design your board appropriately. Mix mounted jacks are the worst, unless you have a pedal with like stereo routing and expression pedals, like some Dr. Scientist pedals. Then, you gotta do what you gotta do.

I also don't like when pancake or larger right-angle jacks rest on, or put unnecessary strain on the power jack. I have this issue with some smaller pedals that have side IO jacks and a side power jack. But, there's definitely ways to avoid that type of poor placement. I usually end up having to route the cable around from the other direction, which requires longer cables, or some type of creative routing.

[dugwolf]

I like a nice mix of top and side as well. The only time it really matters to me is went I want to kick on two dirt pedals at the same time. Then it really helps getting the footswitches close together if at least one of the pedals is top mounted. Two side jack pedals are tough for me to get close even with low profile plugs.

[goroth]

I see no benefit to side mount jacks.

If you need to test a cable you have to remove the whole pedal to remove the cable.
Pedal fucks up live you just unplug then plug into the pedal beside. Side mount means you need a longer patch cable to make the jump to the next pedal (by virtue of geometry).
I've only used a pt Jr. and or pro, but all of my patch cables hang in the space between the slats allowing for cleaner routing. Not so with side mount.
When planning a board you don't have to build in any margin for jacks, allowing greater modulisation of a board when top mount.
It is more common to arrange pedals tightly laterally, than vertically. Thus it makes sense to use the vertical space for cabling.

Side mount can eat a dick.

[D.o.S.]

Worth pointing out here that Goroth is a nerd with a crazy pedalboard for nerds.

[crochambeau]

Top mounted everything, with few exclusions.

That said, I usually don't play more than two pedals at a time (honestly cannot remember the last time I played more than three, not counting an outboard reverb which is sort of like part of the amp in my mind), so, my opinion as a user carries less weight. But as a builder I don't embrace side mounted jacks (though I would certainly honor special requests for that configuration should they arise).

Face mount is nice for CV in my opinion, so long as it's tucked out of the way, I'd only really chase it for signal path if the jack plate was set at an angle so the lay of the cable doesn't crowd my knob access or trip my feet.

Since we're talking about jacks, while I assent that I have somewhat converted (or at least have begun to) for the standard outgoing, I still DO NOT GET the input at right output at left preference.

[D.o.S.]

tbh I think that ^ is mostly due to having all of your pedals facing the same way (mixed I/O is the fucking worst)

[Jwar]

tl;dr
pretty irrelevant to my interests with making music

Cool story bro