Wiring two on/off footswitches

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Moose
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Wiring two on/off footswitches

Post by Moose »

So I was thinking, wouldn't it be great to have a tremolo whereby you could have two footswitches for it, one momentary, one latching?

IE With one you can straight turn it on/off as usual (a-la standard 3PDT true bypass), and the other as a momentary?

I think it would be awesome with a number of different types of pedals, I've hunted through this section of the board and can't find any previous topics similar.

But is it achievable? Could it work by wiring the two switches in parallel? Or would it be necessary to have a toggle switch to select which footswitch is in use?


Welcome to any thoughts on how this can be done (or wiring diagrams if anyone has one!).


*EDIT* - If this HAS already been covered and I've been completely blind and missed it, let me know and close this topic!
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Re: Wiring two on/off footswitches

Post by Dr Satan »

Parallel switching will work fine.
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Re: Wiring two on/off footswitches

Post by Moose »

So if I do parallel switching, would it be necessary to ground both switches, or would it be acceptable to simply ground one?

I understand how to it in terms of ins/outs for both switches, and I'm not interested in having an LED for the momentary, however I'm not sure whether or not I would need to ground both switches, or only the one.

Apologies, this isn't something I've attempted before.





***Edit - Hang on, I'm a moron. If I don't ground both switches, they won't both work. Fucking duh. ***
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Re: Wiring two on/off footswitches

Post by Dr Satan »

I say it'll be fine, but upon further consideration, if the input of the effect (or output) is grounded when bypassed, then it'll take some more creative wiring. You'll need to break that ground connection so that it doesn't just send your signal to ground like a mute/kill switch. So, there's that. If you can, post a schematic of how the bypass is wired, since there is more than one way to do it and not every way is the best way for every situation.
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Re: Wiring two on/off footswitches

Post by Moose »

To be honest, I don't have a strict true bypass convention that I stick to.

I go for whatever is most convenient at the time/simplest to complete (I have a history of being terrible at soldering 3PDT switches specifically).

I'm open to suggestions on the best/cleanest to wire the two foot switches in parallel, as long as it's true bypass with an LED on the latching switch (LED on momentary is optional).
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