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Patch Panel Pedal


LeBerbs

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What's up guys?

I want to build a simple patch panel for my pedal board. I'm not even sure if that's what it's called.

Basically, I want to have a central box for my board to interface with my amp. So, 3 inputs, 3 outputs. Does anyone have a diagram and enclosure and parts list for this sort of thing?

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Okay, here's a basic drawing to illustrate what I'm talking about...

 

 

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I'd recommend making two of these boxes, and using one at the "input" side of your board, with the other one at the "output" side, although you can put it all into a single box if you prefer.

 

Essentially these boxes are similar to a non-normalled patchbay, and should be very simple to construct if you know how to solder. If not, let me know and I can dig up some tutorials and link to them for you.

 

For each of the two boxes, you'd need the following.

 

Materials:

  • A suitably-sized metal enclosure
  • Six 1/4" jacks.
  • Some 22-24 gauge wire - stranded or solid core, either should work just fine. And no, you don't have to use two different wire colors, although you may find that doing so makes it easier to keep track of what goes where.
  • Optional - paint and labeling materials - Dymo labels, waterslide decals, etc. - to decorate your boxes and label the connectors

 

 

Tools:

  • Corded or cordless drill with a 3/8" drill bit or a vari-bit.
  • A suitable screwdriver to disassemble and reassemble the case
  • A 25-40W soldering iron or soldering station
  • Wire strippers
  • Nut wrench or pliers to tighten down the jacks
  • Optional, but a Digital Multimeter with a continuity tester / check can be useful for testing and troubleshooting

 

Instructions:

  1. If you're going to paint and label your boxes, I'd recommend doing that first.
  2. Drill the holes for the jacks into the case on both sides, making sure to space them evenly and allowing enough room between them for all the plugs to be inserted simultaneously.
  3. Open the enclosure and install the jacks into the holes you drilled and tighten them down. Make sure to orient the jacks so that you can easily access both connection points.
  4. Cut your wire into six pieces that are long enough to reach from the jacks on one side of the case to the ones on the opposite side. Leave yourself a little bit more length than you need to be safe, and to make soldering it up easier.
  5. Use the wire strippers to strip about 1/4" of insulation from each end of each piece of wire.
  6. Run a length of wire from the tip connection point of Input Jack 1 to the same tip contact point on Output Jack 1. Run a second wire from Input Jack 1's sleeve to Output Jack 1's sleeve, and then solder all four points.
  7. Repeat the same wiring and soldering steps for Input and Output 2, as well as for Input and Output 3.
  8. If you have a multimeter, touch one probe to Input Jack 1's sleeve, and the other to Output Jack 1's sleeve. If the wiring and soldering are good, you should hear an audible beep. Do the same thing to test the connection between Input Jack 1 and Output Jack 1's tip connectors, then repeat the testing procedure for the tip and sleeve on the I/O 2 and I/O 3 jack pairs.
  9. If all of the connections test good, close the case up. If not, double check your wiring and touch up your soldering and test again, and then close the case once it all checks out.
  10. If you didn't do so in Step 1, apply labels to the I/O jacks using waterslide decals or Dymo labels or even a Sharpie so you'll know what jack connects with what.

 

That's basically it. From there, it's just a matter of mounting them and wiring them into your pedalboard, and the steps for doing that will depend on what you want to use those connections for.

  • For the box on the "input" side of your board, connect the Outputs from your I/O box to whatever you want the Inputs to route to. For example, Output 1 might connect to the input of an effects pedal, or maybe you'll want to use Output 1 and Output 2 to connect to a pedal with stereo inputs. Then when you get to the gig, all you need to do is plug the output from your guitar into Input Jack 1 (or your keyboard's left and right outputs into Inputs 1 and 2) and the signal will be routed to the effects pedal.
  • The third Output might be for something like a expression pedal - connect Output Jack 3 to the expression pedal jack on whatever pedal you want to control, and plug your expression pedal into Input Jack 3.
  • If you have more than one expression pedal, or need more inputs and outputs, you can make the boxes with more I/O if you want.

 

For the second box on the output side, it's the same basic idea, except in reverse. Connect the output(s) from the last pedal in your chain to one or two Input jacks on the second box. The Output jacks on that box will then serve as patch points to connect to your amplifier(s), mixing board, or whatever. Be aware though, if you're running two amps in stereo, you can easily wind up with hum and noise due to ground loops. Putting an isolation transformer in front of one of the amps will solve that issue should you run into it.

 

 

 

Please let me know if you have any questions or if any of this was unclear. wave.gif

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No, regular unshielded insulated wire is fine - the metal case provides the shielding. And no, you don't need power or a buffer.

 

Speaker cable would work, but it's a lot heavier gauge than you need, and will be much harder to work with. A spool of 22-24 gauge wire can be picked up from most hardware or electronics stores for a few bucks, and it will make your job much easier. You can probably find a small spool online if you'd rather not check local stores. Besides, you have to buy your project cases somewhere - wherever you buy them from will probably also carry a small spool of wire you can buy as well.

 

As I mentioned, you might want to use a isolation transformer in between your pedalboard and one of the amps to kill off any ground loop hum, but that can be done externally. You could possibly build an iso transformer into the box (above), but that would complicate the job. Instead, I'd recommend you just take one of the outputs from that box, and plug it into either a Gig Rig Humdinger (Analogman sells them) or a Radial Big Shot ABY pedal. Both of these pedals have isolation transformers inside that will break the ground loop and kill the hum. To connect, you'd plug one of the amp outputs from the DIY I/O box into the ABY or Humdinger, and the isolated output from that unit into your amp. You would leave the other connectors on the ABY / Humdinger unused. The second amp out from the DIY I/O box would then be run straight into the second amp as usual, with no need for an iso transformer. You just need to break the second path to ground, so you only need to worry about putting a transformer on one of the two lines.

 

Just out of curiosity, what made you decide on three inputs / outputs? I'm curious as to what your plans are. What all do you want to connect? smile.png

 

 

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Great info! Thanks!

I'll try the speaker wire first. If not, there's an electronics parts store a few towns away.

Not planning on running stereo, but I'll keep the iso transformers in mind.

 

Just out of curiosity, what made you decide on three inputs / outputs? I'm curious as to what your plans are. What all do you want to connect?

 

I wanted 2 ins/outs for FX loop and 1 in/out for front of the amp pedals. I'm going to bind 3 cables together as one. This way I have one cable going into my pedal board from the guitar and (theoretically) one cable leaving the pedal board going to the amp. I feel this will give me a very polished and clean look.

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Damn, That's some stuff right there. Since they're essentially MIDI cables, does this mean I could replace my Dual Recto footswitch cable with one of those?

 

Edit:

The mesa uses a 7pin cable, the cable snake offers 5pin. Not sure the specs to see if they'd be compatible.

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I checked with pedalsnake.com. I'd have to order a custom snake which would cost more than the average and it'd be hard to sell a snake with a 7pin because it's only on specific amps apparently.

I think I'll just get some braided sleeve and velcro for my cables I already have. Save a few bucks.

Where should I post pic of my builds and gear?

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I checked with pedalsnake.com. I'd have to order a custom snake which would cost more than the average and it'd be hard to sell a snake with a 7pin because it's only on specific amps apparently.

 

Makes sense I guess... too bad more amps don't use the 7 pin cables for their switches.

 

I think I'll just get some braided sleeve and velcro for my cables I already have. Save a few bucks.

 

 

That should work... there's also the corrugated plastic tubing that is often used to bundle cables. You'd still need some velcro if you used those, but probably not nearly as much of it.

 

Where should I post pic of my builds and gear?

 

Anywhere you'd like. :) You can start a new thread, or you can post them in this one if you prefer. There's also the gigantic and long-running Current Pedalboard - Post Yours thread, which is always a good place to post images of your latest pedalboard.

 

 

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PROBLEM!

I put 3 jacks on the top and 3 on the side. The bottom of the vertical mounted jacks touch the bottom of the enclosure. I can still screw the box closed, but I don't know if the guts of the jack touching anything will cause issues.

 

Edit...

False alarm. The rim of the enclosure is thicker than the actual inside? I don't know how to explain it. I'll post pics soon.

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Yeah, if you can, please post some pics so I can see what you're talking about.

 

You don't want the internal "tips" of the jacks coming into contact with the metal case - they'd short to ground if they did. If they're just barely touching, you might be able to line the interior of the box with electrical tape to serve as an insulator to prevent that, but ideally you should use a large enough box so that there's sufficient room inside for the jacks to fit without touching the case anywhere - except for the holes they're inserted into of course.

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I used the Hammond 1590B. From what I researched, the jacks will fit vertically without interference. I guess I'll have to wire it up and test it. I can't really see inside the box through the other holes to check for interference. I'm free tonight so I'll work on it and post my results and pics.

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I used the Hammond 1590B. From what I researched' date=' the jacks will fit vertically without interference. I guess I'll have to wire it up and test it. I can't really see inside the box through the other holes to check for interference. I'm free tonight so I'll work on it and post my results and pics.[/quote']

 

That may be cutting it close if you want to mount the jacks on the top of the enclosure. To be safe, I'd recommend a enclosure with a minimum interior depth of 1.25". A Hammond 125B might be a better option. I'm not saying the 1590B won't work - it might... but again, it's going to be pretty tight if it does. I'd definitely recommend measuring everything carefully, and lining the other side of the case with something non-conductive, such as electrical tape.

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Can't decide if I want to velcro the mesa footswitch to the board and if I should keep the Decimator in the chain. It doesn't get used a lot.

That line6 is going to the pawn shop asap. I hate the way it sounds. Maybe I just suck at utilizing a compressor.

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