Members Brandenburg Posted June 10, 2009 Members Share Posted June 10, 2009 Well... I finally got around to wiring this footswitch and am impressed with the outcome. I know its a fairly simple job but im sure some have botched up something like this before.... LOL All together it cost me around $40 to make. I used 22 awg 6 conductor shielded wire. My cable is approximately 19.5 feet and cost .60 a ft. I scored the sinch jones p-306-cct plug from mouser.com for like $3.50,and i aquired the footswitch housing and switches from musicianfriend.com for $25.00. Thats right.. Bought a generic footswitch and took the wires out of it and rewired it for this 6 conductor wires..took longer than expected but had a false start because of a bad wiring diagram + i like things to be neat so i took my time. Maby have 1.5 hours in it once i got started...Only minor problem i encountered was that this 6 conductor wire only had 2 colors.. 3 red 3 black. Solution was simple. i just took my DMM and checked for continuity(sp?) and labled each wire with masking tape according to the pin on the plug. i also made my red odds and my blacks even..1 thing im not happy with though. I needed a relief for the cable so the most expediant solution was to use masking tape and wrap it until the desired thickness was reached.....any suggestions on a better solution? I have come to a conclusion. These footswitches were overpriced when I bought this amp back in 1990. i remember paying $949.00 with footswitch. Footswitch was $80.00 and was EXTRA.... LOL all that know of the RG100es knows that it requires a footswitch to change channels unless you like turning volumes up and down.. some pics are in order: The wiring diagram I used.. i had another one but have come to the conclusion that it was wrong...Backwards... LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChS Posted June 10, 2009 Members Share Posted June 10, 2009 Very good info there Brandenburg! I was fortunate to find a Randall footswitch for my RG100ES on ebay a few years ago for pretty cheap. It would have been too convenient for Randall to have just used a regular TRS jack for the footswitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brandenburg Posted June 10, 2009 Author Members Share Posted June 10, 2009 Would of been a + to use a more standardized plug for the fs-5.. would of been even better to make an amp with a channel selector switch as an INTEGRAL part of the amp.. Overall the amp is one of the finest SS amps around BUT the marketing was ... well questionable IMO.. really.. an amp that needs a footswitch to be fully functional.... kinda assinine.. My next projects are to rewire my SG with new pots( 15 year old pots crackle alot)...a new singlecoil in the neck position of my jackson,salvage a 4X12 that was cut into a 2X12({censored}ty job and the dude was an idiot i think)...maby ill cover it with plush carpet LMAO...and maby make a pedal such as a distortion. i have a 20 year old RAT 2 that has an issue.. perhaps fix it and modify it.... only the last one is above my skills at the present. im a 3 semester electronic student and haven't really had many troubleshooting classes yet.. i know a little.. enough to confuse myself LOL.... well.. take care Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChS Posted June 10, 2009 Members Share Posted June 10, 2009 Yeah, I totally agree about the impractical design of the RG100ES - a two channel amp with both channels active at all times unless you have have the footswitch to select individual channels or just settle with turning down the volume and gain of the channel you're not using. Also the head case is enormous, yet the chassis is quite small . Anyways, another RG100ES project you can consider, although at this point a bit superfluous unless you're hardcore into the RG100ES and are a completist, is a 3 button footswitch with two cables - the normal channel switching cable and another cable for a third footswitch for enabling and disabling the reverb since I believe it's footswitchable on the RG100ES. And of course all the stock footswitch LEDs and an On/Off LED for the reverb footswitch. :poke: Definitely build pedals if you're interested in it, there's some good forums out there like DIYstompboxes.com. Once you're familiar with drive pedal components you shouldn't have much trouble fixing the Rat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brandenburg Posted June 10, 2009 Author Members Share Posted June 10, 2009 Yeah, I totally agree about the impractical design of the RG100ES - a two channel amp with both channels active at all times unless you have have the footswitch to select individual channels or just settle with turning down the volume and gain of the channel you're not using. Also the head case is enormous, yet the chassis is quite small . Anyways, another RG100ES project you can consider, although at this point a bit superfluous unless you're hardcore into the RG100ES and are a completist, is a 3 button footswitch with two cables - the normal channel switching cable and another cable for a third footswitch for enabling and disabling the reverb since I believe it's footswitchable on the RG100ES. And of course all the stock footswitch LEDs and an On/Off LED for the reverb footswitch. :poke: Definitely build pedals if you're interested in it, there's some good forums out there like DIYstompboxes.com. Once you're familiar with drive pedal components you shouldn't have much trouble fixing the Rat. Sir.. we think alike.... already thought of and will be my mk II... Ive found a 3 button pedal and it wont take much time to wire it and modify it for my own needs... on the reason my fs doesnt have LED's is because i didnt have a punch or drill to make the holes for them...was toyin with the idea of making the footswitch without any external wires and basically making the 6 conductor wire with a female on one end and a male on the other... and just connecting it to the footswitch... only prob is that with lots of use or violent changing of the channels might be hard on the connectors and cause issues..Hope you understand what I mean.. hard as hell to put it in words... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChS Posted June 11, 2009 Members Share Posted June 11, 2009 Sir.. we think alike.... already thought of and will be my mk II... Ive found a 3 button pedal and it wont take much time to wire it and modify it for my own needs... on the reason my fs doesnt have LED's is because i didnt have a punch or drill to make the holes for them...was toyin with the idea of making the footswitch without any external wires and basically making the 6 conductor wire with a female on one end and a male on the other... and just connecting it to the footswitch... only prob is that with lots of use or violent changing of the channels might be hard on the connectors and cause issues..Hope you understand what I mean.. hard as hell to put it in words... Sounds good, definitely more practical to hardwire the footswitch cable. For drilling LED holes (or holes in any aluminum footswitch/effect pedal enclosure) you'll want to get a Unibit, they're handy to have around anyways. Does your RG100ES happen to have a decent amount of hum when it's on? Even with the guitar volume all the way down? Wondering if it's a sign mine needs its filter caps replaces (at the very least) since it does hum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brandenburg Posted June 12, 2009 Author Members Share Posted June 12, 2009 Yea... My amp hums a bit... I just need to take my amp to a descent tech and get it worked on... cap job..speaker jack needs to be replaced..pots need to be cleaned....sustain switch causes issues such as shorting out,gradual volume variance(high..low..high) when engaged...I usually just have it on clean and use my OS-2.. Great pedal IMO..If I can crank(m>3,G>7) it up a bit I use randall's distortion..That amp is SOOOO loud though..as you should be aware of hehehe On the footswitch... sorta straped for cash, so ill have to just dream about the perfect randall footswitch...LOL.or. dreamin of Jada Fire sittin on my (couph) randall.....hehehhehee.... well. Talk to ya later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Burningleaves Posted June 12, 2009 Members Share Posted June 12, 2009 Pretty cool. My RG80PH head is still rocking strong. They are nice musical sounding amps (imo). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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