Footswitch

[ictaros]

Hi there,

Just an inquiry, are most amp footswitches interchangable? I want to purchase a footswitch for my Vox AD30 but I've heard that it is not mandatory that I get the Vox footswitch. (always out of stock in Citymusic)

Anyone has any other compatible footswitchs to recommend?

 

[Fruitwine]

urm, u gotta bear in mind, there are stereo and mono footswitches(if im not wrong, thats what they're called)

stereos can control 2 functions i think, whereas mono only one.

for example, i have a mono footswitch, that i use for channel switching between clean and od on my smarvo amp. but there are 2 types of od, u might say "sub-channels". because the footswitch aint stereo, it only changes the main channel, and by default goes to od2. and i cant change it to od1 unless i plug out the footswitch, and use the buttons.

 

[Guest]

I had a look at the manuals for Vox. Seems to me that any generic stereo footswitch will work with it. A mono footswitch basically sends an on/off signal thru a mono instrument cable to the amp to tell it to perform the associated function. In a stereo footswitch, there are 2 switches and the 2 mono signals from these switches are summed into a stereo plug that has a tip and a ring. Pic here for e.g. (http://www.pulsar.org/2k/technology/stereoplug.html). A mono plug doesn't have a ring.

I know that the 2 button Marshall Valvestate footswitch works like your Vox footswitch. Alternatively, you can get 2 Boss latching footswitches (http://www.bossus.com/index.asp?pg=1&tmp=36) or maybe the Behringer footswitch (http://www.behringer.com/AB200/index.cfm?lang=ENG) and run a stereo Y cable (a cable that splits a stereo signal into mono left and mono right) to do the job.

Btw, not all amp footswitches are interchangable, the stuff above works only with amps that take stereo audio cables. Some amps use pin connectors or midi on their footswitches.

*Side note: latching = on/off, used for swtiching channels, non-latching = momentary e.g. used for tap tempo.

 

[ictaros]

Thanks guys for the input. Appreciated