Blackout Effectors Twosome Modifications

[Dandolin]

Resurrecting this ancient threade....

First, Stanimal--this is so awesome!

I suppose I could just PM Stanimal, and maybe I will, but I thought maybe the response of the circuit gurus to the following thought would be of wider interest; so Stanimal, (and any other savant that wants to weigh in), here's my question:

Would it be possible to configure the 4PDT switch, or some other switch, to give a parallel option as well? I think it's probably easy to just do series/parallel, but can you do that, and also the reverse, in one switch? Or if that's not possible, would adding a separate switch to select series/parallel totally screw up the order reversal function on the 4PDT?

How about with this bad-boy: http://cgi.ebay.com/Kent-Armstrong-4-Pole-Triple-Throw-Brian-May-Switch-/130429825480?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1e5e3931c8

?

Thx for any brain inputs.

[eatyourguitar]

parallel fuzz has the same technical problems as any parallel effects or clean blend circuit. you need a buffer and a mixer. if you dont want a blend pot, you can have a unity gain mixer thats just a couple of resistors to try and balance the volume and the impedance of the two effects on the output. the buffer is tricky cause you have to get something that will work with that fuzz circuit. some fuzz circuits are affected by impedance more than others. you might have to put a resistor inline before the fuzz, after the buffer. you might have to change other things in the fuzz circuit as well. sometimes you pick a buffer that has a higher output impedance if possible. not really something you do on a switch. its not like a series/parallel switch on a guitar. guitars that have that are completely passive. a pickup is just a coil of wire. guitars aren't that complicated.

[Dandolin]

Wow, thanks for the detailed response, EYG!

See, I figured the answer would be something like that.... I wonder what it would sound like unbuffered, though. If it just resulted in the signal dropping out completely or dropping so far down it was practically useless, I'd chalk it up to real world constraints and walk away--probably the wiser course. Unless, of course, a simple micro buffer/mixer daughter-board would do the trick.

But if the circuits in parallel and unbuffered actually created some cool broken amp, or otherwise interesting and strange tones and artifacts at sufficient volume not to trainwreck a song when I switch the pedal on, it still might be worth it to me. Of course I suppose it could just end up being 99% the sound of the loudest or lowest impedance fuzz; meh. It might be worth it to wire it up with clips just to hear it and without of course doing any drilling.

Also, there's a thread on TGP ( http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=639632 ) about a fuzz user who had Kyle build him a custom Tweensome--an always-parallel circuit in which you used the volume controls of the Musket and Fix'd to control the degree of sonic mixing. I wonder if Kyle added a buffer/mixer to that circuit. He certainly knows his bizness, so my money sez yup. Don't know what Tag thinks about all that, though.

In any case, I'm already rethinking--I think I'd prefer to retain the original channel switching functionality on the right switch--I'm now wondering if I can configure a switch to select functions for the right footswitch--possibly one throw could be series with footswitch choice between musket>fix'd or fix'd>musket, center off could be original musket or fuzz function, and the final throw could be parallel in phase or parallel oop. Again, I realize what you're telling me, and those parallel options might turn out to be useless w/out onerous additional buffering/mixing, thus turning that option into too much hassle--mebbe I'd just go with a dt switch to choose b/w original and series "modes"; anyway I'm just spitballin' here and I appreciate you taking the time to school me some!

[eatyourguitar]

if kyle already has it working in parallel, it shouldn't be too hard for him to design something with series parallel switching. now we have 4pdt footswitches and 4pdt toggle switches so a lot of stuff is possible that wasn't possible before. all that being said, it would make sense to me that series parallel would be impractical for live since you would probably have your favorite settings in each mode. your better off building it with 2 of every knob or at least volume per channel. shouldn't be too hard. fuzz circuits and overdrives are pretty small. just build a custom double PCB

[sidepartings26]

So Kyle over at Blackout Effectors pointed me in the right direction on how to modify a Twosome for Independent Circuits and Order Switching.... Here are some pics of what i did....



Had to drill into the gorgeous enclosure to install this switch... mentally this was a very challenging feat....



Installed the 4pdt Switch and measured up what goes where in the event i get lost or screw something up.... look at how gorgeous the worksmanship is...



All the wires are pulled and ready to reroute...



The final modification is complete, you can see the main mod wires in black, everything else was reused white wire from the original build....

I used this diagram from Beavis Audio (as per Kyle's direction):



Using a 4pdt switch (Kyle says you can do it with a 3pdt which is true, but i intend to get a multi-colored LED to attach to this thing later....) and visualizing the SEND A/RETURN A as Circuit One and SEND B/RETURN B as Circuit two, you wire the outputs and inputs from each stompswitch into the 4pdt as per the diagram....

and the end result:

Any chance you could re-instate these images? Looking to do the same mod, looks like Blackout is no more and there is very little info anywhere! Thanks

[goroth]

St ? Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.