Overdrive Channel Mods

[philbard]

I hardly consider myself an innovator here, I searched on this and didn't find anything but I doubt I'm the first to try this.

My 2 102 builds have Martin's foot switchable FET option in them and use a 2 switch foot pedal with OD and FET, I relegated the PAB to a simple On/Off switch on the back side of the chassis as I don't really care for the PAB in clean mode. Or at least enough to have it easily available on the pedal. But I do like the PAB engaged sometimes when I'm in OD mode and its awkward to have to reach over to the amp to turn it on when going to OD. It occurred to me that I could simply swap out the PAB switch to a 3 way. Center would be PAB Off, down would be On, and up would tie the grounding of the PAB relay to the OD footswitch. This way the PAB would always engage when I switch to OD but I wouldn't be married to that setup.

Below is my diagram, the black arrow indicates the added wire.

102 PAB Mod.jpg

It also occurs to me that I could do the same with the mid boost as I'm also not really a fan of the boost in clean mode, but seems to me that would involve adding another relay with its 12v ground tied to the OD footswitch and that when activated would provide a signal path around the cap on the mid boost switch.

Anyone have a better idea? TIA for any feedback...

[Richard1001]

Mesa Boogie did the same thing in the 80's. You could pull out the treble knob for mid boost, but the mid boost was only engaged when the lead channel was selected.
You would indeed need an other relay, or something else to switch the mid boost in and out. .

An other option would be to put all options on the footswitch. With a 5 pole connector, you could switch 4 individual relays and have a footswitch with 4 switches and 4 leds.

[philbard]

Mesa Boogie did the same thing in the 80's. You could pull out the treble knob for mid boost, but the mid boost was only engaged when the lead channel was selected.
You would indeed need an other relay, or something else to switch the mid boost in and out. .

An other option would be to put all options on the footswitch. With a 5 pole connector, you could switch 4 individual relays and have a footswitch with 4 switches and 4 leds.

The Mesa Boogie thing rings a bell. Yes, I thought about putting all of the options on the footswitch, but decided that in a gig scenario it was a lot of pedal management not to mention the size of the pedal coupled with the others I use (Reverb, Chorus, Compressor, Modeler). I know some players use a pretty big pedalboard but I'm a fan of less. Thanks for the input, though.