Footswitch housing change

[warlok]

If you move the components of a plastic Peavey housing to a metal housing do you need to ground the housing? Could it cause interference if not grounded? It's a Ultra Plus with a 7 pin connector if that matters..

[Twitch]

If it wasnt grounded before, then Id imagine it wont need to be with a metal case either. Id imagine they ran a ground up the cable to the socket and grounded at the amp chassis originally. If this is the case and you did ground the new metal case, it could cause a ground loop. However, since there is no (shouldnt be) audio signal going to the pedal you should be fine, but you know how that stuff works. It shouldnt cause a problem, but it might anyhow.

[warlok]

I tracked the footswitch down to the cause of my interference.. As unlikely as I would think that'd be it.. The PO moved all the components to a metal housing and did a reall shitty job. Uninsulated wires everywhere, cold solders, etc.. I'm going to rewire it all this weekend without a ground and if it's still doing it, Maybe I'll try grounding it. That shouldn't damage anything, right?

[Twitch]

Cold solders are a huge tone sucker and problem causer. No I should think grounding the chassis wouldnt hurt anything, though like youve found out, the FS is cuasing problems with the audio which would make me believe that the FS is in the audio circuit somewhere(weird) in which case grounding the chassis could very well set up a ground loop which would cause undesirable noise. As far as frying something, Id say highly unlikely. Find out if the ground sides of the switches go back up to the amp, if they do, then thats good enough as I cant think of a good reason to ground the FS case.

[horns666]

My wife gave me the cold solder ..so I guess there won't be any noise too-nite!

Ahhh fuggums...

[warlok]

Horns - easiest way to get noise from the wife... Pull out in the middle and wipe your dick on the curtains.. There's your noise!!

Twitch - The switches are all grounded together and run to the bare wire back to the amp (pin 4). I think the outside metal of the 7 pin connector is connected to the shielding film under the outer silicone jacket IIRC.

[Twitch]

Then Id not ground the FS chassis and I would find some way to insulate the switch bodies(and anything else connected to ground), like thin plastic washers, from the FS chassis.

[warlok]

Now that you mention that, I do remember seeing plastic washers between the switches and the housing. But, there was a bare wire about 2" long soldered to the ground side of 2 of the switches and just hanging loose (1 wire on each switch..). When I opened it up I looked and they were not touching the housing but they could be close enough to maybe do something annoying. I was playing today w/o the switch plugged in and there was MUCH less buzz. More of a hum, normal for a high gain tube amp. So I'm pretty sure it's the culprit. I'll get at the switch this weekend and post an update..

[warlok]

Rewired... Works perfect and no hum/buzz caused by it anymore. I can't even believe how shitty it was done. But now it's all good. And didn't need to ground it.
Thanks for the input fellas..

[Riffmeister]

Warlock,

I actually jsut did the same thing with my crappy Peavy footswitch. It is only a 2 button stereo jack, though It had the ground running up the cable as twitch said. The only wiring I had to do was for a stereo jack I wired into the box, so I could disconect the footswitch cable from it. Oh and I had to rewire the Leds cause they broke getting them out of the plastic casing ,so I replaced them with some cool purple ones

[warlok]

Peavey's got such great amps, you'd think they'd put a little more into the crappy plastic pedals.

[Riffmeister]

Well, I had to get three amps to get a good one, so I don't know if I can agree with you on the Great amps part LOL.

[warlok]

Valid point... I've always been happy with peavey stuff. But I really do hope your duds were outside the norm and not a new trend for them.. You got one now working good (so far) so hopefully it's all gravy from here!!

[Riffmeister]

Well, actually the third one had a bad power tube that was blowing fuses ,so I even had problems with it

The second one, I can't really blame on Peavy, at least I don't think I can cause it was sent to me in terribly used condition. It had sticky stuff and dirt all over it, the tube sockets were lose as crap, and a few other issues.
So I am crossing my fingers now that I got some new power tubes.