RTS Connections

[Riffmeister]

The footswitch to my amp has obviously been wired wrong since everything on it is backwards.

So looking at the end that goes into the amp, It has a right angle plug on it. When taking the plug apart there are two tabs that the footswitch wires are hooked two, they are stacked right above one another. Which is the tip and which is the Ring? From What I understand the sleeve is ground is this correct?

[JACKSONFREAK]

Yes sleeve is ground. The tab you solder the hot to is on the same level as the blade hat the plug makes contact with. Just follow the blade around to the proper contact and solder the hot there.

Gil

[Riffmeister]

Hey Gil,

Thanks for the help, but I don't understand what you mean about the tab on the level that the plug makes contact with.

Also, which wire is hot in the case of this footswitch? I have a red wire and a green one, each one is coming from a lug on each switch. It has one switch for channel and one switch for boost. Each switch has 3 lugs, one lug ( on each switch) has one of the wires mentiond above and one lug has the ground and the third lug has nothing attached to it.

So with the 3 lugs, is that a SpDt switch?

I also am wondering what powers the Leds and what makes it so the light is ON when the gain is selected ,but off when the clean channel is selected.

[JACKSONFREAK]

What i mean is. when the plug is inserted into the jack it makes contact with the curled blade to send current. The tab(solder connection point) that you solder the hot wire to is on the same layer of the jack as that blade. The LED is powered by the cord goin in whne the switch is on. Its just a very low current bulb. The guitar chord carries enough current to make the bulb light when the switch is turned on. Most foot switches for amps are simply grounding switches. All the button does is lift the ground or close the ground. Making the amp do what you select. (ie reverb on/off. channel select etc..)
Fender and Peavey use a series parallel kind of switching vs the ground lift option. So they require dedicated foot switches. Ok three lugs on each switch and two wires on each switch. The center lug is the common or ground and the other lug with the wire on it is the hot. Hope that helps
Gil

[Riffmeister]

Gil,

Thanks. I still can't really tell about the tabs as they are stacked one right above the other and are so close , I can't see anything.

Still not sure which wire is considered hot, I got the part where the center lug is ground, and one lug is the hot one, I have a green wire from the hot lug on one switch and a red wire from the hot lug on the other switch. So which is hot, red or green?


My understanding of this, let me know if this is totally wrong, is that the ring controls either the boost or the channel switching and the tip does the other. Os if my footswithch is working backwards, If I just reverse the wires to the tabs on the plug, it will fix my problem.

Just out of curiosity what is the third lug used for and what do you mean by Peavey using a DEDICATED switch? Thanks again!

Rick

[JACKSONFREAK]

By dedicated footswitches i mean no other foot switches willwork with Peaveys. And you have to use the right switch for the right amp or it will short out the amp.
If the switch is working in reverse yes just switch two wires and it should work properly. The switch is basically a ground lift. It shuts off one ground while opening another ground when a button is pressed. Basically.
Gil

[Riffmeister]

Thanks Gil.

One last thing, just so I don't blow up my amp. You said you have to use the right switch for the right amp, but as long as I wire it up the way the Peavey switch is wired, will it be ok?

The peavey switch is a piece of crap and it is in a big PLASTIC housing. All I want to do is transfer the switches out of that thing into a smaller hammond box. I CAN just leave the original cable attached, but I wanted to put a 1/4 jack on the new switch so I could just use any stereo cable and could dissconnect it when it wasn't being used.

I guess I should have just told you what I wanted to do instead of asking all this complicated stuff.

The only thing, I will have to cut the leds cause they are glued into the plastic casing, I assume it isn't hard to wire a new one into the new box.

Thanks again for your help!


Rick