Best guitar amplifier footswitches according to redditors
We found 51 Reddit comments discussing the best guitar amplifier footswitches. We ranked the 37 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 51 Reddit comments discussing the best guitar amplifier footswitches. We ranked the 37 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
From What I can see:
Boss RC-300 Loop Station (The red board in the front) - ~$600 with power supply and cables
BOSS FS-6 Dual Foot Switch (Silver Pedal closer to her) - ~$70 With Power supply and cable
Sennheiser E835 Dynamic Cardioid Vocal Microphone - ~$100 with cable
So in total ~$770 in pure hardware. Additional costs would be from the software she's using, pre-amp for the microphone, probably an amplifier or speakers to be able to hear it as she's playing, etc.
Essentially, if you want to start doing live loops like her you would be able to buy the same hardware (You could skip on the foot switch) but probably a different brands. Those loop pedals always tend to be expensive though.
Honestly the cheapest, simplest but extremely limited way to try out loops like this is just using Audacity. You can record loop by loop and then play it back indefinitely.
ABY pedal. I've got this one to do just what you're asking - http://www.amazon.com/Fender-023-4506-000-Electric-Amplifier-Footswitch/dp/B00HQXUH5W
There are much cheaper options available if you look.
You may also consider:
I'm in the same boat as you in that I know nothing about pedals. I have the same amp as you though and just realized today that you can buy one of these footswitches to allow you to switch between presets on your amp without fiddling the dials. I had this amp for a year before realizing what the "FTSW" was for...
Fender Footswitch
If you want a wah pedal, then yeah you can just connect it between the output of your guitar and the input to your amp. You might need to buy the cable separately.
Grab yourself an ABY Box like this one This one Two leads from the pedal, one to the Normal and One to Top Boost. This way you can switch between or have them both on at the same time. I do Exactly this with my AC30CC2.
The "footswitch" input on the back is for the Vox VFS2A footswitch. This Allows you to turn your Reverb and tremolo on and off.
Your guitar plugs into a box, that acts as a splitter, and runs an input to each amp.
Something like this.
They are these.
I have a couple of more substantial metal Barefoot Buttons, too. Any footswitch caps are all personal preference. Some people use them because traditional metal footswitches aren't super comfortable to use with socks. Other people use caps to make the target for your foot just a little bigger. I put them onto pedals on which I can't afford a misstep. In this case, the caps are on the rec/overdub and play/stop buttons on the looper to make sure I have a bigger target to time my loops effectively. I put it on the tuner because I had a bunch of extras, and the tuner is my mute switch, so I figured that couldn't hurt either.
I need some footswitch toppers for my Eventide H9 but I don't want to scratch/dent my switch like this (source). I heard the Mooer Candy ones don't fit, but what about the Mooer Shrooms? I also found these generic aluminum toppers with rubber inserts on Amazon but I guess only the 'skirtless' Barefoot Buttons (sizing source) work with it so I wasn't sure if these generic ones would be too tall as well or if the rubber helps or hurts. Hard to say with all the seemingly fake reviews out there (and yes I see the irony in asking anon Redditors the same thing).
I also need toppers for my TC Helicon Switch 3 but it seems like I would need a Barefoot Button v2... but again I don't really want to scratch & dent up my pedals if I don't have to. Any alternatives for smaller switches (8.5mm = 5/16")?
Once I figure this out I figure the rest of my pedals will be easy to figure out.
These guys: MOOER GE200 Multi Effects Kit (Footswitch Topper) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BS6QZF7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_jgnHGVEfIjZio
Na I got them off Amazon. They're awesome :)
3pdt 10 pcs Footswitch Stomp Pedal Switch Aluminum Top Cap Topper Assortment, gold, blue, silver, green, red https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BJZDR73/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_VRp5AbEM2GX7G
After looking at your video the other day, I had a rummage in my parts drawer and came up with this design based heavily on [this YT video I saved for the purpose ages ago] (https://youtu.be/Z7Sc4MJ8RPM).
Diagram
Arduino Pro Micro Board, 21 stomp buttons (that is how many non latching stomps I have here). 2 rotary encoders with buttons (intending one as a windows volume control knob / button for mute and the other as a "mouse scroll wheel"), and an analogue joystick (mouse control).
I was planning to look into this, but I fell at the first hurdle which is that you need the most expensive version of BiasFx to use midi control. And right now I cant justify spending the extra money on the upgrade.
I was planing to build my own midi controller as I don't need something as big as the FCB1010, and I prefer these style foot switches
So after googling I had it backwards. The 6505+(which I have) has a custom footswitch with a 1/4" input to the amp head but like a XLR(microphone style) input to the pedal. And while that pedal might work for a 6505, it's like $30 more and there's another one that you can use that's available on a few sites:
Amazon as an example
And thanks! I was introduced to reddit from tumblr and tumblrinaction, and it cracked me up.
I guess it depends on which volcas you're using and what you mean by silence/return. Like do you want to trigger a whole sequence change or just start the sequence, or send a sequence to them. You can search for their midi charts to see exactly what things you can turn on/off. Depending on how advanced your midi devices are, you could trigger them in all sorts of ways. Basically, it might not be a direct connection, you could have foot switch->midi controller->volcas. It could be done though. Just have to figure out what code does what on the volca, then assign your footswitch to trigger that midi note on a midi controller. I've done things like that with an electronic drum set(that had analog triggers), triggering the drum module that had a midi out.
And that's if you can't just find a full on midi foot controller. they seem a lil pricey
There's also numerous ways you could do that with just audio signal routing. Like using a switch box to mute or unmute the output. (if they're playing on a loop)
I think the cheapest way you could do it would be get an old launch pad or triggerfinger you don't mind stepping on, and (hopefully) assign the correct code for play/stop. Or, use something like the Arturia keystep to send sequences all together and not use the volca's sequencer. lol sorry, I used to do a lot of stuff with midi.
I used an A/B/Y box to go to 2 amps at a given time. Of the 3 guitar tracks recorded for each song, 2 were cut using the Sunn + the Laney, while the 3rd was cut using the Laney + the Peavey. Pretty much the only pedal I used this session was a Superfuzz clone made by wattson. That pedal sounds huge. I also used a pigtronix class A boost for a lead at one point. The sunn rig actually strips out much of the high end coming from my guitar and functions as almost a clean bass sound to offset the guitar sound from the laney. The XXX through the 2x15, by contrast, has a dirty bass sound, so all three rounded things out nicely. I got the idea to run the XXX through the 2x15 from having previously sent guitar heads through it with good results in the past. I bought the cab off a friend in Primitive Man, and he had told me to give a guitar head a shot through it, so I did.
Look into getting an A/B/Y box to split your signal. I'm considering getting the Voodoo labs pedal in this link as it can run up to four heads simultaneously.
Update:
I ended up choosing the simplest/cheapest solutions to my immediate needs rather than splurging on any future proofing. I went with "good" out of good, better, best.
The immediate needs were the following, to reduce time between songs live:
To do that
The "better" solution I considered was a midi controller that could also control tap tempo on the DD-7. I would want this in order to save setlists, and scroll through one by one live - delivering the right settings to Ventris and auto-tempo on the DD-7. I would have gone with the Disaster Area Designs DMC-4 Gen3 but decided to save $100 and a lot of setup time.
"Best" solution, which would be totally overkill for my setup, would be a looper that controls midi and non-midi pedals so I can have the whole setlist programmed in. I considered:
They're just tops. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07FNVW62R
I originally got them just for the VT Bass since those were harder to hit behind the other pedals. But i liked them and they're nice when playing barefoot.
The FS-6 is the official foot switch from Boss for this. It has LEDs that show your channel and all.
https://www.amazon.com/BOSS-Metal-Footswitch-battery-powered-FS-6/dp/B000OY707S/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=fs6+boss&qid=1563933296&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Footswitch Topper) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BS6QZF7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_YLhJBbSF3YGXA
I just bought the katana 50 with THIS bad boy and it's good,kinda tricky but makes the function
As you look at your pod, on the left-hand side there is a "left ouput". This goes into the input on your amp. The manual (at least for my Pod 2.0) says that if you only have one output, use the left one. The Pod will see that there is only one channel and send everything to that one.
The FTSW input on your amp is for a Fender footswitch. I don't think it will do anything with any other input.
I only have one JHS pedal, the mute but it feels well made and the light switching is pretty cool. The construction, finish and design feel unique even if it something almost every pedal maker can make.
No, buy the Ultra.
You can use a passive AB/Y switcher as a footswitch and even run into both channels at once (how good this sounds is very amp-dependent, but if not - it still works as a switcher). This one from Fender is excellent and less than $50.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01COZGA4S/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2MCR09NQC3YEW
?
Odd, the M series are all dry-thru I think.
Sweet pedal choices my friend!
These patch cables on Amazon are really affordable yet high quality. Flat jacks with flat ribbon cables, they'll enable you to put pedals real close together and not lose space unnecessarily. I use three different lengths of them.
Flat Patch Cables- Amazon
A helpful member of this forum advised against those metal S-connectors, though a few months ago I was using them too. Flat patch cables eliminate having to play "Tetris" with your effects, and they are probably cheaper than the solderless patch kits the pros use.
As for the bypass on the cry baby, probably all you will need is a good 3pdt foot switch, some wire, and a soldering iron. 3pdt switches can be found on Amazon, just buy a few of 'em. I use these ones for three mods, they rock.
3pdt switches- Amazon
3pdt means "3 pole double throw". I used this guy's guide on you tube for my vox true bypass mod.
3pdt bypass mod for a vox wah- YouTube
Your objective (should you feel adventurous enough to try a mod) is to rewire the input/output jacks so that they bypass directly through a 3pdt switch. My vox bypassed through the effect circuit board, leading to a bit of tone suck. I'm being you could find a similar guide for the cry baby.
Rock on.
If you're dead set on rehousing this piece of art I can help. Those are old CTS pots, not sure the values as the Dist+ circuit has changed through the years. The switch is a carling SPDT stomp switch https://www.amazon.com/Carling-4308828120-SPDT-Footswitch/dp/B00DJFRCZE but any SPDT stomp will do the same. Those jacks will work but make sure to get at least 1 switched jack to replace the one in there that disconnects the battery from the circuit while not in use.
We use these foot pedals, which might be better for her than the large buttons. They are compatible with the adaptive controller. Not sure how viable it is for her since they take more force (but likewise probably are more able to take the force of less controlled pressing). I even borrow one when he isn't playing to do Push to talk when playing with a controller on my PC.
https://smile.amazon.com/StealthSwitch-FS-2-Foot-Pedal-Footswitch/dp/B00QJCAZ1M
JOYO?
Or Monoprice? (Can't find a link for it atm; they may have discontinued production, or are out of stock. It looks like this, though.)
Or you can use something like this just for one pedal.
I assume this would work: https://www.amazon.com/StealthSwitch-FS-2-Foot-Pedal-Footswitch/dp/B00QJCAZ1M/ref=asc_df_B00QJCAZ1M/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=343344082797&hvpos=1o8&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8307622412389513599&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019659&hvtargid=pla-754337396587&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=70880131804&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=343344082797&hvpos=1o8&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8307622412389513599&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019659&hvtargid=pla-754337396587
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Or you could make your own for cheaper, buy this one: https://www.amazon.com/Momentary-Operated-Controller-Industrial-Anti-Skid/dp/B07KN6GLYD/ref=asc_df_B07KN6GLYD/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309735769572&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9608393584347015640&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019659&hvtargid=pla-654764506517&psc=1
and splice a 3.5mm connector from an old pair of headphones onto it.
I use this foot swtch with an Orange amp and it’s great. Also very pedalboard friendly size — I don’t have it on my board right now but I used to and it’s about the size of a Boss pedal.
Edit: foot switch has a 1/4” jack so you can use whatever cord you want.