5E3 jumper madness -- enter at your own risk

[King Fan]

In any discussion of the (already complex) topic of 5E3 channel/knob interaction, some experienced user points out there's also the option of running a jumper between the channels. As if those 30-minute YouTubes showing how to set the three simple knobs weren't enough...

Rob, as usual, has a clear, thorough discussion of how it works and what it does, with this nice pic of a typical setup. In fact, that's the setup I'd often used; try it, it's great. And yeah, this also works great with an ABY pedal.

But, further down the page, he also explains at least six options; the most common is sort of a mirror image of this, "cable into normal hi, jumper normal lo to bright hi." He also nicely analyzes what combination of impedance/attenuation/channel dominance features in each setup. Short version -- there are a *lot* of possible topologies.

Testing them out is fun -- and extremely challenging to my organization skills. Part of that is the wordy descriptions with lots of 'normal', 'bright', 'hi', and 'lo' in every bite, like the chocolate chips in grandma's wonderful cookies.

So being mostly crazy, I decided a graphic / mapping approach might help me find a few faves and explore their uses. Some are clearly good for jazz; some maybe rhythm; some maybe lead, or hot HBs, or low-powered SCs, or going the rest of the way crazy.

Avert your eyes if you're easily triggered. I numbered the variants 1-8 and A-D just so I could *pretend* to check them out in some organized fashion... In no way do I think we should ever talk about 'Jumper 5' the way we talk about Strat switch positions. The first six are (I think) Rob's, with my kludgy short labels. I tried out #7 last night. Feel free and add your own with crayon -- nobody doing this should have access to any sharp implements.

 

[tubegeek]

"Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night" - Margo Channing

 

[muscmp]

i've gone thru some of rob's also, but, unfortunately, found that they are all useful. it just depends upon what you like at that moment. i usually use my morley aby pedal which makes it easier to balance, or unbalance, the two channels.

thanks kingfan!!

play music!

 

[spurgie79]

Saved the schematic! Thank You!

 

[Dan_Pomykalski]

In any discussion of the (already complex) topic of 5E3 channel/knob interaction, some experienced user points out there's also the option of running a jumper between the channels. As if those 30-minute YouTubes showing how to set the three simple knobs weren't enough...

Rob, as usual, has a clear, thorough discussion of how it works and what it does, with this nice pic of a typical setup. In fact, that's the setup I'd often used; try it, it's great. And yeah, this also works great with an ABY pedal.

View attachment 768290

But, further down the page, he also explains at least six options; the most common is sort of a mirror image of this, "cable into normal hi, jumper normal lo to bright hi." He also nicely analyzes what combination of impedance/attenuation/channel dominance features in each setup. Short version -- there are a *lot* of possible topologies.

Testing them out is fun -- and extremely challenging to my organization skills. Part of that is the wordy descriptions with lots of 'normal', 'bright', 'hi', and 'lo' in every bite, like the chocolate chips in grandma's wonderful cookies.

So being mostly crazy, I decided a graphic / mapping approach might help me find a few faves and explore their uses. Some are clearly good for jazz; some maybe rhythm; some maybe lead, or hot HBs, or low-powered SCs, or going the rest of the way crazy.

Avert your eyes if you're easily triggered. I numbered the variants 1-8 and A-D just so I could *pretend* to check them out in some organized fashion... In no way do I think we should ever talk about 'Jumper 5' the way we talk about Strat switch positions. The first six are (I think) Rob's, with my kludgy short labels. I tried out #7 last night. Feel free and add your own with crayon -- nobody doing this should have access to any sharp implements.

View attachment 768298

You should make a footswitch that let’s you select all of the options. Like an ABCDWXYZ(?) pedal.

 

[theprofessor]

You should make a footswitch that let’s you select all of the options. Like an ABCDWXYZ(?) pedal.

 

[Piotr]

That is excellent, @King Fan. I'm going to have some more experimenting with my 5E3. I've had it for such a long time and seems I can still find some more tricks in it.
Not sure if I'm going to get into jumpering channels too much. I usually crank the volume of the unused channel to 11, to get brighter and more mid-scooped tone.

 

[Minivan Megafun]

I've been using an ABY pedal and that's eliminated the need for a solo boost pedal on my board. Also effective on the Bassman and 57 Twin.

 

[King Fan]

i've gone thru some of rob's also, but, unfortunately, found that they are all useful.

:lolol: Yes, exactly. That's the problem with our friend Rob -- he has about a million ideas, and *so* many of them are useful, appealing, intriguing, unexpected, clever -- it's just cruel and heartless....

That is excellent, @King Fan. ...
Not sure if I'm going to get into jumpering channels too much. I usually crank the volume of the unused channel to 11, to get brighter and more mid-scooped tone.

Agree totally. The 'opposite-land' setting (unused channel on 10-11 or so) is one of my most useful 5E3 tricks.

Knob settings bring up another possible problem in Jumper World. Maybe the knobs kinda sorta interact like you expect, just a bit more or less depending on channel dominance and attenuation? Then you wouldn't have to figure out new knob interaction for each setup. Or, I've read that some (let it be 'most', please?) of these jumped setups turn the volume knobs sorta into tone knobs, so maybe there's less weird interaction and more sorta 'let's add a little more bright here.'

 

[Dan_Pomykalski]

View attachment 768310

I hope those are all digital and buffered/hardwire bypassed.

 

[King Fan]

I hope those are all digital and buffered/hardwire bypassed.

I just hope never to see those jeans in person...

 

[King Fan]

Overnight, my OCD self joined my manic self on the bridge, and came up with a more organized map of this sector of the galaxy. I guess there are just eight variants, so I've divided them into quadrants by hi/lo input and jumper orientation (diagonal / horizontal).

The labels with question marks are my guesses -- those without are my lame attempts to boil down Rob's analysis and description...

And yes, the numbering system is NOT the same as above. To those of you who already memorized the old version, or laminated it to your workbench with an inch of pourable Lucite, my apologies.

Knowing our collective cabin fever will get even worse as covid drags on and the weather gets colder, I tried to leave room for anyone who wants to crayon in their own labels or notes.

 

[jmp81sc]

You haven't even bridged the volume and tone control setting that go with each jumper setting.

How many combinations between the eight jumper settings and three knobs with 12 possible positions?

This could take a lifetime to finish haha.

On a serious note I'm glad you are doing this and would be interested in your favorite settings, especially with your 5G9.
Take care
John

 

[King Fan]

Heh, no, go ahead; try all the different VVT settings on each pattern, and then try all of those with all the options from Rob's top three mods, and let us know what you find.

The 5G9 is amazing jumper'd the 'usual way', but I'm gonna check these on the 5E3 -- the 5G9 is already a bigger, richer sound, and doesn't need or want as much help to get different voices going; the VVT interaction is less pronounced, too.

 

[Dukex]

Thanks, King Fan. I'll be checking this out soon!

 

[NTC]

The 5G9 is amazing jumper'd the 'usual way', but I'm gonna check these on the 5E3 -- the 5G9 is already a bigger, richer sound, and doesn't need or want as much help to get different voices going; the VVT interaction is less pronounced, too.

It is always good to know the possibilities. There might be something unexpected and useful when jumpering the 5G9. Enquiring minds want to know!

 

[jmp81sc]

I have done it some with my 5g9, but mainly just to check it to make sure it was working correctly.

I will play around with it in a few days when I get home.

 

[dlaroe]

You can also put a latching foot switch in the empty jack to toggle the jumped channel from low to high.

I put a small cap in parallel with the 68k series resistor on my Normal Low jack. Knocks of some of the bass without the drastic change of different coupling or bypass caps.

 

[archetype]

"Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night" - Margo Channing

Watching her, right now, in Now, Voyager.

 

[Burning Fingers]

Having tried all the possible 5E3 jumper configs I found that a dual button footswitch to simply select either or both channels was far more useful...you still get to choose which inputs the 2 leads plug into but have the luxury of a clean(ish) channel , an overdriven channel and a tone monster with both channels driven.
Note..the footswitch needs to earth whichever channel is Not in use to emulate the earthing of the input when no lead is inserted to avoid unwanted noise when the volume is turned up.
I mentioned this in a previous post... https://www.tdpri.com/threads/nad-5e3.1047980/#post-10099729