Peavey amp footswitch.

[Worrywort]

Hello. I’m now the proud owner of a new Peavey Bandit 112 amp. I have had a play and realised it can have a foot switch connected. I had a look online and the peavey ones are the wrong side of £30. I made an A.B.Y switch for under £20.

My next project is....... could someone show me a wiring diagram of one please?

 

[corliss1]

"Bandit" covers a lot of models, but if it's just one function you can likely just make a footswitch that connects to the tip and sleeve of a standard guitar cable and that'll work. You can even test this by just plugging in a cable and shorting the two connections together.

 

[trev333]

I made one for my guitar player's Peavey valve king, an A/B for channel switching and one for reverb....... I just googled up a peavey footswitch wiring diagram online....

it must have been easy as it worked fine..

 

[Worrywort]

Thanks. The ones for sale are two button ones. The socket on the back is single. The plug is going to be stereo.

I assume it’s sleeve is common and switches are between sleeve and tip, sleeve and ring. Have the manufacturers wired it so the ring or tip is common and getting it wrong will blow something?

 

[corliss1]

Nope - it won't blow up anything.

 

[Pasta Player]

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/obscure-footswitch-question.990630/#post-9456716

 

[Worrywort]

Hello. I built the circuit as shown and it works. However it's noisy. I assume a capacitor across the switch contacts will solve this. Could someone recommend a solution or what size caps to try Please? The reason I'm asking is I don't have any spares and I have to get everything by Mail which is expensive.

 

[PhoenixBill]

Noisy in what way? If it’s hum or radio interference: the 3 wire cable must be shielded with the shield connected to ground (sleeve).

 

[Worrywort]

Sorry. I should have explained this. There's no hum. when I switch it there's a loud audible click from the speaker when each switch is operated. I used a thin 4 core phone/burglar alarm cable.

 

[PhoenixBill]

Ah, the switching pop problem. This is an issue for lots of amps, not just Peavey.

Peavey (like other amps) used several various schemes for channel/reverb switching, the simplest was actually routing the signal through the foot switch, another was the use of relays on the circuit board, yet another was the use of transistors to accomplish the switching. It’s been a while since I went through the Bandit schematics but there are definitely several different Bandit circuits and they definitely didn’t use the same switching method throughout (although the foot switch itself was usually wired exactly as yours is).

Getting rid of those pops isn’t easy, and indeed that’s why amp manufacturers have used some more elaborate switching methods. Merely adding a capacitor somewhere might work but I suspect it could introduce other problems, depending on the circuit. Despite what some folks believe, the early Bandits were designed very well and didn’t cut a lot of corners, so if all it took was simply adding a cap to stop switching pops, I believe they probably would have put it in.

However, you could still do some things that may help, and that you should probably do regardless. One would be to recap that amp: replace ALL electrolytic capacitors. They are far older than their design lifespan—electrolytics are notorious for drying out after several decades. Peavey used electrolytic coupling caps IIRC in those amps and those can drift in value and ESR. I replace those with film caps whenever possible.

When the amp has components that have been restored to their design specs, you may be pleasantly surprised at how much better the amp sounds, and you may even have improved the switching noise.

 

[Worrywort]

Thanks Phoenixbill. The amp is new. I suppose I could send it back but that would be a lot of hassle especially since I’m not using a Peavey made footswitch. And I’m learning to play. I’m Months away from playing live.

It’s a shame because I really like the Amp. Especially since I swapped the speaker for a Celestion Alnico Cream. (I’m not rich or mad. That speaker is going to follow me forever. I’m building a Deluxe Tweed kit)

 

[PhoenixBill]

Ah, it’s a new amp? Sorry, I somehow had the impression it was an older model hence the lack of a foot switch and therefore my recommendation to have it serviced.

 

[Pasta Player]

I used a thin 4 core phone/burglar alarm cable.

Might possibly be a consequence of the cable that you used.
Used coiled cable & plug from old set of headphones & no "pops".
Isn't your 4-core, a lighter gauge wire too?