Help a musician with his invention

[orbsycli]

Ok. So i was playing guitar today, and for all of you who know amplifiers:
i have an effects processor sent out and returning to my amp, which is a marshall mode 4. i have to move a knob every time i want to hear it, or i dont want to hear it, or i want to partially hear it.
i want to be able to move this knob without stopping playing.
i came up with this idea...

the picture/diagram is here:
http://www.mediapimp.net/jason/knobpedal.jpg

a foot pedal that somehow leads to the knob, grips it, and turns it with the up and down motion of the foot pedal.
i have NO IDEA how i would do this, i have never been good with building things, just destroying them.
if anybody has ANY ideas for me, i would really appreciate it, this is something i NEED!
thanks,
-jason

[Fishteacher73]

Most of those knobs are probably like a rheostat, which basically a variable resistor. You vould probably just pull the switch and wire it through a pedal at that point...I'm not an electrical engineer but I'm good with duct tape...

[orbsycli]

ahhhh i really really wish i knew how to do that.

[C1ay]

Will any of these do what you want?

[BEAKER]

I think you should try out some of those possible options clay suggested.

I'll tell you, that's the kind of thing I would try to do - rigging up some mechanical device to do a job better left to electronics; and afterward wish I would have simply spent the money on the proper equipment.

- But if I was going to try and do it... I would first of all put the head on the floor, fit a mini gear on the knob, connect it to the chain on a drum pedal, and maybe you'd have something workable. - maybe not.

Good luck.

[orbsycli]

those pedals are merely effects that alter tone.
if i'm going to go the mechanical route, you're right. it owuld be easier to put my amp head on the ground rather than on the speaker cab.
but i'm going to shoot for wiring up a pedal to the inside of my amp, like fishteacher suggested.
thanks guys.

[Buffy]

I've been using a Roland multi-effects floor pedal thingy for years. It fortunately has a programmable variable pedal on it that I usually have set up to control volume, but only because the effects combos I use are mostly not "variable" (I don't like phasors much), except for the wahwah effects. This is useful because the various programs have widely varying output, so if i switch effects I can stomp the pedal to get the volume right. Now in the old days of separate stomp boxes, I had an old Morley Volume pedal in the last link of the stream so I could get the same effect of adjusting the output without having to go back to the amp.

Obviously Orb, if you're looking for more control over what the amp is doing, you'll need a gizmo for doing what you're describing, but I've always thought of the controls on the head itself to be useful only for adapting to the room and once set, that's where they stay for the evening through the entire set. Everything else is pedals or on the axe itself...

Noodling,
Buffy

[C1ay]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

those pedals are merely effects that alter tone.
if i'm going to go the mechanical route, you're right. it owuld be easier to put my amp head on the ground rather than on the speaker cab.
but i'm going to shoot for wiring up a pedal to the inside of my amp, like fishteacher suggested.
thanks guys.

I was hoping one of them offered the same effects as your Marshall Mode 4. Numerous companies make various pedals like these. You could buy the cheapest one you can find, gut it and physically relocate the knob fm your amp to the pedal or you could buy a replacement and put a second one in the foot pedal. With a SPDT switch you could toggle whether the effect is then controlled by the knob on the amp or the one in the pedal. This would also mean running another cable from your amp since this pedal would not be in series with the cable to your guitar.

One thing to consider about the mechanical route, it will likely not result in a solution where you can relocate it with ease, i.e. on the floor at the base of your amp in practice vs on the floor out on the stage doing a gig. The electonic solution with a cable will let you set the alternate control wherever you run the cable.

[orbsycli]

the thing is clay, it's not a switch on the amp, it's a turning knob that smoothly goes back and fourth that i want to route to a foot pedal so i can control how much depth there is in my bussed-out effects.
i have a bunch of floor pedals too that go through my signal path to my amp.

i have the boss gt-6(multi effects processor) bussed out because it totally kills the clarity and tone of my amp when running it straight through the signal path. i was thinking about selling it, but the effects on there are insane, and the versatility is one of a kind.

i'm going to go to radioshack or something and see if anybody could help me out...which i doubt...but i'll give it a shot.

moogerfooger offers these pedals that line straight to a 1/4 cable(used for controlling parameters on their stomp boxes)...maybe this is what i can use to wire it to the FX LEVEL knob?

thanks for all the thought, again, guys.

[Turtle]

___I suggest a little remote control unit from a car or plane. The joy stick is your pedal, the servo drives the knob. Velcro the servo & receiver to the amp cabinet & rubber band the servo actuator arm/disk to the knob.
___No wires to the pedal & no cutting, soldering or knob removing from your amp.