AB/XY for 2 Guitars and 2 Amps on Separate Channels

As usual I like to make things that solves problems for me.

This time it's this, I use a Boss AB-2 pedal to switch between my two amps, one is normally dirty and the other one is clean with pedals in front of it.

Then when someone else comes along and wants to use one of the amps I have to mess up the cables between the pedals so that both guitars get an amp. This happens when my son wants to play or when a friend comes over.

So I thought I'd make a pedal to solve that, I saw some AB/XY pedals but they only had the ability to send one signal through at the time. That means one guitar OR the other, and one amp OR the other. I wanted the ability to have a normal ABY and to switch it over to having two guitars and two amps connected and then switch the connection between them.

And now I do.

Step 1: My Layout

Two inputs and two outputs.

When the pedal Toggle is off the pedal acts as a ABY pedal. The Toggle position is indicated by a blue led. The signal goes in to the Main input and out of one of the outputs, stomping the Switcher makes the signal go out the other output. A led (yellow or red) indicates which way it goes. The unused output is grounded.

When the Toggle is stomped the secondary input is activated. The Main input will be connected to one output and the Secondary input to the other. Stomping the Switcher will switch which goes where and the leds will indicate where the Main Input is going.

There is a 9 volt circuit to power the leds and it is not connected to the signal circuit. The pedal works the same without this power but there will be no indication from the leds.

A battery would last a long time powering only two leds simultaneously but I wanted to use an adapter. If you want a battery to fit inside the enclosure it needs to be bigger.

Step 2: Parts

2 x 3PDT Stomp Switch (You could also go with one 3PDT and one 2PDT as one row of contacts will be unused)

1 x Connector Power

3 x 5mm led, use whatever colors you like, I chose one red, one yellow and one blue

3 x led socket

2 x 3,9 kΩ Resistor

3 x Mono jack, 6,4mm / 1/4"

1 x Stereo jack, 6,4mm / 1/4"

1 x Enclosure 1590b, it gets really tight in this one so maybe a bigger one is better

I made a miscalculation when I ordered my stuff so I have a 2,2 kΩ resistor for the blue led which makes it shine a bit brighter than the red and yellow ones. The are connected to a 3.9 kΩ resistor as described in the list above. Anything from 2k to 5k should work but gives different brightness, low for more brightness and high for dim.

Step 3: Schematics

This is the pedal seen from inside the box.

Edit:

I noticed I made an error in the layout.

The Secondary Input should be a Stereo jack, the green wire goes to the tip and the purple goes to the ring.

The reason for this is to disable the secondary input if there is no cable connected there.

There should also be a wire from ground to the ring lug on one of the jacks to ground the enclosure, this is to get rid of possible interference.

I will add these things when I have the time.

Step 4: Soldering

I used jacks that are grounded when screwed to the walls of the box so there are no wires for that part of the grounding.

The led legs are not isolated here and it would be better if they where but its very tight in this small enclosure so I skipped that, the internals are not moving and it should be fine.

Step 5: Unnecessary Amount of Photos

And here it is, so far it works as intended as I like taking pictures so here's a whole bunch of them!

Step 6: So, What Is It for Then?

With this pedal I can connect my guitar to MAIN INPUT, and then connect my two amps, a Laney IRT15 on the LEFT OUTPUT and my Madamp G3 on the RIGHT OUTPUT.

With the SWITCH I can change between the two amps.

If I want to connect another guitar, like when my son wants to play with me or when a friend comes over, their guitar would be connected to SECONDARY INPUT and I would stomp the TOGGLE. That would make it so my guitar goes to one OUTPUT and the other guitar goes to the other OUTPUT. Stomping the SWITCH will then change amps.

And then there is a picture of my rig, the amps go to one 12" each in the cabinet. There are only two speakers in there right now.

Step 7: Sticker

I felt I needed to relabel a used pedal I bought and thought I'd make one for this pedal at the same time.

I did as with with my BYOC Overdrive II Kit.

First a primer, then a color, this time white base because my printer can't print white. Then I printed a picture on transparent "paper" with adhesive on one side. After that I added a clear coat to make the sticker blend in more and to make it more durable.