batterypowered Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Okay, I have a Fender VibroChamp, a 1975, I think. I was rewiring some crapped out connections not long ago, and I realised that it has an RCA jack marked 'Vibrato Pedal'. I'm assuming so I can turn it off and on remotely, instead of having to turn it all the way down with the knob on the front. Anyone know what kind of pedal exactly this takes? Or what kind of contact, maybe, and I can wire one myself out of old stuff. Thanks! twoblock.net batterypowered.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 I believe that Fender has replacements available for those; I'll check and see what I can find. In the mean time, take any RCA-plug ended cable, connect it to the footswitch-jack, and touch the "sleeve" of a 1/4" plug, or the shaft of a metal screwdriver, across the two contacts on the other end of the RCA-cable. It should switch the tremolo off-and-on. If you take an RCA-plug and connect its two contacts (shorting them together) and plug it into the footswitch-jack, it'll turn off the tremolo (misnamed as "vibrato", really) and may give you a perceivable, slight boost and better tone than simply turning down the "Intensity"-control, by completely bypassing the tremolo circuitry. Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarshallGibson_6 Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 When you mention RCA jack do you mean like a regular 1/4" guitar input jack? That would probably be for a simple on-off foot switch that are easily available for cheap. But, if you mean an RCA jack that is a 1/8" pin-sleeve female jack like on the back of your stereo's patching bay, it might be for something different like a speed control (which I doubt cos I've not heard of such a thing) Ask the Fender Forum Don't sell anything. Just keep it all. Let it pile up and see it grow tall. Up thru the roof and into the sky. More is always better so pile it sky high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Strat Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Like Mr. O'shite said, use a SPST on/off switch and an RCA plug to wire the footswitch. I made one for my '61 Princeton the same way. The intensity pot is a variable resistance to ground, so there shouldn't be a difference in volume between having the footswitch engaged or having the intensity pot turned all the way down. BlueStrat a.k.a. "El Guapo" ...Better fuzz through science... http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batterypowered Posted February 16, 2004 Author Share Posted February 16, 2004 Sweet, thanks. I think I'm going to make one with stuff from Radioshack for a Saturday project, sometime. And, here's another question: Someone wired an extension jack into the back of it, ostensibly to connect to a cabinet. Why, I don't know, since the thing is only 6 Watts. But, I thought it might be nice to wire in a headphone jack. Those are easily bought and wired at Le Shack, as well, right? twoblock.net batterypowered.org Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 MarshallGibson_6- yeah, like you see on the back of some stereos; that's an RCA-jack. Fender used to use 'em for those kind of functions; often seen as reverb-pan connectors, too, on the underside of many a combo-amp chassis. Not as commonly seen these days, but sometimes used for digital S/PDIF connections lately. Incidentally, the period-correct term for 1/4" plugs like you see on instrument cables is a "phone"-jack, as they used to see heavy use on telephone switch-boards in the old days. You still read or hear the term so applied nowadays from time-to-time. A stereo, three-conductor version would be a "TRS" (Tip-Ring-Sleeve). Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Strat Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Originally posted by batterypowered: Someone wired an extension jack into the back of it, ostensibly to connect to a cabinet. Why, I don't know, since the thing is only 6 Watts. But, I thought it might be nice to wire in a headphone jack. Those are easily bought and wired at Le Shack, as well, right?I've never done it myself, but here's how I'd wire a headphone jack if I were going to do that. I'd get a 8 ohm/20W resistor, a 10k audio taper pot (to set headphone volume) and I'd change the 1/4" extension jack out to a stereo jack and the main jack out to a 1/4" short circuiting jack. You'd want to have a load when practicing with headphones, so that's where the 8 ohm resistor comes in. It's wired to the shorting contact on the main speaker jack so that when the speaker is disconnected, the 8 ohm resistor is connected to the output transformer. The 10k volume pot is wired in parallel with the 8 ohm resistor, with the outer lugs going to the ends of the resistor, and the center lug wired to both the ring and tip connections of the 1/4" stereo jack. You can set your output volume with the 10k volume pot for use as either a recording output or a headphone output, or you can set it where you like the volume and measure from the center lug to each of the ends of the pot (after taking it out of the circuit) and put fixed resistors in there for a set volume. BlueStrat a.k.a. "El Guapo" ...Better fuzz through science... http://geocities.com/teleman28056/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caevan O’Shite Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Well, Fender does sell newly-made, period-correct retrofitting replacements for your Vibro Champ. They are Fender 1-button vintage RCA style footswitches; unfortuneately, the Fender 'site lists them as being temporarily out-of-stock. You could probably order one from an authorized Fender dealer, and you might get one sooner than the Fender 'site's "out-of" tag would imply, as many of the ones previously in-stock may well be languishing on warehouse-shelves somewhere. I did find this recent-make "new-in-box" one on e-bay; scope it out for yourself... Clonk for link http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/icons/icon2.gifhttp://www.revolutionguitar.com/eBayStuff/Footswitches/images/FS-RCA-FEND-1B-1.jpg Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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