Dual Pedal wiring *with* TRS and/or 4-jack option

[Joben Magooch]

Apologies if this exists somewhere already but I wasn't able to find anything beyond the 'standard' dual pedal wiring options found on the Wiki.

So, on some dual pedals nowadays builders have started making them with either two TRS jacks or four jacks to allow you to use both sides of the pedal independently in a switcher or to insert a pedal between the two sides or so on.

Analogman offers the "4-Jack Option" as an upcharge on the King of Tone. Instead of just two jacks for I/O...you guessed it. There's four. If you plug into the outermost jacks it functions just like a typical two-jack pedal. In through the first side of the OD, into the second side of the OD, output. But there's also the option to use one pair of I/O for the Yellow side and another for the "Red". If you use a looper/switcher of some sort, you can control both sides independently as they're effectively operating the same as two separate pedals.

If you use a remote switching system, or want a pedal or pedals between the two sides of the KOT, you might want separate inputs and ouputs for each side. We can offer a four jack Ver4 option for $50 on a new pedal or $75 as a mod. You can still use two jacks like the normal KoT and go through both sides. The jacks are "normalized" so when you plug into just the two outer jacks, the signal is routed through both sides just like a normal KOT.

Another example is the Browne Protein. It uses TRS jacks to accomplish more or less the same purpose:

The TRS plug on the input is going to act as the loop for the green side.

The TRS plug on the output is going to act as the loop for the blue side.

Tip is the input/send from your Loop

Ring is the output/return to your Loop.

There are two dip switches inside the pedal that need to be flipped down to the “split” position to use it this way. Remove the four screws from the back panel and flip the switches to the down position.

(Of course there are plenty more examples I'm sure, these two just came to mind first)

The former seems like it would be fairly straightforward with switched jacks or similar. The latter I'm not so sure of. Does anybody know of an easy way to accomplish this? Perhaps with a small toggle switch (rather than a dip switch, as that of course wouldn't be part of the standard PCB) or something.

I'm sure it'd be simple enough to do a dual enclosure and just box it up like two separate pedals (four jacks) and then just jumper them externally if you wanted it the "normal" Side A>Side B configuration but it'd be a little cleaner IMO to do it either the internal way or even better still with just two TRS jacks. Anyone have any ideas and/or wiring diagrams to accomplish such a thing? Thank you!

 

[Joben Magooch]

Okay, I *think* I might've came up with something that would work to accomplish this purpose... But I'm not totally sure where you would wire the actual circuit in/outs.

Four switched TRS jacks. Going to try to explain without drawing anything...will try to keep it as not-confusing as possible

If you're looking down at the pedal, from left to right let's say they're labeled 4, 3, 2, 1.
1 is the input to the right side of the pedal; 4 is the output from the left side of the pedal. 2 is the output of the right side of the pedal while three is the input of the left side of the pedal. Looking down at your switched TRS jack there are six lugs. Let's say the plug-side (opening) is facing left. Top row is L1, L2, L3 (L-R), bottom row is L4, L5, L6 (L-R).
Jack 1 (Right input) L1 and L3 connect to Jack 2 (Right output) L1 and L3, respectively
Jack 2 (Right output) L1 connects to Jack 3 (Left input) L4 and Jack 2 L3 connects to Jack 4 L6. Additionally, Jack 2 L4 connects to Jack 3 L1 and Jack 2 L6 to Jack 3 L3.
Jack 3 (Left input) L1 connects to Jack 4 (Left output) L1, and Jack 3 L3 to Jack 4 L3.

I'm sure that was perfectly clear. Hahaha.
In this way...when you plug in to Jack 1 (Right input) and nothing is plugged into Jack 2/3 then it's connected to Jack 4 (Left output) directly and goes straight through in and out like a normal two-jack dual pedal would go.
When you plug something into 2/3 it switches the path so if you wanted to use a switcher or something your first loop's send would go to J4 and then the loop's return would go to J3. Then your second loop send would go to J2 and second loop return to J1. This way they'd be independently controlled, like separate circuits.

So, I guess provided the switching is correct as I've described it... you'd just wire the right-side circuit in/out to J4/J3 as normal and left-side circuit in/out to J2/J1? Since the jacks are switched it should in theory pass through in series like a normal dual pedal would, but then separate the circuits when using the middle jacks...

Clear as mud, no doubt.

 

[SYLV9ST9R]

4 jacks wiring

Have a look at that for the first scenario.

For the "loop" function on one jack, you would need an insert cable to plug in your effect, but not sure how to wire the jack inside…

 

[Joben Magooch]

4 jacks wiring

Have a look at that for the first scenario.

For the "loop" function on one jack, you would need an insert cable to plug in your effect, but not sure how to wire the jack inside…

That's pretty much exactly what I was going for. Looks like I was overthinking it by a fair margin...Haha. Thank you!!

For all the ones I've seen that just use two jacks to accomplish the same thing they all seem to be using TRS jacks with some sort of switching to toggle between "regular" and "split/looper" configuration. That would be neat, but as long as there's enough space in the enclosure for four jacks I'm fine with that. TBH, I'd rather just use four standard cables instead of two TRS-dual TS Y-cables. So it's all good!