How do you install your footswitches ? What to do with the various rings ?

[jwyles90]

This was quite the illuminating thread! Personally, I hate the way the white washers look but I wouldn't turn down a great sounding pedal if it had one. I feel like I've read somewhere that they help protect the 3pdt by absorbing some of the impact of being stomped on. So, while they look ugly, they'll help improve the overall lifespan of the switch (or so I'm told). As a bedroom guitarist, I have a hard time seeing how I'll ever wear through a 3pdt, but who knows.

 

[Big Monk]

Isn't it a bit like tearing out the bumper of your car, and use it as headrest for the passengers seats ?

No, not at all.

 

[giovanni]

From a cursory search on some old forums some folks do agree that the plastic washers help with shock absorption and increase the life of the switch. I wish they weren’t so ugly! Maybe black nylon would be better.

 

[Big Monk]

I put the lock washer on the inside, white washer in the garbage, metal washer on the outside, and then tighten the nut

Listen to this man.

 

[giovanni]

But is the white washer the Chesterton’s fence of pedal building? https://sproutsschools.com/chesterton-fence-dont-destroy-what-you-dont-understand/

 

[KR Sound]

But is the white washer the Chesterton’s fence of pedal building? https://sproutsschools.com/chesterton-fence-dont-destroy-what-you-dont-understand/

Nope. I understand it. I understand it to be ugly.

 

[eh là bas ma]

I wish they weren’t so ugly!

I understand it to be ugly.

Personally, I hate the way the white washers look

Hopefully one day you'll come to understand and see the subtle beauty and deep poetry of white washers. Even white doves flying in the summer skies are nothing compared to white washers...

I don't think white washers are an acquired taste, they are obviously amazing, but the modern society, capitalism, blurs our true basic values, such as white washers, and manage to impair our perceptions. This is not your fault.

You believe white washers are ugly probably because your minds are preconditioned ?

Sometimes we need to loose something very important to understand its true value. If they'd stop manufacturing white washers, we would quickly say : "it was better in the good old days, when the oil industry was still making white washers".

 

[Big Monk]

Hopefully one day you'll come to understand and see the subtle beauty and deep poetry of white washers. Even white doves flying in the summer skies are nothing compared to white washers...

I don't think white washers are an acquired taste, they are obviously amazing, but the modern society, capitalism, blurs our true values, such as white washers, and manage to impair our perceptions. This is not your fault.

You believe white washers are ugly probably because your minds are preconditioned ?

When I see white washers, I see someone who doesn’t care about themselves or their creations.

- I’m only half joking.

Analog Mike gets a pass from me though.

 

[eh là bas ma]

The more i build stompboxes, the more i realize white washers are somehow alive, each of them having its own singular character.

...but you have to pay attention and look very closely.

For exemple, they all have a slightly different smell. Just smell a dozen of them really carefully, if you don't believe me.

 

[Big Monk]

The more i build stompboxes, the more i realize white washers are somehow alive, each of them having its own singular character.

...but you have to pay attention and look very closely.

For exemple, they all have a slightly different smell. Just smell a dozen of them really carefully, if you don't believe me.

If I bought a pedal and it had a white washer, I’d send that shit back.

 

[jwin615]

Didn't read the whole thread.
I e moved to using just a nut and one of these on top

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOpqhGc

M12x16x.05mm
They are damn near invisible and do what a top washer should do, protect the enclosure from rotation of the nut.
This assumes the hole isn't over drilled, *then* you need structural support.

Underside, lock washer and 1-2 nuts.

 

[temol]

Black nylon washers.

 

[giovanni]

Black nylon washers.

Definitely better than white.

 

[Big Monk]

Definitely better than white.

...but not by much.

 

[music6000]

I never fit the 3PDT footswitch without the white washer or locking washer.
They are both on the inside to lock & absorb the click of the switch.
I lock the inside nut to the bottom of the threads.
I always use a thin dress washer & nut on the top side of the Footswitch.
That's just the way I have always done it!

 

[finebyfine]

Btw I need lock washers for pots and toggle switches, which come without them often enough.
I don't use them with PCBs of course but for off board controls they are necessary and I never know which size to order.
Is it 8mm for pots and 7mm for toggles?

M6 for toggles, M7 (very uncommon size, LMS sells some) for pots

 

[spi]

The white washers make good spacers for outie jacks (so that they don't have to protrude too much).

 

[Joben Magooch]

The white washers make good spacers for outie jacks (so that they don't have to protrude too much).

Tbh I kinda like the look of them on “innie” power jacks too (power jack, white washer, enclosure, nut) but to be fair I’m seemingly in the pro-white-washer minority

 

[andare]

...but not by much.

They are white washers in blackface

 

[giovanni]

They are white washers in blackface

Oof