Stupidest Jack arrangement you’ve ever seen

All of the limited edition stuff Red Witch has been pumping out over the last few years. Loved his full production stuff of the past (up to the Binary Star?), but now he's just doing the same thing over and over with these things below. I guess he has figured out calling things limited edition makes for quick money. But, to come back to the point of this thread; those knobs. Screw that. You can tell they sit there just because he doesn't want to get them in the way of the art, which he grabs out of the public domain; so uninspired, and user-unfriendly. This Jugendstil stuff looks better full-sized on a wall than on a pedal anyway.
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Alan W said:
This from a post on the gear page, where someone wants help rehousing their pedal, due to Jack placement. Hard to believe anyone would release this as a product.

What are some of the worst designs you’ve come across?

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That configuration only makes sense to me if it’s hooked up to a loop switcher. Not a valid reason to make a commercial product that way IMO

tegendemuur said:
All of the limited edition stuff Red Witch has been pumping out over the last few years. Loved his full production stuff of the past (up to the Binary Star?), but now he's just doing the same thing over and over with these things below. I guess he has figured out calling things limited edition makes for quick money. But, to come back to the point of this thread; those knobs. Screw that. You can tell they sit there just because he doesn't want to get them in the way of the art, which he grabs out of the public domain; so uninspired, and user-unfriendly.
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If you’re going to mount the pots there, I think 1611 knobs are definitely the wrong choice. Just think about looking down at your guitar while you’re playing it. Having an indicator on the knob would just look stupid. A gibson speed knob with the graduated marked lines would be a much better choice.
 
jcpst said:
That configuration only makes sense to me if it’s hooked up to a loop switcher. Not a valid reason to make a commercial product that way IMO


If you’re going to mount the pots there, I think 1611 knobs are definitely the wrong choice. Just think about looking down at your guitar while you’re playing it. Having an indicator on the knob would just look stupid. A gibson speed knob with the graduated marked lines would be a much better choice.
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Yup. Needs to be a dial! While I do not like the look of the Swarm (it makes my brain short out just looking at it), Beetronic's idea with this side knob is a perfect solution. It seems to be like using the scroll wheel on a mouse, because of the forward/backward finger motion needed to turn it.

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GizzWizzKing said:
ZVEX comes to mind... Side jacks... Okay... But on landscape oriented pedals? Maybe someone can explain why this is a good idea ...
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It's strange how, nowadays, I see landscape pedals and think of desktop units instead of pedalboard gear. Back in the day everything was accepted as is, but now there's this weird Victorianesque thing going on with how things should and should not look, and now things start to look all the same. Instagram-friendly pedalboards.
 
ANYTHING THAT USES 3 WALLS of an enclosure.
Top-jacks and top DC with an expression jack on the side (2 walls) is sometimes acceptable.







A little closer to our DIY-home...

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Steve D. always did have a weird way with perfboard, cutting huge notches out around the edges, and lots of Molex connectors, almost always using 3 out of 4 walls of an enclosure — sticking input/output jacks on one side-wall with power on another (usually opposite and then the third side having controls). If the knobs were on top, then it was the classic in/out on the sides with power out the north wall...

While I do wish he hadn't retired from running Small Bear, I never did like his layouts (even before I became obsessed with top-jacks).
 
A lot of these aren't bad jack arrangements.. they just have the labels in the wrong orientation!

I am more concerned with some of these knob placements. Nothing worse than a knob you can't adjust on a pedal board, or a footswitch you can't use because it's surrounded by knobs and your shoe size is greater than 3!
 
tegendemuur said:
... how things should and should not look, and now things start to look all the same. Instagram-friendly pedalboards.
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When pedals were relatively new on the scene and a pro player might have had 3 max I think anything was accepted. But if form follows function and the function of these is to be chained together in the simplest way possible then a standard comes along. The pedals have to play nicely together because that is one of their primary functions to integrate together with others.

I do love a good crowded pedalboard with lots of diverse pedal orientations though.
 
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If that Blues Power pedal just had side jacks I think the rest of it would be ok. I like the idea of the inset knobs. The ones on those old Ibanez Tone Lok pedals could pop out though which helps with adjusting.
 
Blues Power pedal is good with me. Recessed knobs necessitate an unusual top-jack arrangement, but it is all top-jacks nonetheless.
 
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