Manual Octa-Switch
Ok, so you have eight effects pedals which you use regularly. You use various combinations of these pedals
in various songs, but you are not good at tap dancing…or you are just clumsy and have stepped on the ultra
tricked out-metalized-distortion pedal for the lead in your one ABBA cover. You have seen the digital effects
controllers they use on the big stages, and have secretly yearned for one, even though you may never make
the big stage? Enter Thomas Guldmann’s Octa-switch. Your eight effects plug into the eight effects-loops on
the back of this unit (all true-bypass, impedance free gold relays so you can run any of your pedals, new and
old without problem), and then by turning on or off the numbered switches in each of eight DIP Bank switches,
you determine which effects you wish to use simultaneously in each Bank. There is a blue LED for every
effects loop used and for each Bank (so once you are programmed, when you step on Bank 6 you will see the
lights of all the effects you have assigned to Bank 6 and the Bank 6 LED). Once you have each Bank
programmed, we recommend placing a piece of scotch or electrical tape over each DIP (….just to protect the
switch from damage or floods….like beer). There is a buffered (or not….switchable) Mono input and a stereo
Output, and the unit is powered by dual 9v batteries, or by a regulated power supply.
Then by turning on or off the numbered switches in each of eight DIP Bank
switches, you determine which effects you wish to use simultaneously in
each Bank. There is a blue LED for every effects loop used and for each
Bank (so once you are programmed, when you step on Bank 6 you will see
the lights of all the effects you have assigned to Bank 6 and the Bank 6
LED).
Please note, the DIP switches are slide type, NOT push down. They are
easily operated with a small screwdriver, a pen, or a very very small finger.
There is a buffered (or not….switchable) Mono input
On large stages when running long connected cables, there is a definite drop
in the high end of your guitar sound (more or less depending on the input
impedance of your amplifier). The solution according to Thomas was once
again ‘simple’. He built in a buffer circuit at the input, so the user can choose
between 100% true bypass, or buffered bypass to ‘beef’ up the signal.
Loop 8 offer a mono send and a stereo return on a stereo jack plug,
with left at the jack tip and right at the jack ring.
