I'm getting to the point in my amp building and life where I'd like to have an amp switcher, partly for fun while playing and partly to compare amps in a hurry. I recall reading threads about it before where people claim it's a bad idea and yet when I lived in Nashville I saw them in studios- a rack full of amps, all fired up and running and a rack unit to switch them on the fly to a single cab in an iso room as needed.
I figured I'd use RG's hacked 74c373 circuit as a "one of x" selector and power low and high power relays to select the inputs and outputs respectively. Large wirewound resistors would be wired across the returns from the amp power sections to help prevent major inductive kickback issues during switching; hopefully they'd be large & high enough in value to not get particularly hot while playing. I figured this way I could have a fender into a 4x12 for clean stuff and with a single button press pull up a marshall into a hotplate or a DC30 or something. It could be integrated into a pedal switcher without too much effort. A microcontroller could handle both without breaking a sweat.
It sounds fun and easy but I might be missing something.
Jamie
I figured I'd use RG's hacked 74c373 circuit as a "one of x" selector and power low and high power relays to select the inputs and outputs respectively. Large wirewound resistors would be wired across the returns from the amp power sections to help prevent major inductive kickback issues during switching; hopefully they'd be large & high enough in value to not get particularly hot while playing. I figured this way I could have a fender into a 4x12 for clean stuff and with a single button press pull up a marshall into a hotplate or a DC30 or something. It could be integrated into a pedal switcher without too much effort. A microcontroller could handle both without breaking a sweat.
It sounds fun and easy but I might be missing something.
Jamie
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