Single Cable Crybaby Mod

[tasty]

I have a standard Cry Baby which I heavily modded and love. I have made it true bypass and also added a LED for status, as well as 2 trim pots for the output level and Q sweep. Anyways, in the interest of streamlining my setup I was considering using a 5 (or 7 pin) MIDI/DIN cable to allow the wah to be plugged in with only one cable. Currenlty I use a Modded FCB1010 (painted truck bed liner black) that has one cable which supplies phantom power as well as MIDI out. I would love to drill out my CryBaby and have only one cable that connects that bad boy.

Do you think a 5 pin would be enough to carry the "in" "out" and 9v DC power to the Wah? Could I share the same ground with the input/output as i do with the DC? I have no problems soldering or modding pedals but I would really love to make this the way I envision. If I could share the same ground then I would enjoy the simplified setup of my MIDI board and my sole wah pedal with only one connector!

-Ben

[scott from _actual time_]

Anyways, in the interest of streamlining my setup I was considering using a 5 (or 7 pin) MIDI/DIN cable to allow the wah to be plugged in with only one cable.

i don't know if MIDI cables are shielded enough to carry a guitar signal.

if i were you, i'd use an XLR mic cable to carry your signal to the wah and back. mic cables already have two conductors inside them, and they are shielded. you could wire the jacks on either end to the right signals, and you could use a stock mic cable. mic cables usually run low impedance signals rather than high impedance like guitar output, so you might want to run as short a cable as you can get away with.

[tasty]

Sounds good, but what about power (9vDC)?

[Robert_the_damned]

most XLR's are three pins + sheild so you can run a ballanced mic signal and phantom power down one. so you should be able to use the pin that's normally for the phantom power for the 9V supply for the pedal (the negative part of the supply connecting through the sheild of the cable obviously)

[tasty]

most XLR's are three pins + sheild so you can run a ballanced mic signal and phantom power down one. so you should be able to use the pin that's normally for the phantom power for the 9V supply for the pedal (the negative part of the supply connecting through the sheild of the cable obviously)

Sounds good! Will I have any issues using the same ground for the signal as I do the power?

[patman]

No

In all pedals, all grounds are wired to the negative part of the power supply.

[Jehle]

This is a cool idea all around. Any chance that you could post a picture of your set up? I've been thinking about rewiring my pedal board for a while now to reduce its footprint. While I don't expect to mod the pedals like you have, it would be nice to see how you've reduced the mass of wires running along the floor.

To take your idea further, it would be cool to have a single cable snake run from your rig to your pedal board. That way, presuming that you play live, you could have a single cable running from the amp out to where you play on stage. At the other end, the cable snake would have all the leads and connections for your pedals.

[JoeAArthur]

In all pedals, all grounds are wired to the negative part of the power supply.

I'm not sure you really mean this as "absolutely" as it is written.

There are quite a few pedals out there that use a positive ground design. It works better with PNP type transistors. Just one example:

http://www.geocities.com/j4_student/rmclassicfuzz.gif

[tasty]

In all pedals, all grounds are wired to the negative part of the power supply.

I'm not sure you really mean this as "absolutely" as it is written.

There are quite a few pedals out there that use a positive ground design. It works better with PNP type transistors. Just one example:

http://www.geocities.com/j4_student/rmclassicfuzz.gif

True, the RAT seems to be one of these types of PNP pedals! Thanks for all your info guys!

[ansil]

In all pedals, all grounds are wired to the negative part of the power supply.

I'm not sure you really mean this as "absolutely" as it is written.

There are quite a few pedals out there that use a positive ground design. It works better with PNP type transistors. Just one example:

http://www.geocities.com/j4_student/rmclassicfuzz.gif