Which AB pedal or even channel switch?

Gear & Tools Talk šŸ’» Hardware, Software & Recording
1

I want to be able to change the channel Iā€™m using on my TMDR via a foot switch, I want to go via a GT-1 into the clean channel because it has the bright cap off. I like the bright cap on the reverb channel but donā€™t like it with effects.

I can see two options for this:

  1. Buy a channel switch at Ā£55 (it comes with just a reverb & trem foot switch and I canā€™t work out where this plugs in and canā€™t see anything in the manual :frowning: )
  2. Buy an AB switch at Ā£25

The AB switch is more versatile and cheaper & Iā€™m not sure Iā€™m smart enough to plug in a channel switch! Is there a disadvantage to the AB switch? I have read some reviews saying some cut out high frequencies but why would this be on a simple switch?

Thanks

2

Is there an official channel switch for the TMDR? I couldnā€™t find one when I did a search.

Do you have a link to the one you are looking at?

I suspect anything touted as a ā€œchannel switchā€ for this amp is really just an A/B switch.

Cheers,

Keith

3

Actually, itā€™s just a Fender channel switch that I assumed would work.

Is there any reason I shouldnā€™t buy the cheapest AB switch I can find in terms of tone?

4

Instrument cables have electrical characteristics which can affect the frequencies being transmitted. The main one is capacitance, which tends to act as a filter for higher frequencies; the longer your guitar cable the more it will tend to roll off the high frequencies.

If you, effectively, break the cable and stick something in the middle, this may change the capacitance, causing additional high-frequency roll off.

Iā€™m not saying this definitely happens with AB switching pedals, but it is a possibility.

AB switchers (also known as ABY pedals) are fairly simple devices and it should be possible to build a decent quality one which doesnā€™t impact the signal massively at a reasonable cost. So I wouldnā€™t necessarily recommend buying a super-expensive one.

I would, however, be guided by reviews as Iā€™m sure there are some poorly made devices out there.

Cheers,

Keith

1 Like
5

By the way, a basic ABY pedal should be fine for running one channel at a time, but if you think you might want to run both at the same time, you might want to consider something more than a basic ABY pedal.

The channels on many amps, including (apparently) the TMDR, are out of phase so you will get weird effects if you run them together without inverting the phase of one.

There are ABY devices out there that can output to both channels at once with option phase inversion on one of the channels.

If you arenā€™t interested in doing this, then I would just go for a simple ABY.

Cheers,

Keith

1 Like