GV-15 ---Converting Hardwire Footswitch to Footswitch Jack

[Ampeg69]

Hi guys, Ted here, it's my first post.

So, I have a GV-15 and I love it to death, however the hardwired footswitch has a bad cable and only works if wrangled into the right angle somewhere along the way. I typically use my reverb pretty cranked all the way through, however I am looking to use the tremolo via footswitch. My thought is to disconnect the lead and the ground coming into the amp chassis from the cable and solder each tip to a jack that I would install. I would probably do the same for the original footswitch so I could just use a stereo cable or such to plug both in.

This seems pretty simple to me, however I just wanted to throw it out there to make sure there isn't anything I am overlooking or should be concerned about. (not sure if there's a way to permanently turn the verb/trem on or off but I would definitely want to avoid that).

Anyways, I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

[Hangman]

Hi guys, Ted here, it's my first post.

So, I have a GV-15 and I love it to death, however the hardwired footswitch has a bad cable and only works if wrangled into the right angle somewhere along the way. I typically use my reverb pretty cranked all the way through, however I am looking to use the tremolo via footswitch. My thought is to disconnect the lead and the ground coming into the amp chassis from the cable and solder each tip to a jack that I would install. I would probably do the same for the original footswitch so I could just use a stereo cable or such to plug both in.

This seems pretty simple to me, however I just wanted to throw it out there to make sure there isn't anything I am overlooking or should be concerned about. (not sure if there's a way to permanently turn the verb/trem on or off but I would definitely want to avoid that).

Anyways, I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

Yes. It's very doable. I would say just clip the footswitch off leaving enough slack so you can put the footswitch jack where you want it (if you can get away bait out drilling any holes, that is ideal)
Then replace the cable and voila! I will say that if you just get a twin conductor cable with shielding like what you'd find in a microphone cable, the tremolo will have a tendency to leak into the reverb, giving some clicking. If you can find some good cable that has separate shielding for each conductor, like some smaller but decent rca cables that would be better, but that can be hard to find a set that is compact but high quality

[Ampeg69]

Thanks Hangman!

I ended up soldering the cable to the jack ( I needed to drill a hole unfortunately) and it works like a charm! The only thing I noticed is that the amp will be left in whatever state it was left at when the footswitch was unplugged. Unfortunately it doesn't default to leaving all the options on to allow use without the footswitch but oh well.

[Hangman]

It shouldn't remember what state the amp was in when the foot switch was unplugged. it should either be on or off.

The original Gemini 2 had a switched tremolo intensity knob, so you could turn it off when the foot switch was unplugged.