#pedalmods #pedalproject #electronicsproject #diyelectronics #buskinglife
I have been using a ProCo Sound foot switch to mute my vocal mic during sections of the songs where I'm not singing. Since I use play using looping rhythm parts, there are many sections of the song where I don't need the mic to be "live" or "on". The foot switch did not have an LED indicator or any way of showing when it is in mute mode or off, so I decided to add this myself.
I had some spare parts lying around from when I was into guitar pedal mods, like a blue LED, some resistors, a battery holder, and some project chip board sections.
The first step was to open the pedal and determine how the latching switch worked, by inspecting it and tracing the signal flow using my handy multi-meter to identify the latching switch pole behavior. Then I was able to draw a simple diagram of the signal flow, and where to add my battery power, LED, and resistor.
Lastly, I drilled the hole for the led, soldered the LED and resistor onto the project board, then soldered the battery holder and circuit onto the switch.
I tested it several times before soldering everything to make sure that the LED brightness was just right by trying different resistor sizes. After soldering, I also tested it in action to make sure no noise was introduced into an actual vocal performance. It works great! Now I can see my footpedal and tell whether it is on or off. No more tapping on the mic to test whether it's on or off.
Enjoy.