You’ll see a lot of guys using a patchbay at the beginning of their pedalboard. People often assume some kind of magic is going on inside that box, most of the time there isn’t! Guys like Vertex and LA Sound Design often incorporate buffers and other wizardry into their patchbays / interfaces but for the average player (especially one using dedicated buffers or pedals with buffers in them) do not need this kind of system and a simple patchbay will suffice.
So, what is a patchbay?
A patchbay, quite simple, is a way of organising your cables so that they all meet at the same place. It keeps things neat and also speed sup the set-up process to no end. It also means that you are not constantly plugging / un-plugging cables from pedals which can cause strain on their input and output jacks and eventually damage them. With a patchbay your pedals can be permanently wired up and ready to go all of the time. In the end, you do not really NEED one but it certainly saves me a few minutes at gigs and means I don’t worry so much about damaging my pedals.
The 4×4 System:
4×4 means 4-in / 4-out. The way I wire mine is as follows:
Guitar In > Pedalboard (overdrives, wah etc)
Pedalboard > Amp (to the amp input from the board)
FX Send > Pedalboard (for use with the amp’s fx loop (delays and reverbs))
Pedalboard > FX Return (back into the amp)
It is really simple and, as I previously said, is more a means of cable management than anything else.
So what will you need to build one?
- A suitable enclosure (metal is best)
- Eight 1/4 inch Mono jack sockets
- Cable
For the cable you can either use simple wire or shielded instrument cable. It probably won’t make too much difference but I tend to use instrument cable just for extra shielding purposes.
So yeah, it is actually that simple. With about fifteen minutes work you can have a reliable, sturdy and professional cable management / signal distribution system. High quality 1/4 inch jacks can be expensive, but it is always worth paying that little extra to get you something that will most likely last a life time.
Please do post pics of your builds on our facebook wall.