How To Set Up A 3PDT Footswitch For True Bypass

When I first started messing around with guitar pedals, I could never really figure out how to set up a 3PDT foot switch. I'd never used them, so it was kind of confusing, but when you just think about them as 3 separate SPDT switches it's very easy. I made this little diagram of how to hook it up:

Resistive Bending Probe

Every circuit bender/hacker out there knows the old bending probe of an alligator clip with a couple of jeweler's screwdrivers clipped on, but the resistance of that is incredibly low. The one I'm using here is 0.1Ω.

This low of a resistance can damage the circuit you're modding.

So how can we fix this?

Simple, all we have to do is add a resistor to the cable. Now we don't want a huge resistive load on the cable so I chose to use a 220Ω resistor.













All you have to do is cut the alligator cable in half and solder in the resistor.




I soldered the resistor in so it doesn't make the cable that much larger. If you leave the resistor leads too long it won't be as flexible.

Now all you have to do is add some heat shrink tubing or electrical tape to protect your fancy shmancy new bending probe and you're done. Now you have a 220Ω bending probe that will help prevent any damage to your circuit.