Back in 2007, I picked up this multi-effects board for a scant $10 and managed to get it working pretty quickly. One of the problems, however, is that the pedals didn't work consistently; the previous owner must have jumped repeatedly on the board, cracking the case and trashing the pedal supports. The only way to cycle through the different effects was to use the wheel, which wasn't useful for playing in a live setting.

I've been feeling a little stir crazy living with my in-laws while our house is being built, so I needed another project to keep myself busy. On top of that, I volunteered to start playing my violin and mandolin at the local church, and wanted to have my effects board in functional condition.

After fiddling around with ideas, I decided that the easiest way to give myself access to the pedals was to bolt down a plate of steel sheet metal and drill out some spots for button switches, and then rewire/bypass the existing switches to the new ones.



So that's exactly what I did. In case you're wondering, the buttons are mounted high on the plate intentionally. The plate is sloped, so if the buttons were mounted any lower, they'd actually dig into the circuit board below them.



Here's a close-up of the new buttons mounted on the plate. The buttons are sturdy enough to handle light-to-medium tapping with shoes on, and I have no intention of jumping on the board.



Here's the underside of the circuit board with the cover removed. You can see the new bypass wires soldered onto the spots where the stock switches are mounted.