Bogner Ecstasy Modding Question - footswitch functions

[TheGreatGreen]

Hey guys, I'm wondering how difficult it would be to mod the Bogner Ecstasy to make the Plexi modes on the Blue and Red channels footswitchable. On its own the Plexi modes aren't all that much to write home about, but with a boost in front, it surprisingly sounds great! So, I'd like to be able to use the amp’s footswitching system to activate Plexi mode, but I also don't want to lose instant access to either the standard Blue or Red channels.

So my thinking is that the amp could be modded to replace footswitchable functions I don't use with the ability to footswitch the Plexi function on both channels. The amp has two footswitchable functions I can live without, namely the Standby footswitch function (I'd rather just use a pedal to mute the rig) and Effects Loop footswitchable fuction (I'd never use a footswitch to toggle the loop, I'd either keep it on all the time and use a pedal switching system, or I'd just keep it off).

How difficult would it be to disable the Standby and Effects Loop footswitch functions, and replace them with Blue Plexi mode and Red Plexi mode?

 

[TotallyRadGuitars]

I can't tell you exactly how to do it but I can get you going in the right direction.

First bit - Plexi mode switch. When it's on, it engages a signal path, just after the first gain stage and gain control, directly to what would normally be the 3rd gain stage (regular blue) or 4th gain stage (regular red). Essentially, cuts it down to just two gain stages and then cathode follower to tone stack. Very similar to using one channel on a real plexi (not jumpered or anything). It's basically just a wire with a 470p cap and 500k resistor in parallel on it that runs from gain control to V4A grid. Somebody check my work on that one.

I feel pretty confident you could disable the switch and use a latching footswitch to perform that function - notable it has two points in the signal path that the single switch changes. The hard part is that to remove or inspect that switch, it's on the main PCB so it's going to be a big pain - all of the pots, big filter caps, preamp tubes, some of the transformer wiring etc are all on that board. The thing I'm missing at the moment is that it is a 3-way switch, where center is off on both channels. I'm not sure exactly how to configure a footswitch with a simple two-mode switch to emulate that - I feel like if you only needed to switch on plexi mode on ONE channel (either blue or red) that'd be easier. There will be a more noticeable gain/volume drop on Red so I guess just make it switchable on blue channel? Or maybe it could be done with two footswitch toggles, one per channel? Since you have two buttons you don't use already.

I guess that's what I'd start with at first, make sure you can actually pull out that switch, check which wires or traces need to be flipped to get plexi mode active.

Then to wire to the footswitch, on the cable pin 4 is the loop and pin 6 is the standby. If you disconnect whatever is currently connected to the footswitch socket on those pins, you could run whatever you need from the plexi switch to those pins. It's hard for me to see exactly without removing the board on mine.

So in short, definitely possible, but a bit of a pain just because it requires so much disassembly. If you can get the board out though, run a wire for each terminal on the plexi switch out through the back, put the board back in, and you can do a live alligator clip test. Be careful obviously.