Mr. Brown, my Pawnshop Excelsior returned from its sojourn the other day. I guess the person who had borrowed it got tired of me whingeing and being a crying brat about it, but it was in a studio where they do some great work, and these guys are friends of mine so it wasn't like I needed it, mind you. Plus they do send me some interesting projects to work on now and then.
Thanks to Brandon and Micah-they're grand fellows and well connected.
Somehow or other the funky Gretsch footswitch took a powder but I had the makings of an Ampeg style footswitch here. If you recall, I detailed how to install a footswitch jack in this amplifier, although my simple but elegant solution to it was met with a certain amount of what passes for internet "commentary" but never mind.
The footswitch consists of about ten feet of zip cord-a large roll of which I acquired out of a defunct radio shop in Williams, Iowa, a right angle Amphenol jack, an on-off pushbutton switch as found in most of these things and a doorstop, which is a plastic or hard rubber wedge. You could make a wooden switch housing if you like.
I chawed out one of the ribs in the doorstop with my trusty Swiss Army knife, drilled a hole of the right size although here a note is important.
Do not do this with the doorstop resting on your leg. The results will be painful.
The other end of the zip cord is soldered to the switch terminals and then it is mounted in the doorstop. Attach the jack to the other end in the usual manner.
If you've installed a jack in your Excelsior or other fine amplifier, then the last thing to do is plug in and play.
Come to think of it, I have a beautiful old Jensen P15LL that would be just the ticket for this amp to take some of the brightness out of it.
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