Are you sure you have the Control Switcher set so the switches are Momentary with Pulse On Only enabled? check the Set Switch Function and Set Momentary Mode sections of the Control Switcher manual under Setup for more information on how to set/ check this.

Also, check and re-check that the cable is wired correctly

thanks for the reply John - going to do both of those tonight just to be sure. it just seemed weird that it worked... 'almost' I'll report back with what I find.

okay - so I messed with this a bit just now, please help me understand this...

I had it set to 'Normal' switching, and now that I just set it to 'Momentary' I remember why I set it to 'Normal' - whenever it's in 'Momentary' mode, it only seems to let me turn one of the four switches on at any given time. in 'Normal' mode, I can switch them on and off at will, and store the preset. I have it responding to 'PC' messages, and set to 'Pulse ON only' for the momentary mode.

ideas from here? I guess I'm confused as to why I can't activate more than one switch while in 'Momentary' and 'Pulse ON only' mode?

You only want one on at any given time... just like the amp channels.

ha! yeah. so, I think I had an 'expectation' of the readout on this unit.

so, I did what you said - lo and behold, it works. what I find confusing is that the channels switch - AND I can switch the FX loop state - but only one light is on at a time. I guess I assumed (my bad) that the lights would show the state of the switch at that current time. given it's a momentary pulse, I guess that's not always possible with that configuration... so once I turned everything on and played through it, proving the FX loop was in and out when I expected it to be, all things are good. it took a little to get my brain around it, but I think I'm good now.

one thing I noticed - when I first started switching the channels, there seemed to be quite a 'POP' as I did it. it seemed the more I played, the less severe the 'POP' sound became. no, not because my ears were bleeding, either...

at any rate, awesome little unit! thankful that I can switch channels on the EVH and presets on my FX unit without having to tap dance to make it happen!

Currently, the Control Switcher does not properly switch the effects loop on the 5150 III. Sure, with the cable you made you can press the button and something will happen, but because the "Pulse On Only" is a global setting, it is not possible to reliably switch the FX Loop to a known state. It will be something that will likely go into a future update, but there is no active work on this option at this time.

thanks for your responses, John - I'm glad it works regardless. no more tap dancing for me!

sorry to hijack, but if I use the 5150 iii with the Control Switcher using the custom cable, does that leave the effects loop on all the time?

thanks..

Yes, the effects loop would be on at all times.

ok i read through this thread and i'm inquiring for a buddy. i use old marshalls and the gcp and i love it so he wants a gcp. he has an original 5150 but wants to got to 5150 III along with GCP and use midi to switch channels. If i read the thread correctly this is NOT possible. He is interested in learing the midi etc but i think he may need to hold off??

answers por favor?

thanks