The Mesa Boogie Bigfoot is an interesting footswitch. It’s for a three channel amp which makes it far more complicated than a simple Clean/Distortion footswitch. It uses intelligent switch (digital gates) for all switching which makes replicating it difficult. For that reason the best option was to rehouse a Bigfoot footswitch rather than build one from scratch.  The FX loop switch was never used so it was wired to be always on. Above is the considerable size savings- 7.5″ wide rather than the original 13.5″ wide. I may be biased but the bare metal looks better to me too!

I’m constantly contacted and asked to rehouse the Danelectro French Toast fuzz into a metal casing with better hardware and to add an LED. Seven years after this post was first created we’ve finally decided to stop offering rehousings on the French Toast. Instead we’ll be offering clones of the Foxx Tone Machine which the French Toast is based on with some modern updates to make it play nicely on a pedalboard. Check out the www.fxdoctor.com main page for additional information on our current product availability.

Looks like we have another DJ-1 Pastrami Overdrive rehousing after the last one a few weeks ago. Basically the same job just with the components slightly shifted to make the rehousing easier. Those Danelectro pedals may be small but they have two circuit boards and both are an “r” shape which takes a little bit of planning to get everything to fit nicely.

Update: Many thanks to the owner for submitting a picture of the pedal after he painted it!

I remember years ago when Musician’s Friend was blowing out these Akai Intelliphase pedals for $40 but I decided against picking one up due to the size. Above is a shot of a customer’s pedal rehoused into a 3.5″ x 4.5″ casing. There are two boards inside, both of which need to be trimmed to get them to fit into the casing. The larger of the two boards needed to have a section cut and cropped in order to fit into the casing. It was a very time consuming process but I think the end result was worth it.

I probably see a few emails a week asking for a price quote on rehousing a Danelectro mini. The plastic casing, tiny switch, PCB-mounted plastic jacks, and micro pots are all serious problems for anyone that needs reliable performance from their gear. The finished product can be seen above and will be able to withstand abuse from gigs and tours. Pricing for a rehousing on the Danelectro mini series starts around $70.

On a side note, the DJ-1 uses a TL072 IC which wasn’t expected in such an inexpensive pedal. It also uses LEDs for clipping diodes.