2 amp channel switching with midi

[TheMighty Jambi]

Hello my fellow guitar players. I posted this in a voodoo labs forum but figure I post here too.
I am wondering if someone out there can help me solve a problem.
I play out of 2 amps at the same time setup in stereo.
Here is the basic setup…(It’s a little more than this but I’ll keep it simple) Guitar into A/B/Y then into a JVM410H and into a Mesa Mark 5.
Both amps are set similar…Channel 1 on clean….Channel 2 dirty….Channel 3 Metal….Channel 4 for Lead Metal.
In the mix I have a Boss Gt6. I use midi from this to the JVM410H to change the channels on the JVM410H.
The problem I am trying to solve if possible is to change channels on both amps using the GT-6 or whatever device would accomplish this.
So basically I would hit pedal 1 on the Boss GT-6 and it would switch the JVM410H to channel 1 and the Mesa Mark 5 to channel 1 at the same time.
To make things even more complicated the Mesa Mark 5 doesn’t have a midi connection but it does have 4 trs 1/4″ jacks for hooking to a midi device to switch the channels.
Is this possible to do and if so what would I need to buy to accomplish this?
Thanks for any ideas or info.

 

[Ed Seith]

I don’t know what current tools exist, but from my old rig, I have a Rocktron MIDI “Octopus” that I used to control my non-MIDI amp channel switch with my MIDI-based multi-effect unit’s foot pedal. It worked flawlessly in gigs. In the first pic at this link, it’s the top one.
https://www.rockman.fr/Reviews/MO.htm
I don’t know if they’re still available, but I could sell mine, as I don’t use it any longer (I went AxeFX).

 

[TheMighty Jambi]

Thank you Ed!
I’ll do a little reading on this. I figured there has to be a way to make this work. I am hoping to keep using my Boss Gt-6 cause I have it setup using the 4 cable method and using a little fx from the Boss. I would be willing to swap it out though if I can’t use it correctly with both amps. It has a midi in and a midi out on it so not sure if I could still use it with a midi switching device to control both amps.
Right now the way I do it is like hit pedal 2 on the Boss which switches to channel 2 on the JVM and then I have to hit pedal 2 on the Mesa footswitch to switch that amp to channel 2. A pain when going from dirty/metal and back to clean.

 

[Ed Seith]

Yeah, this would automate the hitting of the Mesa footswitch. It’s super-easy to program and very reliable. It’s a 1/2 rackspace unit. I mounted mine to a rack shelf, wired, and rocked.

 

[TheMighty Jambi]

Ed I’m going to do some research on these switchers but curious if you were to sell yours how much would you want? I’m curious to see what others come up with too. I’ve thought about just getting rid of my gt-6 but right now how I have the 2 amps in stereo and it’s a pretty awesome tone. Only issue I have is the tap dancing.

 

[Ed Seith]

I see one on Reverb for $175 plus $25 shipping and another for almost $250, but I’d go for $150 including shipping. I think I even have the original manual, but not sure.

 

[TheMighty Jambi]

Sounds good Ed. I’ll let ya know if I decide to buy. Thanks again for the info!