Trilogy Footswitch

I recently purchased a 2008 Trilogy.

THe footswitch is broken so I need to find a solution.

I was wondering if I could use the FSM midi footswitch?

Also, would it be possible to use something like Behringer Midi-Foot-Controllers/FCB1010

If not, do you have any suggestions?

I have the old foot switch but it may be beyond help.

Hi Kevin, you're really out on a limb down here in Trilogy land aren't you.

I will admit up front that I don't know anything at all about the Trilogy but let's give this a go and see what we can do together. Pictures of the footswitch I found which you may be talking about don't seem to look anything like the FSM432 at first glance but that will depend on which Version of the Trilogy you have. The early ones look to have a jack on the back to connect to the "Channel Select Stageboard". The later Mk3 seems only to have a MIDI port so may be more in line with the FSM432.

Can you just confirm which version of the amp and footswitch we are talking about here?

I currently have a matrix 100 but it is missing the far right button, like as in it is not there at all ripped out of the circuit board. It came this way.

The foot switch will change to the clean channel but only to that channel, even though the others will light up.

On the back side of the Trilogy there are two jacks, one 1/4"(orwhatever a guitar cable is) and there is also a midi port all with a box around it indicating foot switch control.

I am pretty sure I can use a midi controller with this amp. I just need to make sure that the FSM 432(which is phantom power it says) can actually run on my amp.

And here in this video you can see my exact amp:


you need to paste that into a proper weblink . I cant post links on this forums apparently

(Kevin: This website requires that the "s" be removed from video insertion using "http://". "https://" does not work. As in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8vSXRX3x68 does work.)

Yes that makes sense. The vid makes it clear too. Looks to me like your idea of controlling things via MIDI is a sensible one.

Well I would guess that the FSM432 would do the job as it is a H&K in house product. H&K could be approached direct on Facebook and asked and you would know straight away but, for my money, it is an expensive if a very good product. I'm pretty sure you should be able to control the amp with other cheaper controllers if that is more what you would like. It would also be overkill as it is designed to cope with controlling every aspect of amps like the Grandmeisters and all you need are channels and a couple of functions I would guess.

It's going to be pretty standard MIDI messaging and any standard controller should suffice except one of thos cheap Chinese models which don't support SYSEX transfer. This is short for Sytem Exclusive and allows for specific messages to be created for the application. They are often bigger than the hardware buffers in the cheaper units so they cannot cope with it.

Let's look to others to put in some recommendations here while I try to find out info on the MIDI capabilities of the Trilogy.

Does anyone have any they can recommend or any thoughts on this question?

Bordonbert,

I really appreciate your help. I was thinking the same thing as you but wasnt sure. I do not have facebook but have tweeted at Hughes and Kettner Twitter, which seems to be the official one.

I have also gone to their website and sent them a message through their own site, but still have not heard anything.

I think I will only ever be playing H and K from now on so I see the FSM432 as an investment which I would be able to use with future H and K amps i buy

If the FSM 432 is even only able to act as the four basic buttons that my footswitch is supposed to have that would be great. But If I could also do more of the storing of settings in the banks that would just be a bonus for me. Could the FSM 432 work in this way? I know it would be overkill but I want a durable footswitch

The FSM432 doesn't store anything other than its own settings Kevin. The presets and channel settings are all stored on the amp itself. The FSM only tells the amp which one to select or what to change via MIDI messages, otherwise it would have to send individual messages to change every setting in a preset every time you changed. This way it only says "set yourself to what you have stored in Preset 37" and the amp performs the lookup and changes locally which is lightning quick.

As long as you don't mind investing in a FSM432, (I did and I haven't regretted it), it should do the job. I would prefer to have someone else confirm that in the case of the Trilogy just to be sure. I don't want you wasting your money for something which turns out not to work.

Would it not be possible for you to take your amp to a dealer and test it live?

I got in touch with H&K and their support arm confirms that the Trilogy should work fine with the FSM432 though the footswitch will need to be externally powered from a supply. The Trilogy has no facility for phantom powering it like the Grandmeisters have. They mentioned they had had another query on the same thing so I guess they would have replied to you as well but it's here for the record.

I went on YouTube and had a listen to some clips of your model and, boy does it sound good. I have to say that, at first hearing, it's probably the best sounding H&K model I have heard so far. Stick with it!

Your amp does have a flavor of one of the many "Petrucci" sounds going on there. It does sound really nice!

I believe you should be able to get pedals for other manufacturers. I've not bought a peddle from them though, so I don't know how well their service is.

Ampfootswitch.com/hughes-kettner