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[Louie Warren]

In my guitar rig... I am using one of these to connect my pedal board to my racks.  I have a 7 channel and connect 4 to one rack and 3 to another.  It was a major PITA to fish around in the rack to find the connectors.  I decided to make a rack panel so all I had to do is plug them up on the panel and I'm done.   Ordered 7 of these and two of these.  Obviously I was under the false impression that all XLRs were the same size as my old Switchcraft panel mounts...  discovered that D size holes fit the Neutrik NL2 panel mounts perfectly.   So... I ordered 2 of these.

My dumb guitar player questions are:
1. There is no magic washer/jacket/adapter thing to make the connectors I bought fit the D holes?

2. How hard are the pre-punched panels to knock out the specific sizes I need?   Never done one of these before.

Thanx in advance for indulging this old guitar player.

[Bob Charest]

In my guitar rig... I am using one of these to connect my pedal board to my racks.  I have a 7 channel and connect 4 to one rack and 3 to another.  It was a major PITA to fish around in the rack to find the connectors.  I decided to make a rack panel so all I had to do is plug them up on the panel and I'm done.   Ordered 7 of these and two of these.  Obviously I was under the false impression that all XLRs were the same size as my old Switchcraft panel mounts...  discovered that D size holes fit the Neutrik NL2 panel mounts perfectly.   So... I ordered 2 of these.

My dumb guitar player questions are:
1. There is no magic washer/jacket/adapter thing to make the connectors I bought fit the D holes?

2. How hard are the pre-punched panels to knock out the specific sizes I need?   Never done one of these before.

Thanx in advance for indulging this old guitar player.

Hi Louie, One of the links you had was to a 5-pin MIDI panel connector - is that what you meant to do?
For anything I've had to do that required holes on sheet metal, I've used Greenlee punches. They've always given me a great result but are expensive. It's a lot harder to get a good result by drilling, at least for me as I don't have a decent drill press. If the panel holes are too big, I don't know of a way to "make up" the difference other than having pre-drilled metal discs that you would have to weld onto the panel.

Best regards,
Bob

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

In my guitar rig... I am using one of these to connect my pedal board to my racks.  I have a 7 channel and connect 4 to one rack and 3 to another.  It was a major PITA to fish around in the rack to find the connectors.  I decided to make a rack panel so all I had to do is plug them up on the panel and I'm done.   Ordered 7 of these and two of these.  Obviously I was under the false impression that all XLRs were the same size as my old Switchcraft panel mounts...  discovered that D size holes fit the Neutrik NL2 panel mounts perfectly.   So... I ordered 2 of these.

My dumb guitar player questions are:
1. There is no magic washer/jacket/adapter thing to make the connectors I bought fit the D holes?

2. How hard are the pre-punched panels to knock out the specific sizes I need?   Never done one of these before.

Thanx in advance for indulging this old guitar player.

There's no way to adapt that I know of without a big mess.

Those plates usually come fully punched- it will be all holes with nothing for you to remove.  Middle Atlantic makes one that isn't fully punched out - just the outlines are punched so you can knock out what you need but what you've ordered is already punched.  You can fill in unused jacks with blanks.  http://www.redco.com/shopexd.asp?id=1526

[Jim Thorn]

In my guitar rig... I am using one of these to connect my pedal board to my racks.  I have a 7 channel and connect 4 to one rack and 3 to another.  It was a major PITA to fish around in the rack to find the connectors.  I decided to make a rack panel so all I had to do is plug them up on the panel and I'm done.   Ordered 7 of these and two of these.  Obviously I was under the false impression that all XLRs were the same size as my old Switchcraft panel mounts...  discovered that D size holes fit the Neutrik NL2 panel mounts perfectly.   So... I ordered 2 of these.

My dumb guitar player questions are:
1. There is no magic washer/jacket/adapter thing to make the connectors I bought fit the D holes?

2. How hard are the pre-punched panels to knock out the specific sizes I need?   Never done one of these before.

Thanx in advance for indulging this old guitar player.

I saw that the diameter of the 5-pin feedthroughs is 0.76", with a flatted side.  Since a Switchcraft D3M panel-mounted MALE XLR fits in a 3/4" hole, I suspect you would be okay if you got a pre-punched panel intended for four Switchcraft D3Ms.  The panels you linked are for FEMALE XLRs, and those take a 15/16" hole, so they're too large.  I'm sorry I don't have a link to the right panel, but I know I have seen them somewhere.

If it were me, I'd buy a couple of 1-space aluminum blank panels (with rolled top and bottom edges for stiffness), and drill my own holes with a stepped single-flute drill bit like the Unibit.  I wouldn't try it with a steel panel, but the aluminum is soft enough to not give you too much of a fight.  If you don't have a Unibit, you should be able to buy one for $25 or less, and it's a great thing to have around for other projects.

Whenever I have had to mount connectors with a flatted side in a round hole, the supplied lock washer has held well enough that I never cared that I didn't have a flatted hole.

I hope this helps a little.

Jim Thorn

[Ned Ward]

Since you bought from Redco, give them a call and/or email. I've found them to be very helpful folks.

FYI - they will also (for a price) fill in a rack panel with your choice of jacks with whatever length wire needed on the other side; I was looking at doing it for my 01v Rack.

Other than this issue, how do you like the Pedalsnake? I'm a guitar player as are several on the forum.

[duane massey]

Unibit or similar is a great thing to have. I carry 2 sizes, and have had no issues drilling thru aluminum or steel panels, as long as you drill a pilot hole first. Stainless, not so good.

[Jordan Wolf]

Unibit or similar is a great thing to have. I carry 2 sizes, and have had no issues drilling thru aluminum or steel panels, as long as you drill a pilot hole first. Stainless, not so good.

+1 for UniBits.  Look for combo packs...you'll get use out them often enough to make it worth it, I promise.

[Louie Warren]

Hi Louie, One of the links you had was to a 5-pin MIDI panel connector - is that what you meant to do?
For anything I've had to do that required holes on sheet metal, I've used Greenlee punches. They've always given me a great result but are expensive. It's a lot harder to get a good result by drilling, at least for me as I don't have a decent drill press. If the panel holes are too big, I don't know of a way to "make up" the difference other than having pre-drilled metal discs that you would have to weld onto the panel.

Best regards,
Bob

Yes... I need MIDI feed thru connectors.  I have a PedalSnake that uses a 7 channel MIDI snake to go from the pedal board to the racks.

I think I have access to a Greenlee; my old man had one before he died... just have to locate it.

I bought the MidAtlantic universal panels that allow you to punch out what you need.  http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=262-575&FTR=universal%201U%20panel    Just need to figure out how to punch them out without screwing things up.

[Louie Warren]

There's no way to adapt that I know of without a big mess.

Those plates usually come fully punched- it will be all holes with nothing for you to remove.  Middle Atlantic makes one that isn't fully punched out - just the outlines are punched so you can knock out what you need but what you've ordered is already punched.  You can fill in unused jacks with blanks.  http://www.redco.com/shopexd.asp?id=1526

Finally figured that out.  Bought two of these: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=262-575&FTR=universal%201U%20panel

[Louie Warren]

I saw that the diameter of the 5-pin feedthroughs is 0.76", with a flatted side.  Since a Switchcraft D3M panel-mounted MALE XLR fits in a 3/4" hole, I suspect you would be okay if you got a pre-punched panel intended for four Switchcraft D3Ms.  The panels you linked are for FEMALE XLRs, and those take a 15/16" hole, so they're too large.  I'm sorry I don't have a link to the right panel, but I know I have seen them somewhere.

If it were me, I'd buy a couple of 1-space aluminum blank panels (with rolled top and bottom edges for stiffness), and drill my own holes with a stepped single-flute drill bit like the Unibit.  I wouldn't try it with a steel panel, but the aluminum is soft enough to not give you too much of a fight.  If you don't have a Unibit, you should be able to buy one for $25 or less, and it's a great thing to have around for other projects.

Whenever I have had to mount connectors with a flatted side in a round hole, the supplied lock washer has held well enough that I never cared that I didn't have a flatted hole.

I hope this helps a little.

Jim Thorn

Thanx!

[Louie Warren]

Since you bought from Redco, give them a call and/or email. I've found them to be very helpful folks.

FYI - they will also (for a price) fill in a rack panel with your choice of jacks with whatever length wire needed on the other side; I was looking at doing it for my 01v Rack.

Other than this issue, how do you like the Pedalsnake? I'm a guitar player as are several on the forum.

I contacted them... they said send the panels back and they'd custom make me two for a fee.  More money than I really wanted to spend.

The Pedal Snake is worth the money.  It's quieted my rig down... the biggest PITA is having to leave the pedal side connected and fishing around in the rack for the pigtails.  Once I get these panels done, 1/2 that will be fixed.  Then I will try to figure how to put something similar on my pedal board.   But so far, it is the way to go.  Highly recommend!

[Louie Warren]

Unibit or similar is a great thing to have. I carry 2 sizes, and have had no issues drilling thru aluminum or steel panels, as long as you drill a pilot hole first. Stainless, not so good.

Yes, I've been meaning to find one.  My father was an electrician and there are tons of tools over at his old house.  I'm sure he has one.   I recently replaced the XLR-M panel connectors on speakers I had.  The builder used them because SpeakOns hadn't come out yet, or something like that.  I want to open the hole up to allow me to put NL2s in there.   Just got to find the bit, or break down and buy one.

[ProSoundWeb Community]