Questions about the Fender Switchboard

[idimata]

Hi! I saw a post on TGP where a pedalboard was featuring the Fender Switchboard, which I hadn't seen until then. I looked at it carefully and thought, "Wait a second, that looks exactly like an RJM PBC/6X." I started looking it up and found this now 2-day old outdated article (outdated because they have since released the price), and I realized that it is our very own Ron Menelli that was involved in its making and that it will be fully elucidated at NAMM 2024. That's quite interesting.

I was wondering, how does it compare with the RJM PBC/6X? It looks like it's more simplistic.
Will it be able to interface with the same desktop software?

I think I'm happy with the PBC/6X and don't intend to switch, but does this mean that RJM may release an update to the design of the 6X in the future?

 

[rjmmusic]

Fender's in charge of all sales, marketing, support and all that, so they'll have all the details on their site (soon, if not now). But, in short, this is an entry level switcher with a lower price point and smaller feature set than our switchers.

- It has 5 loops, the last one is stereo capable
- Input and output buffers, switchable
- Loops are reorderable, per preset
- One TRS function switch output
- One expression pedal input
- 400 presets, 100 banks of 4 presets
- MIDI output, sends PCs and CCs only
- Fixed button layout (with preset/bank and loop modes)
- No editor

It does have a couple of things our switchers do not: a color LCD, and a volume control. The latter is a volume control, which can be controlled by a connected expression pedal, that can be placed anywhere in the loop order.

 

[idimata]

Interesting! Thank you for the details! I think the volume control is a great idea, and I do like the color LCD option. It would be lovely to have these value-adds on the 6X. However, I think if anyone out there would be deciding between a PBC/6X and the Switchboard for those features, they would be giving up a lot to get those features on the Switchboard. It definitely looks like the PBC/6X is the superior device. On the other hand, if the 6X had an improved on-pedal interface in the future (specifically the color screen and color LED's, really), I think it would be really good.