The term "true bypass" means the effect's switch is wired to pass the input signal directly from the input jack to the output jack when the effect is off. Other effects with silent, FET switching, like a Boss unit, are buffered, giving the signal a lower impedence able to drive long cables. The rewiring of effects to "true bypass" began for me with efx units like Electro Harmonix, Vox wah's, etc. When these efx are switch off, "loading" occurs on the guitar 's signal because the signal is still going through some circuitry that muddy's up the sound.

One interesting thing is that some of the earliest efx pedals like the Mosrite Fuzzrite, BossTone Fuzz, Colorsound efx., and Fuzz Face where all wired with "True Bypass". Maybe the reason TB wasn't used after that was because a TB effect will make a "Pop" through the amp when switched. Or, it's cheaper to make the efx box with a simpler switch.

Another issue most important for rock guitar sound is that when you use a pedal with silent, FET, Boss type switching, the lower impedance output of these can mess things up when you want to use Fuzz box, Rangemaster, or other old-style transistor efx. This is because the guitar pickup coil can't interact the same way with the input of the efx's circuitry. For this reason I put my Boss tuner on a "True Bypass" A/B looper box. Another reason is, I don't want the Boss tuner {the white tuner pedal} to change my sound, and I think it's also possible the silent switching circuitry can cause distortion when playing the guitar aggresively. enough blah ~ dave

I wish I had a pedal army. Unfortunately I try to spend wisely and my pay and amount of hours I work do not allow me to get the pedals that I may want. I don't really want to buy crummy pedals. The only crummy one I want is the DL4. The reverse delay/echo is awesome. I've heard nothing good about their reliability. I heard about one guy who bought 4 to go on tour with because he knew he wouldn't be coming back with 3 of them.

Which is going to suck tone more, a complex pedal with high quality parts or a simple pedal with inferior parts. Complexity refers to the circuit.

^ i agree with ferenc/ pollo above...i use the George L cords...very good stuff!

-dp

Holy Moly! Thats' WAY too many knobs for an old dude. I tune my guitar, then plug in to a Guya tone mini echo (which sits on top of my amp for easy tweaking) then straight down and back through the tank using a double cord 3' long. No muss, no fuss, big fat Jazzmaster sound.

I need to be thinking about trying to play, not which button to mash next. I have trouble fiddling with the pickup selector and playing. Come to think about it, I can't rub my stomach and pat my head at the same time either. So just why is it I'm still at this?

Oh yeah, I don't buy expensive cables anymore either, I've never met one I couldn't trash. ed

Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?

PolloGuitar
What's yours look like?
--fd

no GL cables...

IronMaiden, I _think _ it boils down to this: TB is better then buffered, if you use long cables, then a fancy clip-on-belt preamp is best to compensate signal degradation BUT a cheap alternative to a fancy preamp is a decent buffered pedal. that's how I understand it. In the end, though, only your ears can be the judge.

Rules to live by #314:
"When in Italy, if the menu says something's grilled, don't assume it is."

https://www.facebook.com/The-Malbehavers-286429584796173/

I think Ferenc was a little generous in hyping up my pedal board. The only real difference is I have a small plate of thin sheet metal which I drilled so that I can screw the pedals directly onto that through the bottom of the pedals. Then I screw the whole piece of sheet metal into the box. I did it that way so that I could just pull the pedals on the sheet metal out without having to worry about cutting cable ties, or having to undo any of the rubberized covering I have going on there.

No GL cables for me, I just use the cheapo Livewires style.

~B~

To answer WR: I don't use the guitar strap pre-amp box when I use a Rangemaster. I only use the the RM for rock stuff. Low impedance buffer does not sound, or work well with that type of device. ie: Germainium, transistor fuzz, or treble booster. This is probably why I've been able to buy cool fx like that on ebay, cheap. People don't like the sound when they put the wrong thing in front of them. Like a Boss box, for example.

regarding a Tubescreamer with true bypass: If you have a setup that includes a Keeley Java Boost, you might not want the buffered output of the Tubescreamer{effect off} going into the input of the Java Boost. Or, the output of the Java Boost going into the buffered Tubescreamer input. Do you follow me?

By the way, my little preamp thing works fine going into a Tube Screamer. {I have two originals}The TS has an ic, which does not sound wierd when you hit it with a low imp. boost.

Sometimes, true bypass is too extreme a tone shift between off/on. a long time ago, I put in an expensive silent relay true bypass, w/ light in a solid state Echoplex. The off/on tone difference was too extreme, so I just had it wired for echo "On" light. ~ dave

to answer: ".. dave, you use some sort of sophisticated preamp right? does that interact with a fuzzbox? is the sound simply better then with a pedal-buffer, or are there other advantages?

admittedly, Im not very anal about these things. I have a germanium fuzz which is first in line,..."

I do not use the buffer box when doing rock stuff using Rangemasters, Fuzzrite, etc. And, for recording now, I don't use it for the surf sound because I now use a cable from Evidence Audio that rocks my world.

~ dave

UmaFloresta
I've never much cared either way, but supposedly having at least one buffered bypass pedal at the end of a chain of TB pedals is beneficial.

Well that all depends on how long your cables are and how many pedals you have.
If you only have 2 pedals and you used 2-10' cables and a 6" patch cable, it's not gonna make a huge difference cause at 20'6" you're not losing any signal.
Now if you're using 6 pedals, 5-6" patch cables and 2-20' cables, then yeah, it's probably a good idea to have at least one buffered pedal to push your signal back up.

The Phantomatics on Facebook
The Phantomatics on Instagram
The Phantomatics on Bandcamp

SlacktoneDave
I do not use the buffer box when doing rock stuff using Rangemasters, Fuzzrite, etc. And, for recording now, I don't use it for the surf sound because I now use a cable from Evidence Audio that rocks my world.
~ dave

Wow, $99 for a cable. Must be a good cable. I want one.