New term - "Pedal ventriloquism"

[Mark Hammer]

Responding off-line to chuckfalcon's issues with his Superfuzz, I used the term to describe the phenomenon whereby a previously quiet and well-behaved commercial pedal or amp with an unterminated cap on the input can be made to pop by the insertion of an otherwise quiet and well-behaved true-bypass pedal.

If the input cap is momentarily disconnected from anything, without a way of draining off, and is then suddenly reconnected - even if only 2msec later - it can produce an audible pop.

But, much like the way Jeff Dunham's voice sounds like it's coming from somewhere else because his mouth isn't moving but the dummy's mouth is, this effect can be confusing for, and misdirect, players/builders.  After all, the other pedal is dead silent on its own, and the pop happens when you step on the TB pedal.  The TB pedal is the dummy with the moving mouth that you think is making the sound, but the pop is really coming from the other pedal you didn't step on.

So that's it: pedal ventriloquism.

[stallik]

Pedal Ventriloquism. That explains a lot - I thought it was my wife making the noise but now I understand it's one of my other pedals. And my noise is not so much a pop, more a 'shut the f**k up, it's late'
Joking aside, nice term

[duck_arse]

and when yr pedals start saying "don't put me back in the box!" or "guy a gottle! guy a gottle!", you know you got real problems.

[knutolai]

Nice term! So in a way you could say both pedals are at fault? The diy-one for being true bypass and the commercial for having an unterminated input cap? The way I understand this is when the diy-pedal feeds into the commercial one

[Tony Forestiere]

But, much like the way Jeff Dunham's voice sounds like it's coming from somewhere else because his mouth isn't moving but the dummy's mouth is, this effect can be confusing for, and misdirect, players/builders.

So that's it: pedal ventriloquism.

That explains it all. I breadboarded a filter a few years back that sounded exactly like Walter. Gruff, nasal, and just wouldn't cooperate with any other pedal.

[garcho]

what's the reasoning behind leaving the input cap floating? assumption the previous device in the chain is buffered bypass? it's the mechanical action of the stompswitch that produces the 2ms (for instance) of open circuit, between throws, right?

[Mark Hammer]

I gather the reason is that the least loading is attained when there is NO input terminating resistance.  Can't get much closer to infinity than open-circuit, right?

And if you only plugged into a guitar, an amp, and such commercial pedals, there would be no issues.  Unfortunately, since such e-switched pedals came into existence, the DIY and boutique scene has emerged, and peaceful co-existence between TB-switched and e-switched pedals has continued to be a learning experience for many.