Pull down resistors?

[carboncomp]

Will putting resistors directly on the jacks rather then the PCB effect your dry signal due to the added resistance to both signal paths?

[R.G.]

Depends on the resistance. If it's high enough no.

However, putting pulldowns directly on the jacks does not do what you want pulldown resistors for, which is holding the "outside" ends of the capacitors into and out of the circuit at ground when they're opened by a bypassing switch. So putting resistors on the jacks is all downside, no upside.

[carboncomp]

Thanks RG,

How high is high enough?

So, these ones on the jacks are useless like this? (California Valveworks 'free range chicken')


And this is the right way, on the input/output of the FX rather, the the jack? (Analog Man's 'Beano Boost')

[R.G.]

How high is high enough?

Typical unbuffered guitar outputs are noticeably loaded down (that is, they lose noticeable treble) when the total loading is between 100K and 1M. Most people stick 1M's on for pulldowns, those being what Golden Age amps typically used. 100K causes a noticeable treble loss. If the pulldowns are on the inputs of the circuit and switched out by the bypass switch, then there's only the first pulldown driven by the guitar, and that resistor is what you get. If you put them on the jacks, 100% of the pulldowns are loading the guitar all the time. Each pedal conceptually has two, and so one pedal loads the guitar signal with 500K, two with 250K, three with 160K, etc.  If I were putting a resistor on all jacks, I'd go with the biggest resistor I could buy, typically 10M to 22M. That would minimize guitar loading; but it doesn't help with the capacitor leakage that makes for switching pops.

So, these ones on the jacks are useless like this?

It depends on what you mean by useful/useless. On the jacks loads down the guitar signal in bypass, and does not help with popping, except to the extent that they load the "pop" signal down too. And some people like the "brown sound" of treble cut. Others call it "tone sucking". Same thing, two different names.

And this is the right way, on the input/output of the FX rather, the the jack?

Again, depends on the use you're putting them to. To eliminate pops for hard-switched bypass, they have to go on the in/out of the effect, not on the jacks. For wiping off treble and leaving pops and clicks, they can go on the jacks.

[R.G.]

In many cases, people could get a major part of their education about building effects by reading geofex - all of it - instead of asking. I realize that this doesn't provide the "guided learning" of asking a question as it pops up and getting it answered, but it's faster. In this case, the appropriate article is

http://geofex.com/Article_Folders/box_pop.htm from 2000.

[carboncomp]

Thanks for all the help R.G, really apprechiated!

Had read the article last night, but still had trouble working out why they would have put them on the jacks......I guess I'm still a little confused if it wouldn't help with soft switching, and brown sound/treble cut/tone sucking seems a odd deliberate choice for a treble booster pedal?