A/B FX LOOP On/OFF PEDAL....is this a good idea?

[shanter]

Ok, so ive been playing around alot with this 'tone' stuff and it is true the tone is better w/o 40 thousand pedals clouding the signal. So i thought howabout i make a simple pedal that when activated bypasses all the pedals and makes a direct-to-amp connection.

maybe also have a volume sort of thing to level out the signals so there isnt a huge difference when turned on or off.

this is starting to sound like a mixer to me but much more simpler.
heres the idea


is this possible? can anyone think of the wiring or any potential problemas?

[smccusker]

these things are really simple to put together.
punch "true bypass box" or similar into the search, and you should get a stack of returns!

[shanter]

wow, great, thanks!

and i thought i was gonna change the world with my idea. 

but one question.
where would i put a pot so that i can adjsut the volume of the bypassed signal??

[MartyB]

Try this:
http://www.runoffgroove.com/splitter-blend.html
I made one and its great for mixing effect(s) with dry or effect(s) with effect(s). 

[smccusker]

wow, great, thanks!

and i thought i was gonna change the world with my idea. 

but one question.
where would i put a pot so that i can adjsut the volume of the bypassed signal??

If this is your first build, and you're a bit reticent about jumping into active electronics, then you can just put a 500k audio put between the switch and the output jack.

[shanter]

now that i think of it wouldnt that only reduce the volume? i mean, if i needed it louder a bit, it wouldnt give me any more to work with.

i took a look at the SB and although it seems simple, i dont think im going for that much of a complicated setup for the pedal.

is there a sort of middle ground for this? like...the  MXR clean boost...or any sort of simple boost....?

[smccusker]

Well, you have a few options I suppose.

You could hardwire a clean booster infront of the output, but it will always be on.
If you don't want that, you could have a dual switch setup, where one switch bypasses the booster and the fxloop, and the other that just bypasses the effecs loop.

oh by the way, i havent built it, but you might want to check out Aron's booster project.

[shanter]

hm howabout if i wire an clean output booster only in the bypass mode. like between the two bottom poles of the 3dpt?? so that it's in effect only when in bypass mode.

[ryanscissorhands]

I can recommend a fairly easy build w/mods that will suit what your needs plenty. Being able to bypass all of your pedals when you don't want them on is nice--but it would also help to have a booster before that chain to drive them better. The AMZ MOSFET booster is great for driving long chains of effects.

What I did is I built the dual AMZ Mosfet booster (http://prophecysound.com/diyroot/) which is basically two independent boosts, except that they share voltage reference section. I used each boost as a buffer for an FX loop--two independent channels, the first one goes into the second. So each section had:

a) stompswitch for bypass/boost
b) Led to indicate bypass or boost
c) a post-boost toggle switch for either bypass or send/return
d) boost pot)
e) volume pot

In one pedal I can use it as a single boster, a dual booster, boost/FX loop, two FX loops, or whatever. It's also easy to change on the fly.

I fit it all in a 1590BB w/ battery, in, out, 2sends, 2 returns, a bi-color LED, two stompswitches, PCB, 4 pots and two toggle switches. It was tight, but doable. If you want to be able to bypass your effects, and be able to drive your effects loops, PLUS have control by having two independent loops, then I highly recommend building the Dual Mosfet, and wiring in the mods.

If you have any questions regarding this build, let me know via Private Message.

[MartyB]

Here'a another blend circuit that has minimal parts and won't cause volume loss (only 8 or 9 components):

http://www.geocities.com/jrtookmyfalseteeth/buffblnd.gif

This one works pretty well.