Buffers. True bypass. Buffers...

[amz-fx]

Buy a pedal for its sound....  not its bypass switch!   

http://www.muzique.com/news/?p=66

regards, Jack

[R.G.]

That's pretty much what my article on bypass in Premier Guitar said - use your ears. 

However, now that I think about it, it occurs to me that just like with 1/4" phone jacks and single ended outputs, the effects world is living with 1940's technology that can't be changed.

When there were zero effects and no other reliable connectors, using the hottest, most reliable connector technology out of Bell Labs made sense. And when there was one and only one effect, bypassing could be ideosyncratic.

Times change. I suspect that the use of one effect is rare. The back-to-roots guys will plug right into the amp, the effects users will have several effects.  That argues for a different way to bypass effects that's neither buffered bypass nor hard-switch bypass (true or not).

What would be nice would be if the musician's world would accept the idea of an up-front buffer block. These actually exist; one I've seen that sounds very nice is called The Redeemer, by Creation Audio Labs. It's at least a buffer, in that it preserves the guitar signal and buffers you against loading; CAL says it does other stuff as well. But a well-designed buffer first in the chain of effects would make a lot of "bypass, true or not" questions moot. With one buffer making the guitar signal low impedance, the effects could well have impedances down in the 50-100K regions and not bother with true bypass. They would not need the high input impedances which add problems if not designed well, and which pick up extraneous noise by capacitive coupling. I suspect that some input impedances can pick up clicks from cosmic rays hitting the cord... 

There would still be that problem with the Fuzz Face and its ilk needing a guitarish impedance at its front end to sound as expected. But there are ways of coping with that, and coping is a small price to pay for the real advances in signal to noise and lower complexity in the rest of the effects chain.

But it will never happen. At least not while guitars, amps and effects are used as we think of them today. Music companies think - rightly - that musicians won't immediately flock to buying a setup which changes everything, so they won't make things of this ilk, so musicians will not even be given the choice. It's one of those local-minima problems - what is available works, and no one will put up with the changeover pain to get to an even better operating point. Pro musicians would slowly adopt a quieter, easier to use solution that produces better results on stage and in the studio. A new guitar hero would come along and that would maybe start a following for his equipment stack, and it might catch on. Maybe.

So until we go all DSP, we're stuck with the well-trodden high impedance guitar output, high impedance cable, single ended line and the issues with bypass.

There's something to be said for the computer world where every few years, the world changes completely. At least you get to leave your old mistakes behind to make new ones. 

[Stu Diddly]

I HIGHLY admire both of you guys (RG and Jack).  You both inspire me to love the technical aspect as well as to never forget what you can create despite what type of pedal or effect you're using.  I'm a touring musician and I definitely attest that the average person/fan cannot distinguish between my T-Rex Delay pedal and my Boss DD-6 delay.  I only hope to one day aquire just some of the knowledge that you guys posses. 

Thank you for taking time to help out newcomers like me. You inspire me to keep on building regardless of what I run into.

Shaun

[R.G.]

Let me share the admiration.

You guys who live the life, who make a living touring and playing in studios are the real pros here. A new guitarist will buy something because (insert guitar god here) used it. But when your living depends on your sound, you will flatly toss things that don't really perform into the trash.

I rate the opinion of guys who are not bedroom guitarists and not flash-in-the-pan phenomenas really, really high. You're in the business long enough to develop no-nonsense opinions about what is good, you value things that don't fall apart; you need reliable tools for your craft.

That's not to say that bedroom guitarists, or instant superstars won't grow into solid performers over time; just that they don't have the time spent working with the tools to have developed their own sound preferences and to value solid, night-after-night operation in addition to sounding right.

We get our share of compliments on Visual Sound stuff, as well as our share of criticisms. What really rings my bells is when we get a sessions guy who's been playing for decades that walks up and tells us he found our stuff last year and has switched over just because it lets him get whatever he needs in sounds.

So learn the techie stuff, and welcome to anything I can tell you. But you're where the rubber meets the road. Whatever I can do to make that work for you is why I'm here.

[RedHouse]

Wow.

Doesn't sound like you two are talking about the same thing.

[Dragonfly]

I keep preaching about "if the effect sounds good, and doesnt totally mangle the bypassed signal, then who cares about TB"?

Seriously...almost every single guitar player that people hold up as having the "Holy Grail of Tone" was using buffered effects.

In things like Crybabies, I can totally see TB'ing it...but Boss, Ibanez, MXR, etc...they're all just fine.

In the 2000-someodd live shows I've played, I've never ONCE had somebody come up and say "Man, it was OK, but your tone would have been so much better if your pedals were TB".

When I build pedals I typically use TB because it's easier and uses less parts...not because it's any "better" or "worse" than a typical buffered bypass.

[R.G.]

Wow.Doesn't sound like you two are talking about the same thing.

We weren't.

[ADR]

Good write up Jack!

I gotta say, almost all my useful technical knowledge has been from muzique, geofex, and here. 9 times out of 10, when you guys say something, and I follow what you say, it usually ends up being better!

So I use TB where I can, a buffered effect where I must, and my tillman cable preamp up front of everything

The tillman is a gawdsend for my hollowbodies, as now the volume and tone controls work as intended!!! An unexpected bonus is that the tillman makes my overdrive sound and feel a wee bit better to my senses. I suspect because the signal is a tad hotter and squashes things a hair or two down the line.

It's a bit of irony in that I found out about the tillman after reading up on Cornish's 'mini-line driver,' investigated for alternatives, and figured I could make my own after successfully building a smattering of my own stompboxes and stumbling upon till.com. I never knew how my tone could be improved upon as much as it was.

So I like a good buffer at the front (as close to the guitar pickups as one can get) a buffer on the tail end of the pedalboard, with TB for everything in between. For whatever reason though, the tone improves a bit after being sent thru my roland 301 before hitting my voxac30. Adds just the right amount of shimmer without being harsh. Course it's not TB at all, and not a problem as I love the sound of its preamp. (I've been thinking of making a copy of just the preamp and stuffing it into a 1590.)

Anyways, my gigging and recording tone couldn't be better, mainly because of the knowledge picked up here.

Thanks a gazillion!

P.S. I HAD to google "true bypass" + "sewing machine" to find out the website article to which you referred. I found it amusing.

[Stu Diddly]

We get our share of compliments on Visual Sound stuff.

HA!  I didn't know you were the Visual Sound Guy.  I love your pedals.  We just used a bunch of your stuff on out latest record.  I'm sorry to say that I don't own any of your pedals, but I'm looking at buying some.  I think my producer knows you and he's a big fan of your stuff, his name is Lynn Nichols.  Do you know him?

Thanks so much for the advice R.G.

[analogmike]

Buy a pedal for its sound....  not its bypass switch!   

http://www.muzique.com/news/?p=66

Nice article! Anyone who skipped reading it please go back and check it out.

Thanks!!!

[DougH]

Buy a pedal for its sound....  not its bypass switch! 

Nice article, Jack. And I agree with your sentiment. It's too easy to fix "bypass tone problems" to throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

[gez]

Nice article! Anyone who skipped reading it please go back and check it out.

Go to Jack, move directly to Jack. Do not pass go, do not collect £200!

(Stompopoly). 

[ubersam]

P.S. I HAD to google "true bypass" + "sewing machine" to find out the website article to which you referred. I found it amusing.

I've read that article. Their statement about switches having 20pF to 100pF capacitance made me wonder how they measured the value. I've tried every way I can think of and I can't measure any appreciable values with the blue 3PDT switches that I have. Then they made this statement:

"On the other side of the coin, some pedals will not benefit from a true bypass mod --sonically or mechanically: "Boss® and Ibanez® type pedals."

I will have to disagree with that. Take the SD-1 for example, replacing the JFET switching with wire and 3PDT switch increases the output level of the circuit. I think that is a benefit. The only downside is that in bypass mode, the signal is no longer buffered, which may or may not be an issue depending on the rest of the signal chain.

[amz-fx]

Thanks for all the comments, gentlemen.   

For the record I own and use lots of true bypass pedals and plenty that have buffers (including Boss). 

For years in live performances, I used a TS-9 (buffer) driving an EHX Clone Theory (not true bypass and not buffered)...   the TS-9 buffer helped eliminate the problems that could have occurred with the C-Theo loading the signal line...

Pick the pedal for the sound needed and don't worry about the bypass chip or the opamp or transistors as long as you like the tone!

It's fun playing with those options but an Si transistor can get a cool sound just like a Ge transistor (but maybe not the SAME sound)    Concentrate on the sound!

best regards, Jack

[petemoore]

  I got rid of all buffers 'inadvertantly' while swapping pedals.
  So for some time I was running 'junk' into the input of my amp, I found this out the old fashioned way with a stout short cable the sound improved a lot.
  So I spliced a buffer on to the bypass jumper of my first booster [then cut the jumper between the input/ouput connections...booster on one side // buffer on the other.
  All is much improved now...whew...
  Everything works much better/great with that buffer driving the 9 BP switches and related jacks/plugs/cables, a very important small handful of components to the sound of my rig.

[R.G.]

You know, from an architectural standpoint, maybe the right thing to do is to make all pedals with both a buffer and a buffer bypass option. That way you could do the optimum thing from a noise standpoint and only use a buffer where it's needed. The first-up pedal on a pedalboard could have its buffer on, the rest off, unless the sound was better with it on. That way you could as a practical matter tune in your pedalboard for the best sound.

It's not really that hard to find truly miniature DPDT slide switches to put inside a pedal.

Maybe I'll put this into an upcoming article in the magazine.   

[DougH]

You know, from an architectural standpoint, maybe the right thing to do is to make all pedals with both a buffer and a buffer bypass option.

Maybe if builders started offering that option, all of the time-wasting arguments about it would vaporize.

Good idea!

Edit: Here's an idea for an experiment, R.G. Hold off on the magazine article a bit and see how long it takes for this option to show up in commercial products since it has now been mentioned in this forum.

[vanhansen]

Very nice articles, both Jack and R.G..  I must admit, I got caught up in the whole true bypass is king thing when I started out but after gaining some experience and using my ears, I find that it's not always the best choice.  In fact, none of my pedals I use live are true bypass, though the tuner I use says it is but I've yet to trace it out to verify that for sure - but right now I could care less...lol.  It does what it's supposed to do.

When I box up stuff I've built, I make them true bypass simply because it's easier for me.  At some point I'll look at doing other bypass options.  But it's a hobby and that's all it is for me.

R.G., the switchable bypass option would be great.  It doesn't sound like it would be that hard to do.

[Dragonfly]

Edit: Here's an idea for an experiment, R.G. Hold off on the magazine article a bit and see how long it takes for this option to show up in commercial products since it has now been mentioned in this forum.

Its already been done.

When I was with Malekko, Josh did it with the EKKO 600 (and EKKO 300 as well) . We were fiddling with the bypass...a couple versions of buffered bypass, and of course TB....we couldn't figure out which we liked better, so Josh said "to hell with it, lets do both!" Josh implemented it quite nicely...his Dad is a pretty dang smart EE, and those two have one hell of a future! Wait till you see a few of the pedals they've proto'd for release this year !

You can see the T/B switch on the side of the pedals, near the output jack...

http://www.malekkoheavyindustry.com/index.php?page=effects-pedals#echo600

[Mark Hammer]

I'd like to see a sort of "station" that you plug your guitar into, and feed your amp from, that provides a buffered in and out, plus an envelope extractor at the buffered input that can be applied to whatever the heck you want (but which would be used for some internal devices).  Right after the buffer, you insert some form of hum reduction, and when the signal returns to the station, just before a decent current driver sends it to the amp, you insert some form of hiss reduction.  Between that send and receive jack, you could stick whatever the heck you wanted to, whether buffered or not.  Heck, you could probably even stick yer old SPDT vintage pedals without having to modify them.  You'd have non-heavy-handed noise reduction and could eschew use of outboard gates and such.