Vendor Preferred Bypass?

[Jack DeVille]

As the subject suggests: what is your preferred method for your effects pedals' bypass?

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

Things that don’t matter when I buy a pedal:

Paint jobs
Top jacks
Soft switches

 

[coltonius]

Things that don’t matter when I buy a pedal:

Paint jobs
Top jacks
Soft switches

Yet here we are, knee deep in effects which are essentially same except for:

Paint jobs
Top jacks
Soft switches

 

[Glitch Magnet]

Tough to choose from the poll options. Everything seems to have a tradeoff. I prefer having true / hardwire bypass, but having a selectable buffered mode is certainly a nice option. I can stomach a small amount of electrical pop noise, but not much. Silent switching is ideal, but not if there's a time lag, silence gap, or bounce potential. I'd prefer quiet mechanical operation, but with a positive affirmational feel. A sealed relay seems preferable if it ensures extended reliability and a cleaner signal path.

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

Yet here we are, knee deep in effects which are essentially same except for:

Paint jobs
Top jacks
Soft switches

I don't use those.

 

[your name here]

I voted #2 and would rather have a soft switch, but I’m ultimately in the ‘don’t care’ category.

 

[Glitch Magnet]

One minor bugaboo of mine, given the propensity for mechanical switch failures, is the TBP convention that routes the bypass signal through two contacts in series. It's the easiest to wire, but doubles the risk of a bypass failure.

I prefer to tie the input wiper directly to the output bypass contact. Better yet, also jumper the input bypass contact to the output wiper so the bypass signal passes through two contacts in parallel.

 

[Voodoo Soul Blues]

To me it doesn’t really matter as long as....

1) No perceived signal degradation exists switched on or off.
Tone suck immediately eliminates any pedal from consideration when I am making a purchase.

2) No delay or noise increase exists switched on or off.
With the possible exception of “dirt” pedals but even then most are pretty quiet these days.
I do have a couple of dirt pedals that sound great at home but are unusable in a live situation once lights, bad ac etc. are introduced.

 

[TheoDog]

When I worked in a particular restaurant kitchen. We had 4 different options for black pepper. Fresh cracked, fine grind, dustless, and salad grind.
They all performed differently in their recipes.
That’s an analogy to this. Each pedalboard is a different recipe. The right choice is recipe dependent.

 

[tubekingsley]

I doubt that anyone who votes for buffered bypass, actually prefers every single pedal they use, to be buffered ? Sometimes buffered bypass is appropriate, and often times, not.

 

[The Holy Drinker]

Soft switch whenever possible. I’m also thinking about replacing the hard 3PDT switches on some of my pedals with softer ones. I use them on my desk with my hands most of the time and hard switches are really annoying to press.

I don’t get why people say soft switches have no physical feedback. When you press it, you feel when the switch makes contact and stops going further down (they’re the same as Boss switches in that sense). There’s also the light , most of the time.

 

[musicman10_1]

Hey Jack:

I own several of your pedals. One thing that they all have in common is that the switches that you use are RUGGED. As in hard to engage. Not that it is a bad thing, it is just a fact.

I rate them at least twice as hard to engage as other boutique pedals that I use.

 

[coltonius]

I doubt that anyone who votes for buffered bypass, actually prefers every single pedal they use, to be buffered ? Sometimes buffered bypass is appropriate, and often times, not.

Odd. At one time 7 of the 12 effects on my board were buffered bypass. Many of them by choice (buffered trails). Many agreed, my “tone” was never better.

 

[LikeAMotherF]

Odd. At one time 7 of the 12 effects on my board were buffered bypass. Many of them by choice (buffered trails). Many agreed, my “tone” was never better.

We'll that's only because they didn't realize that you had seven pedals with buffered bypass.

 

[MrMoose]

For standalone pedals I prefer soft-touch momentary relay true-bypass.

However 3PDT is better if you put your pedals in a true-bypass-looper as you can switch them on once and then everytime you plug in your pedalboard all of your pedals power-up in their on state.

 

[LikeAMotherF]

We'll, now that I've made a silly comment, I may as well try and contribute;
I haven't voted- but that's not because I'm indifferent. I'm undecided. Meaning, I guess I don't have enough experience with each to know the pros/cons/payoffs/tradeoffs yet.
I'm learning there's nothing wrong with a buffer, in general. But it really depends on a.) the quality of the buffer b.) the nature of the buffer &c.) the placement of the buffer. I can imagine a pedalboard chock fulla buffers that you'd never notice, and I can imagine a board with just one noisy/crappy buffer that pees in the stream, as it were.
I don't mind soft switches. Or 'hard' switches, either. Any of them are fine, same as the buffer- as long as it introduces no noise or negative artifacts in the signal hitting the amp. No lag, no pops, no buzz.

So imagine any one of the options can be done 'wrong', or in a way that I don't like. And I believe that any of them can be done 'right', or in a way that is wholly transparent and wouldn't cause anyone to think twice about how it was made or with what.

I don't know if any of this is helpful....
But it's all I got!

 

[coltonius]

We'll that's only because they didn't realize that you had seven pedals with buffered bypass.

Also, I don’t think they’re TGP members. It’s easy to let your ears decide what sounds good when you don’t have a bunch of know-it-alls telling you what to think.

 

[flatulentmatt]

Honestly, it depends on the pedal. Wet FX (delays and reverbs) you kind of want to have the ability to have buffered so you can have trails when you switch the pedal off. I typically have a combination of buffered and true bypass on my board. I generally like true bypass but always want to have a couple buffers in there somewhere.

So I guess my vote would be switchable; though how much extra would that cost to produce? I'd say I'd be willing to pay an extra $5-10 or so to have the option, but I have no idea what costs would be involved.

I also like soft switches, but it's not really a deal breaker for me when purchasing.

 

[Riffa]

I voted Alternate Method because I like the new(er) MXR switches, which are neither too hard nor too soft to engage. There's little resistance, but it's there and there is a slight click.