More True Bypass - A simple & interesting experiment...

[excane]

I am a big believer in Murphy's Law, so I will take precautions wherever I can...

As I sat fiddling with my pedalboard, I opened up all my pedals and made sure all batteries were removed (they're powered by a pedal power and dunlop brick, so a few batteries were corroded to hell from years of sitting in there)...

I started playing with all pedals switched "off" and one at a time, I unplugged them from the power supply.
Some pedals are unaffected and didn't affect my signal while others completely kill your signal....such as the two Digitech hardwire pedals I picked up recently.

Pedals such as my Fulltone Bassdrive and Choralflange just pass the signal on.

Anyone experiment with this?

I guess what I'm trying to ask is....is this issue in CONJUNCTION with a true bypass pedal or separate? Does a pedal cutting off your signal with no power have anything to do with its circuit design and if it's true bypass?

Any info would be great, discuss....

[grygrx]

I'd recommend reading this...

[excane]

I have, many times. I'm just trying to understand it better.

[niftydog]

What exactly are you having trouble understanding? Phrase a nice clear question about something and you are far more likely to get a response.

[excane]

Let me try again.... If a pedal cuts your signal off completely when unplugged from the power supply (such as the digitech hardwire), what kind of bypass is used?

[scotch]

My understanding is that if a pedal will not pass your signal (when in bypass position) without power - that is good evidence of it not being "true bypass". Something in the pedals design requires voltage in order to pass signal - a possible exception being a pedal that uses an actual electronic relay (which is pretty rare!).

HOWEVER, if a pedal does pass signal without power, that is not necessarily evidence that the pedal does employ "true bypass". Reason being that some components could still be loading the input or output jacks...

So,.. the "no power test" can be used as evidence to prove a pedal is not true bypass, but not to prove that it is!

[scotch]

Oh, also - The new Digitech "Hardwire" pedals are rumored to use an electronic relay - which would make them the exception to the rule. Voltage is necessary to bypass the circuitry... weird, but it works! So, the Digitech probably is "true bypass" in the sense that it doesn't affect your bypassed tone, but it requires active circuitry to accomplish the feat!

[excane]

Thank you

[niftydog]

Yup, it's not a valid test for true bypass. All it really tells you is that it's either poorly designed (IMO) relay bypass (should be fail-safe, ie; bypassed) or it's an electronic bypass.