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loopmaster question about true bypass

N

nboyer941

Jul 22, 2008
528
13
Burnsville, MN
#1
I did a search, didn't find what I was looking for. hope this hasn't been discussed too much.

I'm looking at getting a 4/5 loop loopmaster to prevent the tone suck from my pedal chain.

First, does the loop master make a popping noise when I click the switch?

Second, would it make sense to run my true bypass pedals (ehmx) before or after the loopmaster so that i can use my loop switches for my non true bypass pedals?

thanks
 
#2
First, it might. How badly it pops and what the cause is may vary.

Second, run your pedals anywhere you want. If you are trying to get your buffered or output bypass pedals out of the signal path then those need to be in there. If you like to use a buffered with a true bypass then maybe those should go together in a loop.

I wouldn't sacrifice my pedal order for the sake of my looper.

If you're using a passive instrument then having one solid buffered pedal at the beginning of your chain is a good idea to combat tone suck from cable impedance. If you're using an active that is like having a buffer at the beginning of your chain.
 
#3
All TBP switches are vulnerable to the popping noise. Some have additions like a pulldown resistor that reduce those pops, and a rare few have more clever pop-stopping circuits; but in general, the large majority of TBP switches may pop. It all depends on the rest of your rig, your room, whether you're standing on carpet (potentially true!), how long your cables are, how many there are, etc. etc.

Ask the Loopmaster guy if he uses pulldowns or any other pop-reduction method.

As far as whether to put TBP pedals in a TBP loop... Why? The only thing achieved there is if you have more than one pedal in the loop, and you want to engage all of them with one stomp. Or I guess, for larger boards, it can make sense to have all eight or ten switches up at the front in a tidy straight line. For a 4 or 5 switch looper... not so much IMO.
 
#5
It is tricky. Most EHX XO boxes are true bypass, but not all. One rule I go by with the new EHX is if there are multiple outputs (stereo, dry output, etc.) then it isn't true bypass. I don't know if it is an iron clad rule, but it is pretty good.

The harder trick is when the pedals use only an output bypass, which still leaves the input of the circuit intact. Old EHX pedals did this and a bunch of others do as well. The only way to test is to open the box and see how it's wired. Or listen to see if it sucks.

Boss, Tech21, Digitech, DOD, all use almost exclusively buffered switching. I couldn't make a list extensive enough to help you with everything.
 
#6
No, no list unfortunately. And there are some brands that do both, depending on the model, or where they used one system for one period of time, and later changed to a different bypass system. EHX are like that--you can't assume that any one EHX pedal is TBP, unless it's one of their newest models, and it says TBP on the web for that model.

Also if you search on the word "stinkfoot" (of course, you knew that one already, right?), you'll find a wealth of information about bypass systems. WORTH READING. :)
 
#8
The way you'll see it most of the time is the "body" of the footswitch will be a blue plastic cube, with 9 solder points on the bottom side (facing you when you open the pedal). This is called a "3PDT" switch, and the blue plastic ones are usually from a Chinese company called Alpha. Unfortunately even seeing one of those (or not seeing one) is not a guarantee, because (a) there are other methods of creating true bypass, and other switches that can be used for TBP; and (b) it is possible to wire up one of those 3PDT's in a non-TBP manner. That is very uncommon, but I've seen at least one pedal that had a 3PDT for the bypass that was not TBP.
 
#9
If open up your Bass BigMuff (I took the liberty of finding your last PYPB post) you'll see that the switch has 9 terminals on it with a ribbon cable that goes to the main PCB. The 9 terminal (3pole double throw, or 3pdt) switches allow for easily wired input, output, and LED switching. If one of these is here with 8 of the 9 poles wired to it, then it is probably true bypass.

I'm too tired to explain the exact routing of wiring involved in verifying this. It should also be noted that some pedals use relay switching (Digitech Hardwire, EHX tube pedals, and others). These will not look like I described. Too many options, I tell ya.

Good luck.
 

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