Bass effects: 4 reasons to get a true-bypass effects loop switch

If you are running more than about 6 effects you might you want a true-bypass effects looper.

You might be asking, "What is a a true-bypass effects loop switcher?". A true-bypass effects loop switcher is a basically a pedal with one or more effects loops. Each effect loop has an effects send and return like you see on the back of most modern amps. The switches on the these either add or remove the loop from the overall signal. There is a main input and main output on the pedal. See the road rage looper below.





Here's 4 reasons to get a looper.

Reason one:
You can bypass several feet of tone-squelching cable when certain effects are not engaged.
Without getting too technical - the capacitance of a cable is relative to its length. A cable twice as long has twice the capacitance. This capacitance effects the how your pick-ups respond. This capacitance causes a filtering out of the highest frequencies in the signal.
Don't believe me? Compare the difference between a short patch vs. a very long cable. There's a tonal difference. The shorter cable sounds like it has more sparkle - a wider frequency response. The longer has a more fundamental bass tone since the highs are filtered out.



Reason two:
Most importantly, you can bypass non-true-bypass or buffered pedals when they are not engaged. The buffer circuits or pre-amps in these pedals typically cost the manufacturers pennies a piece and are absolute dogshit. Sequence two or three of these buffers into your signal path and listen to your tone turn to mush.

Just a couple of quick notes about buffers. This buffering process is used to bypass the effect when it's not engaged. The buffers act as a kind of relay device for your guitar signal. The buffer takes your signal, copies it, and passes a levelled version to the output of the pedal. To help illustrate the effect of these buffers on you signal, imagine copying a tape cassette, then making a copy of the copy and so on. Obviously the end result is a degraded facsimile of the original version. A degraded facsimile is exactly what your series of buffered pedals will cause.

If you want to identify the offending pedals you can do the following. A quick test to see if a pedal is buffered is to plug your guitar into the pedal. Send the output to your amp. Disengage the effect and simply remove the power to the pedal. A true-bypass pedal doesn't require any power to route the signal to the output side of the pedal. Therefore, if you here your guitar it is true bypass, else it is buffered. That's all on buffers and true-bypass.

Reason three:
You can avoid the usual tap-dance routine you get when you need to engage two or more pedals at once. For example, if you almost always play your octave and your envelope filter together (an awesome effect combo), place them in a single effect loop. With both pedals already on, you simply engage the loop with one tap. No more trying to jump on two pedals at once. You can leave all the pedals on all the time.

Reason four:
If you are manging a pedal board, control of all the effects loops can be centralized in one convenient and ergonomic location. This means no more stepping over other pedals or trying to engage a pedal pedal in the middle of the others with just your big toe. Moreover, this configuration permits you to orient your stompboxes in space saving ways anywhere on the board because they no longer need to be accessible by your foot. This can save cable too. Hell, you could stack some pedals vertically if you wanted.

Check out the pedal board below. Looks awesome right? Looks cool but probably sounds terrible. I count about 8 buffered pedals here. Also imagine trying to hit that tremelo pedal on a poorly light stage. No offence to the owner of the pedal board but this looks like a problem.


Lastly a shameless plug for the boys at Road Rage Pro Gear since they were so helpful to me. I was in touch with Analogman about a looper bypass pedal. A double looper was going to run me $150+ and it's such a simple circuit. Loopmaster makes a less expensive bypass pedal too but still expensive and takes two months to get one built and delivered . The road rage looper 6 channel kit shipped in two days and took me about a day to build. By far the least expensive. Highly recommended Canadian company eh! And no I don't work for them.