Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I am going to pick up a couple of Roger Mayer effects tomorrow.

The subject of "true bypass" came up.

From what I gather, some effects "tone suck" without "true bypass".

Do the Roger Mayer effects come with "true bypass".

I understand that people do this to their effect, such as ANALOGMAN more notably from this area (tri-state area).

This is an example..

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pre-Owned-Dunlop-He ... 35a503562a

Who knows about this for real>? Can someone elaborate, please?

Most 'boutique' and many high-end pedals are true bypass, this means that when the pedal effect is off the signal doesn't run through all of the guts inside (like Boss pedals) and out. The signal is immediately re-routed to the out jack.

Of course Roger Mayer's fame is that he was the effect guru to Hendrix.

Do you know if the Roger Mayer stuff is true bypass>?

The pedals are old from 1970 and say "30th anniversary edition" along with the standard Roger Mayer signature.

My buddy just saw them. I have an "axis fuzz" and a "rocket octavia".

He scratched his head and asked me if "Roger Mayer" has anything to do with "John Mayer". I laughed hard and said a prayer of thanks to god for an unbelievable find.

I believe 'all' Mayer stuff is true bypass.
John Mayer!!! LOL WTF!!!

Also if they are the age you are saying, then there might be a few 'Holy Grails' there! BUY 'EM dude!!!

Oh I did, but I just want them for the sound.

Whatever they are, I pray they are just plain functional and do not need repair. That's all I can hope for.

I have an image of them, I am trying to upload it to my pics on my page, as I don't know how to do it right here..

YEP, the pic is under my pics on this sites' ad. NICE.

Hi

I read an interesting article on this recently; true bypass is always a big selling point with boutique (read 'overpriced') pedals...

Essentially, the other type of FX unit (e.g. Boss) are buffered which means they include circuitry which, when the unit is not activated, reduce the likelihood of signal loss due to capacitance. This usually manifests itself in the loss of the top end of your tone, particularly if you are also using long cable runs and low quality cables. It all depends also on how sensitive your ear is.

The conclusion was that a combination of buffered and true bypass is probably the best solution. If you use too many posh 'true bypass' pedals in one signal chain, your tone may suffer.

Don't quote me on any of this!
D38

first and foremost... I take issue with the idea that boutique pedals are overpriced... (hand wired ones anyway)
take a simple tubescreamer clone for instance... you can buy the parts for about $55(with medium quality components with a bulk discount) and it will take you at least 3 hrs to populate the components, test it, paint the enclosure, drill the box, etch the pcb, drill the pcb, wire the circuit into the box... and if you pay yourself $20/hr and don't make any mistakes you can sell it for $115.... then you got ebays cut, shipping, etc...
but folks often make the mistake of comparing these to equivalent mass produced pedals with cheap components... and it's just not fair!


true bypass
from a practical standpoint... it's been my experience that you will start to notice a subtle loss when you have more than two buffered bypass pedals in your signal chain at any time (not just on... but on OR off).

that said, ultimately you want one and only one good quality buffer running on your setup at any given time.

I can't add much to what has been said other than to say that many effects manufacturers have caught on to the term 'true bypass'. There is no electronic 'standard' for true bypass and as such many companies take advantage of the term knowing it is not what most of us mean by true bypass. For instance my peterson strobo stomp is not true bypass despite it's claim.

I believe roger mayer stuff is tb...

if you want to string some 46 pedals together (like me) you are going to need true bypass loops and high quality cable... but you don't necc need all tb pedals.

In my opinion, it's not a whole lot to be worried about. Look at Mike Einziger's setup in 2000. Do you see a whole lot of True Bypass pedals going on here? I saw them live many times. Didn't ever sound bad to me.

Here's a pic of one of his. Once again, not seeing too much True Bypass. It's just not as big a deal as people make it out to be.




Most of my pedals aren't true bypass, only a couple. It's nothing to stress over.


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sorry... but incubus? not exactly what I think of when I think tone. furthermore look at the pedals he chooses... doesn't exactly scream good taste (other than the hughs and kettner - that's nice). Granted the guy makes a shyte ton more money than me at it but... so does brittany spears.

http://www.petecornish.co.uk/jptt.html
^link to the pete cornish setup jimmy page uses/used. pete is well respected among pedal snobs... and he does boards for many other famous people like david gilmour. go price one of his rigs once.

sure, you can string together fifty boss and dod pedals and it will work... but if you've spent any amount of time comparing your signal thru all those pedals in bypassed mode with your signal straight into your amp... you will undoubtedly notice that there is a substantial amount of tone loss... and how hard is it to set up loops and be conscious of your signal path?

eric johnsons board...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/ ... lboard.jpg

Ask this crowd if they care..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Sm4l483yo

His tone still sounds fine to me. I'm not hearing a problem there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jNXg1Y9 ... re=related



.

Gee, all I have is a tuner and a Wah.


And seriously think about doing away with everything but the tuner.

Ask this crowd if they care..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Sm4l483yo

His tone still sounds fine to me. I'm not hearing a problem there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jNXg1Y9 ... re=related



.

"Ask this crowd if they care.." -yeah cause when it comes to tone I trust all to a crowd full of drunken fans... they really know what sounds good!

ultimately, we'd have to compare his tone here to his tone with a decent pedalboard... and even then it would be a subtle difference... but as with anything else high performance: that last 5% of performance will cost you 200% more. And it may not be worth it if your ears can't appreciate it.
his 'tone' is 'ok' at best... it doesn't qualify as inspiring to me.

comparing apples to plums but listen how you can hear every note eric plays:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJK6nO17Is4

I hear the dude from Incubus is a great tap-dancer!

Check Jon Frusciante's board sometime...awesome.

Anybody seen the Nirvana Live at Reading dvd? Awesome tone from just a Boss Turbo Distortion, that's the way to do it!!

Shredd, you know that tone/personal sound is subjective.

Seems like if you dig a more vintage sound, the true bypass pedals do excel to a certain point.

If you hook up more than 3-4, I do notice things get a little muddy regardless.

And Incubus?

Why didn't you just go with Dillinger Escape Plan, ssdd. lol

If you had said SRV, I would been more swayed by your argument.

At that price, I sure hope money is no object because if not, you're taking it up the crap basket for a product that will never live up to the cost.

My favorite overdrive/distortion to date is the one I designed from the ground up on my own.


The labor and custom enclosure I built would surely be one hell of a cost but the circuit components are probably about 8 dollars in total with a percentage for shipping tacked on.

3 band EQ, Stage 1 and Master volume, gain and EQ bypass/blend control. It's bordering on full blown preamp while having a minuscule part count.
Obviously, it's true bypass.

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