Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I must admit I was feeling kind of silly when I recently discovered the true bypass looper pedals. A simple yet brilliant idea, kind of like the cotton gin of pedals. These things seem to be the answer for my tone sucking issues, which has always caused me to use a minimalist approach with effects (no more than 4). I don't own a single true-bypass effect, except maybe my Snarling Dogs Tone Dog. The manual says its true bypass, but I've been told otherwise from several people. I'm going to buy one of these true bypass looper pedals this weekend, one with at least 2 loops, any recomendations ?

if I were u I'd build it myself... it's not that hard...
zooboo makes some nice simple stuff... very high quality.
radial (folks who make tone-bone) makes one that had a lot of nice features.
other than that I don't know.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. To me, a "looper" is the gizmo that helps one make loops on the fly. If you mean the board that allows one to patch in their various effects pedals and switch them off and on in numerous ways, bypassing the ones that are not being used, the the Carl Martin Octa-Switch could be the answer for you. I'm thinking of getting one as well. Just don't have the dough right now. As to cost, don't forget the cost of all the patch cables you'll be needing. Two for each pedal.

http://www.carlmartin.com/product_octaswitch.htm

Yes, I did mean the one you can use to turn pedals on/off. Thanks for the advice now I know a few brands to look for.

if I were u I'd build it myself... it's not that hard...
zooboo makes some nice simple stuff... very high quality.
radial (folks who make tone-bone) makes one that had a lot of nice features.
other than that I don't know.

+1
I made one for one of my tone sucker pedals years ago and it was a snap. I bought a bunch of Carling 216PP switches when I converted my Thomas Organ Crybaby to true bypass. Keep in mind that you can go too far with "true Bypass" too. Each time you split your signal you degrade it a little bit. Many pedals that don't have true bypass have buffers that make up for that.

if I were u I'd build it myself... it's not that hard...
zooboo makes some nice simple stuff... very high quality.
radial (folks who make tone-bone) makes one that had a lot of nice features.
other than that I don't know.

+1
I made one for one of my tone sucker pedals years ago and it was a snap. I bought a bunch of Carling 216PP switches when I converted my Thomas Organ Crybaby to true bypass. Keep in mind that you can go too far with "true Bypass" too. Each time you split your signal you degrade it a little bit. Many pedals that don't have true bypass have buffers that make up for that.

The looper is for 2 old Ibanez pedals, and one old DOD, everthing else would go outside of it. I also have a Thomas organ Crybaby, that I was want to convert to true bypass, along with a Snarling Dogs Tone Dog. They both use that Military Type Switch, is the Carling 216PP switch a direct replacement ? I also saw these True Bypass 1/4 inch jacks, which were a bit bulky. Know anything about these ? My dad is a retired electrical engineer, I just bring him the parts, and he goes to town.

'I made one for one of my tone sucker pedals years ago and it was a snap. I bought a bunch of Carling 216PP switches when I converted my Thomas Organ Crybaby to true bypass.'
note that a carling 216pp is a 2pdt and will NOT do true bypass WITH LED indication (shouldn't matter for a wah but I like LED indication on a looper!)

'Keep in mind that you can go too far with "true Bypass" too. Each time you split your signal you degrade it a little bit. Many pedals that don't have true bypass have buffers that make up for that.'

wo nelly... true bypass loopers don't split your signal... the loops are in series.
I think what you probably mean is that when you string together many tb boxes and have NO BUFFERS running... it's just as bad as having many buffered pedals with no true bypass looping. You want one and only one buffer running at all times if at all possible...

so if your setup is all true bypass you can add a switchable buffer pedal, or put a buffer in your guitar wiring.

if your setup has some buffered pedals leave one of them outside the tb loop... while it's bypassed it's buffered so you will have a buffer on at all times.



"is the Carling 216PP switch a direct replacement ? I also saw these True Bypass 1/4 inch jacks, which were a bit bulky. Know anything about these ?"
note you will want to truly bypass that wah first... they suck tone like crazy!

just about any 2pdt switch will work in your wah... or any 3pdt if you want LED on/off indication.
true bypass jacks? no such thing afa I know.
it's the stomp switch that makes the mechanical connection that makes it true bypass.

My idea was to make the CryBaby true bypass, then use the looper for the other pedals. My standard signal chain is Guitar > DOD octoplus > Rocktron Sonic Glory > Ibanez FL-9 > Ibanez PT-9, sometimes I don't include the Phaser. I'm not sure if any of these pedals have buffers. Would a line booster produce the same effect ? I do have one of those on my Tone Dog, you can set it to just boost your signal, either a lot or a little.

hello,
not entirely sure about the snarling dogs pedal... line booster? sounds a lot like it would be a booster so... that's great. s/b perfect in place of a buffer.

I honestly wouldn't worry about the buffer thing too much with your setup as it sits right now provided you use decent cable and you get that wah pedal converted to true bypass. your setup should sound just fine then.

I'd say you are at the 'threshold' of needing a tb looper if you add another buffered bypass pedal.(you could probably even add a few tb pedals and not have to worry too much about tone suck)


pretty sure fl9, pt9, dod octo are buffered.
don't know offhand about the rest (other than the wah)

I agee whole heartedly with mistermikev. He is the resident master tinkerer and won't steer you wrong. Converting the Thomas organ wah made a world of difference and it was a really easy mod. That was my biggest tone sucker by far and now it's perfect. I don't really use the looper pedal I made anymore because I just don't run many effects. I've gone back to a simple setup. I go through my Crybaby which is now bypass equiped straight into my Vintage Modern. The only other pedal I use is a DE7 delay which I run in in the amp's loop. I used to go crazy with a loads of effects in a two amp set up but it just got to be too much. I was spending as much time screwing around with my rig as I was playing. At the time I had to because I was running a Plexi and it didn't have an effects loop and was crazy loud. Re-amping with a Hotplate into a SS power amp was the only good way to control the volume and add my time based effects. Now I just run old school.

Here is a how to link to make the job easy for ya.

http://www.fulltone.com/ThomasCrybaby.jpg

You can get switches here:

http://www.smallbearelec.com/Categories ... %2C+Relays

u r 2 kind hdriffraff


my resume:

u r 2 kind hdriffraff


my resume:

That's an awesome collection, to be sure. I also prefer real, analogue pedals as opposed to those midi-ed digital multi-effects rack things. But one question, when having all those pedals to choose from, would not a switcher like the Carl Martin Combinator make using the various pedals much easier and effective? Also, in terms of using a switcher/combinator, if one has multiple pedals assigned to one pre-set, then how is the order of the pedals determined? According to many, pedal order is important. But when using a device like the Combinator, how is the pedal order determined when using multiple pedals in a pre-set?

I've seen the carl martin switcher... afa I know it's just a tb loop pedal with switchable buffers.... I didn't think it did presents but I could be wrong.
Either way...

"I also prefer real, analogue pedals as opposed to those midi-ed digital multi-effects rack things. "

I also have a fully midi rack setup too... both have advantages/disadvantages.


"But one question, when having all those pedals to choose from, would not a switcher like the Carl Martin Combinator make using the various pedals much easier and effective? "
Not really in my case. I have tb loopers built in all over that board... many of the pedals I built my self and I built in loops into the pedal. The jack daniels looper pedal, and a few others, I have there also have a order switch.... so it will swap the order of the two loops. So I can choose reverb thru delay or delay thru reverb (among many others)



"Also, in terms of using a switcher/combinator, if one has multiple pedals assigned to one pre-set, then how is the order of the pedals determined? According to many, pedal order is important. But when using a device like the Combinator, how is the pedal order determined when using multiple pedals in a pre-set"
not sure how pedal order is determined on the carling device.

As I understand it, one can assign up to eight pedals for each "loop/preset", whatever you call them. There are eight of those as well. So, step on switch one for delay, compressor, distortion, etc. Then switch two for another set/arrangement of pedals and so on. I was just wondering if anyone knew how the order of pedals were determined when stepping on one of the loops/presets.

hello,
not entirely sure about the snarling dogs pedal... line booster? sounds a lot like it would be a booster so... that's great. s/b perfect in place of a buffer.

I honestly wouldn't worry about the buffer thing too much with your setup as it sits right now provided you use decent cable and you get that wah pedal converted to true bypass. your setup should sound just fine then.

I'd say you are at the 'threshold' of needing a tb looper if you add another buffered bypass pedal.(you could probably even add a few tb pedals and not have to worry too much about tone suck)


pretty sure fl9, pt9, dod octo are buffered.
don't know offhand about the rest (other than the wah)

The Snarling Dogs Tone Dog is a notch filter, and also has a straight power boost setting like a EH LPB-1 or 2. It's the older silver kind, I know the newer green ones are TB. But I'm not sure whats up with the silver ones. manual says yes, most people I've spoke with said no. I put it in front of a chain of about 6 pedals and it did seem to improve the signal once dialed in correctly. I'll be ordering those switches, jacks, etc.. this week. I'll let you know how the wah turns out. Thanks again, Patrick