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I just plugged my diy a/b box into my amp, and it sucked all my tone dry. The schematic that I used was supposed to be the most transparent to my tone, apparently not. I can't believe what it did to my guitar, it basically neutered the dang thing. Does anyone know of any pedals that don't suck the tone out of your rig? I would be interested in an a/b/y, overdrive, chorus, reverb, delay, wah, or whatever else you guys think is cool, diy or not. But of course those is no substitute for just plugging straight in a letting loose . Thanks.

Most "true bypass" effects do not suck tone, at least when they're off.

There is a certain magic that happens when a high impedance guitar pickup interacts with a high impedance amp input. Putting any sort of buffer in between changes this to a greater or lesser degree. I did a purely mechanical A/B switch that worked great, but this kind of design won't do "Y" with only one switch.

--mark

Perhaps it's not your A/B pedal, but the f/x and/or extra cable you're switching in/out?

IME...

TONESUCKERS
-- Newer Boss pedals, i.e. CH-1, SD-1 (suck the ooomph out)
-- Line6 DL4 (big time ooomph sucker)
-- Old CryBaby wah (deadens highs when in the signal chain - needs true-bypass switch)
-- Newer Vox wah (ditto)

OK
Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde (colors the tone a little, but leaves the low end)

(NEARLY) TRANSPARENT
-- Fulltone OCD
-- Fulltone RTO
-- Fulltone DejaVibe
-- TC Nova delay (surprisingly good, especially for a digital pedal)
-- TC Nova modulation (ditto)

mikhailwatt wrote: (NEARLY) TRANSPARENT
-- Fulltone OCD

Speaking of that, what's the going rate for a good, used OCD? All them Fulltone pedals at the past two Vintage Hiwatt Conventions have given me the feeling that I'm missing out .

Dave

I've got one I'm not using, but I don't know the going rate.

--mark

mhuss wrote:I've got one I'm not using, but I don't know the going rate.

In that case, how's 5 bucks sound ?

Dave

OldSchoolDave wrote:

mhuss wrote:I've got one I'm not using, but I don't know the going rate.

In that case, how's 5 bucks sound ?

Um, "uninspiring?"

--mark

mhuss wrote: Um, "uninspiring?"

Ah, I neglected to mention the 5 bucks would come with my undying gratitude ... (check yer email).

Dave

How do I get rid of tonesucking fingers?

Dr.HIWATT wrote:How do I get rid of tonesucking fingers?

Three things: Practice, practice and practice.

--mark

Dr.HIWATT wrote:How do I get rid of tonesucking fingers?

Still working on this one myself, need all the help I can get tho. Turned out, one of my cables sucked so I threw it away Thanks again hailwatt!

lffish133 wrote:Turned out, one of my cables sucked so I threw it away

There was a great article about pedalboards in Guitar Player a few months ago. Pete Cornish explained how true-bypass pedals don't necessarily eliminate tone-suckage.

For instance, if you're using just one pedal that contains a buffer -and- is true-bypass, with a 20' cable to the pedal and another 25' to the amp:

- When the pedal is OFF, your pickups will be loaded by 45' worth of cable... the extra capacitance will cause some signal loss and reduced highs, so you adjust the amp's tone controls accordingly.

- However, when the pedal is ON, your pickups will only see 20' of cable due to the buffer... the signal level will rise and the tone will suddenly be overly bright due to the eq adjustments made to compensate for the longer cable runs.

His solution is to use a buffer at the front end of the pedalboard.

mikhailwatt wrote: Pete Cornish explained how true-bypass pedals don't necessarily eliminate tone-suckage.

Love those Technical Terms !

Dave

mikhailwatt wrote:His solution is to use a buffer at the front end of the pedalboard.

You just have to make sure to not use a tone-sucking buffer!

--mark

Picked up a used OCD today for $150.00 CAN. Not a great deal, but an alright deal. I can't wait to try it out with the Hiwatt on Monday at the jam space. Will report back with impressions.