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[Poster]

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[Walker done done]

At the risk of getting too confusing, please explain!  Great info to have, I'm sure many will benefit from it!

[strangedesign]

For those of you who want to give the true bypass loopers a shot without having to spend a fortune, checkout www.loop-master.com/

They can build you about anything. It also doesn't take 8-10 months to get back. Mine was at my door in 2-3 weeks

[fulltone1989]

For those of you who want to give the true bypass loopers a shot without having to spend a fortune, checkout www.loop-master.com/

They can build you about anything. It also doesn't take 8-10 months to get back. Mine was at my door in 2-3 weeks

The effects loop boxes look very useful, thanks for sharing the link! I am a little confused about this true bypass looper and I was curious if either of you could answer my question. I have a SKB PS 45 board, and I have never tried using the extra effects loops on the board, would this serve the same purpose as the switcher box? Thank you

-Tom

[sour d]

The effects loop boxes look very useful, thanks for sharing the link! I am a little confused about this true bypass looper and I was curious if either of you could answer my question. I have a SKB PS 45 board, and I have never tried using the extra effects loops on the board, would this serve the same purpose as the switcher box? Thank you

I have 1 of those boards that i put my boomerang and jamman on. I never used the loops on it but I just ran downstairs to check it out. The one I have has 2 seperate loops. There is no way of switching them in or out of your signal path. The only thing it looks like you can do with them is maybe feed 2 amps with different effects for each amp. I also remember the pedal power part of those boards are real noisy. Maybe mostly because of the power supply that comes with it. I hooked it up using a 1spot plugged into it and it was much quieter. With the loopmaster style bypass looper you can switch effects out of your signal path when you are not using them. Also check out WOBO electronics.

[picture_of_nectar]

Eventually I'd like to get one of those 6 switch loopmasters and seperate each of my pedals into their own loops. Butim not sure which board would work best for everything or how to rig it so it's not a mess of cabels.  Suggestions?

[Walker done done]

For those of you who want to give the true bypass loopers a shot without having to spend a fortune, checkout www.loop-master.com/

They can build you about anything. It also doesn't take 8-10 months to get back. Mine was at my door in 2-3 weeks

The effects loop boxes look very useful, thanks for sharing the link! I am a little confused about this true bypass looper and I was curious if either of you could answer my question. I have a SKB PS 45 board, and I have never tried using the extra effects loops on the board, would this serve the same purpose as the switcher box? Thank you

-Tom

Nice profile pic, Tom!  That's really all I have to say here..

[fulltone1989]

For those of you who want to give the true bypass loopers a shot without having to spend a fortune, checkout www.loop-master.com/

They can build you about anything. It also doesn't take 8-10 months to get back. Mine was at my door in 2-3 weeks

The effects loop boxes look very useful, thanks for sharing the link! I am a little confused about this true bypass looper and I was curious if either of you could answer my question. I have a SKB PS 45 board, and I have never tried using the extra effects loops on the board, would this serve the same purpose as the switcher box? Thank you

-Tom

Nice profile pic, Tom!  That's really all I have to say here..

Sour D - Thank you for the useful info, I am considering selling that board and just getting a moderately small, because I only run 4-5 effects at a time, but don't really know if I should get a nice power strip and a onespot for the 9v pedals, or a fancy power conditioner and cut my own board and put velcro surfacing on it.

Walker- Thanks man! Duane is the greatest of all. And he did it with just a guitar and amp!

Picture- 1 Foot cables and gaff tape to keep the power and patch cables in order work well for me on my board.

[aoguitars]

Let me see if I can clear up some of the stuff being said in here and shed some light on True Bypass (TB):

True Bypassing of pedals means just that--your signal is completely (truly) bypassed through a pedal, without it running through the circuit. Until rather recently, most pedals were not TB, which means that your signal has been coming out of the guitar, through the circuits of all of your pedals, and out to the amp. You step on a pedal, your signal gets "effected" and you hear it. However, when you turn that pedal off, your signal is still running through the circuitry and the components (good or bad) that the pedal is comprised of...which results in what we gloriously call "tone suck." You notice this when you take that Wah out of your chain and your sound gets better. So TB pedals utilize a different kind of stomp switch with a 3rd pole (3PDT) that, when the effect is Off, bypasses the whole circuit...your signal is coming into the pedal, through this switch, and directly to the output to the next pedal...your signal never sees that effect when Off.

So what do you do when you have all of these effects that you really dig in your chain and they're a huge part of your tone, but they're not TB? You can deal with it and learn to work with it, or you can go the route of TB Pedal Switchers (or Loopers). This is simply a box with stomp switches, inputs/outputs, and LEDs to tell you what loops are on--so it has power, but only to run the LEDs. Otherwise it's all analog. These can range in size from 1 single loop and up...as long as you want, really. With the Switcher, your signal comes in from your guitar and out to a pedal (or chain of pedals) and back into the Switcher. That's one Loop. Since it's wired with a 3PDT switch, when you turn it Off (on the Switcher), that effect is completely out of your chain. This effectively turns your favorite non-TB pedal into TB. So then, you go through the Switcher and all of the loops that you want, and then finally out of the Switcher to your amp. The beauty of this setup, as well, is you can pair certain effects together that you always use together, yet be able to turn them both On/Off with one stomp--no more tap-dancing. Say you always use your Tube Screamer with a little Compression...you wire the two together into one Loop, the pedals themselves are left always On, but then you can add or subtract them from your signal by stomping that Loop's switch. This also allows you to mount your pedals behind you in a rack, if you prefer, and just have the Switcher in front of you. Or it can all be incorporated into your pedal board. I'll post a picture of the Switchers that I make, as well, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Now, as awesome as TB sounds on paper, some people don't dig how it changes their sound (at least at first), since they're so used to their pedals sounding a certain way after their signal has been muffled or effected by the previous effect in the chain...something to think about.

As for power supplies, I'm a huge fan of the Voodoo Labs stuff for the smaller effect rigs that most of us are using. They're not exactly cheap, but they make wiring pedal boards a dream and they reduce some serious noise while giving your pedals solid, clean juice. Those One-Spots and Daisy Chains are really not that great for your tone, since by the time power gets to the last pedal, it's not nearly the voltage that it should be.

PON, to answer "which board would work best for everything or how to rig it so it's not a mess of cables," (without going the route of a custom pedal board) the Pedal Train boards are killer in this respect. They're not a boatload of money, they're light and rugged aluminum (with a case or bag), they're built to accept the Voodoo Labs power supplies (underneath, which is awesome), and they're really easy to wire. It's a series of horizontal slats with space between them, so your patches can run under everything, and up to your pedal. Nice and clean. Then it's just a question of getting cables made to the right length (shortest possible between effects) so there's minimal slack and minimal distance for your signal to travel.

Tom (and Sour) if I understand it correctly, your SKB Pedalboards have separate loops to pair certain effects together, but like Sour D said, you don't have a way to take one or both of them out of your chain...so your signal is still going through them whether those effects are On or Off.

Hope this helps!

[patrickstefanski]

damn andrew, way to be completely vague.  can someone give us a little detail on how all this works, please?

[picture_of_nectar]

AO, thanks man, I actually have a pedal train board, I'm wondering how you'd integrate something like a six switch loop box into it cleanly?

[ShockedAndPersuaded]

He is the man.  Period.

[aoguitars]

damn andrew, way to be completely vague.  can someone give us a little detail on how all this works, please?

Yeah, sorry. I actually have no clue as to how any of this works. I think it's just magic, rainbows and gumdrops.

[aoguitars]

AO, thanks man, I actually have a pedal train board, I'm wondering how you'd integrate something like a six switch loop box into it cleanly?

Cool. The way I've done it for people (and I'm searching for pictures that are eluding me right now) is to put the 6-loop box along the bottom. Then, since you no longer have to orientate the pedals so you can access them with your feet (except for Wahs, Volumes, Whammys, Expression pedals), I get all Tetris on them and fit them all above the Switcher in whatever way fits cleanly. This way, you can still access them and tweak parameters in a live setting, but you're bringing them in and out of your signal with the Switcher.

Does that answer your question?

I'm finishing up a 3-loop Switcher right now...I'll post pics so this makes a little more sense (though I'm sure you all know what they look like).

[picture_of_nectar]

So you Velcro the switchbox to the top of the pedaltrain?