Tone Sucking Pedals

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hthomas

hthomas

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Has anyone had any problems with the EVH Flanger and EVH Phase 90 sucking tone? I'm having a hard time with my pedals. I took out of the evh flanger and some of the signal loss came back, but there was still some missing. Will there always be some signal loss no matter what if I dont have a G system or something of that nature?
 
the MXR Stereo Tremolo is labeled as "buffered" with this defintion - The signal always goes through circuitry in the effect. The signal is bypassed either through an electronic switch or through a variable gain amplifier. This bypass scheme buffers your signal into a strong, low impedance source. You’ll be able to drive longer signal chains without signal degradation. Also, electronic switching is completely silent. You won’t hear any ‘pops’ like you do with mechanical switches.

that still causes signal loss correct?
 
Yes.
If you cannot disconnect the power supply and remove the battery and still pass signal through with the effect off, it is not true bypass and will "suck tone" to some degree.
Some pedals can be modded to use a switch that will give you true bypass.
Many kinds of mechanical switch loopers are available, and VooDoo Lab makes an electronic relay switching looper; "Pedal Switcher".
 
TeleBlaster":36qo8ntl said:
Yes.
If you cannot disconnect the power supply and remove the battery and still pass signal through with the effect off, it is not true bypass and will "suck tone" to some degree.
Some pedals can be modded to use a switch that will give you true bypass.
Many kinds of mechanical switch loopers are available, and VooDoo Lab makes an electronic relay switching looper; "Pedal Switcher".
Click to expand...

That's not accurate in all instances. There are lots of different switching systems found in pedals and some are worse than others. Any pedals that are designed with 'Hardwire Bypass' are notorious for tone sucking. I have even seen pedals with hardwire bypass advertised as true bypass. Hardwire bypass makes your guitar feel slow and labored and even a bit squishy. By looking at the schematic it seems that the EVH has hardwire bypass, but I can't seem to find a schemo with the switching for the Phase 90. It wouldn't surprise me though.
 
yes both the flanger and the phase 90 are hardwired bypass.

I plugged my port city pearl into a suhr riot and tc polytune then guitar. both these pedals are true bypass. there wasnt as much signal loss at all. much better than before but still there was some gone.

by just putting pedals in front of an amp without a buffer, will always cause signal loss right? there is no way doing that you will get the same of guitar-amp.

am I correct?
 
Yes, that's correct. A line of True Bypass pedals in bypass mode will not load your pickups, they are invisible to your guitar and amp. You are running guitar straight to amp through a bunch of cables and connectors. The capacitance will add up doing this and you will lose some high end. Putting a strong buffer right at the start of the chain will negate any capacitance after it and ensure that the pickups are loaded correctly. A good buffer also reduces (not eliminates) some effects of tone sucking later in the chain. Like mentioned above though, if you must use these tone sucking pedals but don't want the tone suck when you aren't using them, look into a true bypass loop switcher.

http://www.loop-master.com/

Some pedals may sound different when shown a buffered input signal and you may not like it. There's always a catch 22 :doh:
 
thanks a lot man. I've looked into the tone freak buff puff. would that be a good choice? I like how I could use it as solo boost as well.

ANd the buffer should be first in the chain? before a tuner?
 
The EVH phase pedal kicks the treble up to 10. Just like a Boss BF2 or 3 flanger. Run a EQ behind them for a quick fix.

Steve
 
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