Looking at getting a bypass looper for my pedalboard, to reduce the amount of toe tapping and leaning over, but also, I've had the odd pedals / cables die at gigs, and it makes it a lot easier to get by on a gig if this happens if its a looper as its not in the chain.
The gig rig stuff is obviously insanely good, but not sure if I can stump up for the price of those / or even need anything that complicated at the moment. And the G2's are pretty big so might need getting a bigger pedalboard.
Seen a few companies like Brightonion etc, just looking for something thats cheap-ish, while still being solidly built.
Anyone got any other good solutions?
Comments
Some bargains to be had with some buffered and programmable loopers- the Octaswitch is very good and cheap on the Bay.
Providence PEC02 is brilliant if you can find one.
Then, there's GLab stuff, but not as good as those above.
FInally rhe Gigrig Mk1 range is still superb if big. And can be gotten cheaply.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
So, worth considering:
What's your budget?
How many loops do you need?
Programmable? If so:
MIDI control?
External switching (eg. for amp channels)?
Fixed loop order, or flexible?
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
http://www.disasterareaamps.com/
http://www.one-control.com/white-loop.html
http://www.one-control.com/black-loop.html
How come the cheap ones sound shit? Would it be worse than having everything in line anyway? Would buffers not help?
I could go the midi / looper route really, I've got a few strymon pedals that could work wired into all that, but in reality, I don't need to switch presets particularly quickly. More just use of one or 2 per song.
See, this is where I differ.
Respectfully, when you use a bypass strip, say your normal sound is comp, light OD eq, delay, but for a solo you need a vibe. So you click on the vibe...you're now introducing the impedence of the vibe, the cables, the switches etc. You then add another OD, the vibe is now out of kilter as the impedence has been changed again.
Now, this works if you've got buffers and so on. But if everything is TB (and I hate TB) then every time you change the signal path you'll have to tweak every level you are using.
Trust me, been down this road many time.
Get something that's buffered and programmable. I can't recommend the Octa by Carl martin highly enough- cheap as on eBay 2nd hand.
THis is worth a read
http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
True bypass strips are not necessarily "horrible things", and a full-on Pete Cornish rig is not necessarily what you need.
I have a GigRig G2 on my "main" board but, tbh, I'm using a much smaller board most of the time, with no loop at all.
Ask yourself what you actually want to achieve. If you just want to move all your pedal switching into one convenient place at the front of your board then a TB strip could be just the thing for you. Do you want programmable loops, MIDI control, more than one output, transformer isolation? If so, then one of the more expensive options might be appropriate.
R.
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
The switches have negligible impedance.
Decent patch leads have negligible impedance (note that Mr Cornish's argument relies on having 2-foot-long patch leads!).
When you switch a pedal in you're just presenting it's input impedance (which will be high) to the previous stage's output impedance (which will be low), and its output impedance (which will be low) to the next stage's input impedance (which will be high). Most likely those two impedances will be similar to the input and impedances of the following and preceding stages respectively, so there'll actually be very little change in the system.
I'm not knocking Mr Cornish's approach (everything wrapped in good buffers is correct from an engineering point of view) but his article is rather liberal with the reality of the situation - it presents every worst-possible-case as being likely.
I think you're drinking too much of the Cornish Kool-Aid, @Gassage
R.
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
Any pedal that isn't true bypass? or are some better than others? What about those individual buffer things you get?
All a buffer does is to provide a high impedance at the input, and a low impedance at the output which prevents loss of signal and high frequency rolloff due to cable capacitances. This is obviously most important for the first pedal in the chain, ie. the one connected to the guitar by a long cable.
In practise, a "good" buffer is actually pretty easy to design/build - this is a good page showing various topologies: http://www.muzique.com/lab/buffers.htm
So, in answer to your original question, I would say that most buffers are probably good enough, and that you don't need to worry too much about which one to use.
R.
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.