Can a True Bypass pedal affect my tone?

I think the answer is yes but I don't understand how... I recently took my Analogman A/B/Tuner box out of my chain and discovered it is what was taking a lot of treble out of my tone. I know, I know, just turn the treble up but even still it doesn't sound the same.

Can this happen? Is there something wrong with the pedal?

Yes, sort of. If you have several of them and a long cables.

Read this great article for in-depth explanations -
http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/chairmen-boards/may-08/35211

Very, very interesting article, thanks for the post rotren.

Rick J

it's more about impedance and loading than it is true bypass - if you use one 100' long guitar cable, you'll experience TONS of tone loss.

Guitar signals are so fragile due to one primary cause: high impedance of passive systems. This property severely limits the reasonable possibilities for cable and effects loads.

I am a strong advocate for the use of well-placed, high-quality buffer amps when using any effects. Boss pedals are a reasonable substitute for a dedicated buffer under most real life conditions, but building a very high quality buffer is very easy as well. Because the buffer is not asked to deliver gain other that 1, many inexpensive op-amp based designs can easily deliver a very high-fidelity signal and a very low impedance; no esoteric parts are necessary for excellent results.

I have seen some construct a tube-based buffer using a cathode-follower, and this works well to drive non-reactive loads. However, if asked to drive a reactive load such as a long cable, cathode and source followers exhibit considerable non-linearity. I'll stick with op-amp designs for this application, as they are better sounding under a wider range of conditions.

With a good buffer, any effects pedals (other than the abysmally bad) can be driven with no loss of treble.

First off, those boss 3 pedals will really take the soul out of your 1986 Rat. Its really obvious to me but my gal couldn't tell the difference. Just try it once, tele bridge -> your rat set to higher gain -> amp. Brings out more grit and thicker raw sound from your rat. That is how i embarked on the journey to replace all my boss pedals with true bypass pedals.

First off, those boss 3 pedals will really take the soul out of your 1986 Rat. Its really obvious to me but my gal couldn't tell the difference. Just try it once, tele bridge -> your rat set to higher gain -> amp. Brings out more grit and thicker raw sound from your rat. That is how i embarked on the journey to replace all my boss pedals with true bypass pedals.

Just out of curiosity what did you replace your Boss pedals with?

I've only tried the Rat straight into the amp before it was shipped off to ProCo for a new switch. It was cutting out on me and they offered to replace it for free! Now I'm nervous about how it will sound going through all these effects.

I could ditch the Tremolo since I don't use it all that much and the Phase 90 is already true bypass thanks to Analogman. That would technically mean only two Boss pedals - SD-1 and DD-6.

Another good read about this very subject:

http://petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html