What is True Bypass?

Written by admin on July 9, 2009 – 1:27 pm -

Whenever you are looking for a new distortion pedal, or effects pedal, you will undoubtedly see the term “true bypass”.  While most of us might just read over this feature and think, “Sounds good to me!”, it is definitely an important feature to understand.

So, what does True Bypass mean?

True bypass is a feature of effects pedals that allows the signal passing through them to completely avoid, or bypass their circuity when not engaged.  This will make the pedal appear completely transparent when not in use.

The main thing that true bypass addresses is signal loss, which can affect your overall tone. You’re tone would sound different passing through a pedal’s circuitry than it would going straight to the amp.

Some guitarists actually appreciate the effects of a pedal that is not true bypass because it allows for some reduction in gain, additional noise and a minor tone modification.

There are three types of bypass in guitar pedals:

• Non-Bypass – This will result in the pedal sucking out a substantial bit of your tone and brightness.
• True Bypass – This will result in no tone loss because the design allows for the signal to avoid the pedal’s circuitry when not in use.
• Buffered Bypass – This bypass design closely follows that of a non-bypass, but solves the problems associated with it by placing a high output impedance buffer at the start and end of the pedal. This usually solves the problem because guitars commonly have a low impedance.

There are always debates about any kind of addition to your setup that affects your guitar’s tone, and true bypass is no different. Some will appreciate the tones that a non-bypass pedal produces over a true bypass, but in the end, its all dependent on your own musical preferences.

I hope that this has cleared up any confusion you may have concerning true bypass, and if you have any further questions, please leave them in the comment section below.

Browse for True Bypass pedals on EBay here:

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