Well Mark, I just did the following diagnostic, which I read somewhere was a reliable way to test for true bypass:
Connected my guitar into the OUT jack of the SL-20.
Connected the IN jack of the SL-20 to my amp.
No sound was produced :(
Confirmed that other items in my kit that are known to be TBP all passed this same test, and produced dry sound.
Further, some discourse on the Analogman site (appended below) indicates that BOSS pedals and Ibanez pedals with these kinds of electronic switches are difficult to make as TBP for some tech reasons, so infer as you will.
That said, the Slicer seems to handle my dry tone admirably with no noticeable loss or mangling.
Phil
On Jul 4, 2011, at 11:12 AM, Mark Hamburg wrote:
Does anyone know whether the SL-20 runs the signal through without digitizing it (at least when bypassed)? I'm fine with Boss buffered bypass, but I'm currently into the pure analog signal path thing for at least part of my rig.
Thanks.
Mark
- - - - -
Can you make my Boss Pedal true bypass??
In order to make an Ibanez, Boss or other electronically-
switched pedal true bypass, you need to drill a hole on top and
mount a standard round metal stomp switch. You also need to hot-wire
the circuit so it is always ON. We do not offer this mod as drilling and
mounting the switch is very time consuming and messy.
Also these pedals do not suck tone
like a wah wah when off, as they use active electronic FET
switching so it is not much of a benefit.
The Boss pedals seem to effect your tone a bit less than
the Ibanez pedals when OFF (less high end attenuation).
An easier
solution would be to use a TRUE BYPASS box, which is a small box
with IN, OUT, SEND, and RETURN jacks, and a switch. When OFF, the
signal goes direct from the IN to the OUT jack. When ON, the
signal goes through the SEND/RETURN effects loop (and the pedal(s)
that you have in that loop). These are handy for having around,
you can even use it as an AB box. We can build these out
of the MXR PAPERWEIGHTS that we have, or in generic cases. It is
also possible to build multiple true bypass boxes with multiple
loops/switches. They are about $85 for a normal true bypass box
in a generic case. See my
switchbox page for more info.
~ eof ~
