Kiteboarder
New member
This topic always causes a stir of opinions. I know what true-bypass is and how it looks like when laid out in schematics, but what upsets me is all the confusion companies cause with shady advertising. For example...
As far as I understand it, hardwire bypass is NOT the same thing as true-bypass.
MXR for example, claims "hardwire bypass" on it's EVH Phase 90 pedal. To me, that not a bad setup, but it is NOT true-bypass. But then, for the Carbon Copy, they claim "true-hardwire bypass"! Now, that is awfully confusing! Is it true-bypass, or are they just feeding us crap to try and confuse us? Why put the terms together? That's just confusing. To make matters worse, they call the Cry Baby Classic, "True-Hardwire Bypass" and then the Cry Baby GCB95, simply "Hardwire Bypass."
Then, you have Digitech. They call their new line of pedals "Hardwire", but they claim they are "True Hardwire Bypass" Again, the two terms together. If they are indeed TB, I'm not sure how they accomplished it. Since they are not using a DPDT switch or something like that, it's more like little electronic switch, I guess it must have some kind relay or something like that, to do the switching.
I just think that all these companies are calling their pedals "True Hardwire Bypass" because they know they can't call them simply "True-Bypass" because they are not!
What do you guys think of this? To me, the terms should be very simple:
-True-Bypass = for real true-bypass
-Hardwire Bypass = for passive bypass that may still be connected to the circuit somehow, but does not mess with the impedance.
-Buffered Bypass = for those that are not true-bypass and use buffers to avoid tone-suck
As far as I understand it, hardwire bypass is NOT the same thing as true-bypass.
MXR for example, claims "hardwire bypass" on it's EVH Phase 90 pedal. To me, that not a bad setup, but it is NOT true-bypass. But then, for the Carbon Copy, they claim "true-hardwire bypass"! Now, that is awfully confusing! Is it true-bypass, or are they just feeding us crap to try and confuse us? Why put the terms together? That's just confusing. To make matters worse, they call the Cry Baby Classic, "True-Hardwire Bypass" and then the Cry Baby GCB95, simply "Hardwire Bypass."
Then, you have Digitech. They call their new line of pedals "Hardwire", but they claim they are "True Hardwire Bypass" Again, the two terms together. If they are indeed TB, I'm not sure how they accomplished it. Since they are not using a DPDT switch or something like that, it's more like little electronic switch, I guess it must have some kind relay or something like that, to do the switching.
I just think that all these companies are calling their pedals "True Hardwire Bypass" because they know they can't call them simply "True-Bypass" because they are not!
What do you guys think of this? To me, the terms should be very simple:
-True-Bypass = for real true-bypass
-Hardwire Bypass = for passive bypass that may still be connected to the circuit somehow, but does not mess with the impedance.
-Buffered Bypass = for those that are not true-bypass and use buffers to avoid tone-suck
Just another marketing buzz-word. My current favorite non guitar related buzz-word is drinkability. Bud Lite throws that word around with some bs %'s to sell their rat piss and it works for them. *Sigh* I can't wait to see what lies in store for the coming 'Bowl. 
