Demystifying… True Bypass

Definition

Simply put, True Bypass is the ability of a pedal, when turned off, to set a straight path from the input to the output without going through any electronic component besides wire.

This would theoretically ensure that no harm would be done to the signal, free from the pedal's influence... well, not true not false, but let's for now assume that it is true.

On the other side of the spectrum there are the Buffered Bypass pedals. When turned off, the signal would still go through the input/output buffer stages, simply avoiding the remaining "effect" circuit of the pedal.

Context

Some words get a lot of "buzz" around it.

And sometimes people even swear allegiance to a specific concept without trying to understand the whole picture.

In a perfect world manufacturing and component costs wouldn't matter, and quality of sound would never be compromised! But electronics are not perfect, components are not perfect, pedal designers are not perfect, and sometimes the bad is just part of the good. As with everything, technology changed and mostly improved. So when analyzing something like these buzz words or trends we have to put things in context.

Going back in time a little, guitar players would often get disappointed when their favorite pedals, when turned off, would still imprint their character, or affect the original tone in any undesired way. The conclusion, that became the general idea was, true bypass pedals were better than buffered pedals. There are always exceptions, but probably, for most cases this was true at the time. The problem is, times change, technology evolves, how people use the equipment also changes, but the related concepts don't evolve immediately along, and people get stuck to concepts.

I am also guilty of throwing some buzz words in the following text, but you will excuse me for that, we have to have some subjective reference points, right?

The pros of True Bypass

The explanation of what is True Bypass seems to be enough to set the pros, right? If you're not using your pedal just set a clear path to your signal without coloring what-so-ever.

Let's get into the cons.

A true bypass pedal is not perfect either. It's not exactly the same as a straight shielded wire or patch cable. Inside the pedal, the cable conductors are exposed and connected to the switch, making them more susceptible to capacitance effects. The more pedals you put in the chain and the longer the cables you use, more capacitance is added to the signal, and it can have a dramatic effect in the sound. Besides capacitance that affects EQ shape, the overall signal gets attenuated, lowering the signal-to-noise ratio, which means that the signal will be much more susceptible to catch up noise and get that noise amplified later by the guitar amplifier or any gain pedal. The only way to overcome these physical effects is to use buffers.

So, the pros of buffers.

Buffers will compensate signal degradation by setting the correct output impedance and applying a unity gain stage that will allow the signal to travel further with less interference. Rule of thumb, a "good" buffer will have High input impedance and Low output impedance. This will optimize the signal flow and better drive through the next stages capacitance. Another thing that buffered bypass allows your pedal to do when you turn it off, is for time-based effects to leave a tail of effect with the duration of the decay you have set. It's an option, it suites some scenarios, it doesn't suit others, there is no correct option.

Yes, there are also cons to buffers.

First, buffers are also not perfect and can change the overall tonality of your sound. It seems something simple, but the buffer design and build quality counts a lot for a good result. Using too many buffers in sequence might also prove to be a bad thing, since generally they are not fully transparent and unity gain is not always achieved.

Second, not all pedals are designed in a way that respects the ideal impedance as mentioned before. Vintage design circuits of Fuzz are a good example of that, they tend to prefer to see the signal of the guitar in order to react as expected. Also some pedals do not have a low output impedance due to the nature of the design, leaving the guitar players with the impossible choice: if you want a pedal with that sound that reacts that way, you will have to either compromise or compensate somewhere down the chain. So, in the case of fuzz, you might not want a buffer before it, but probably after is a good idea to drive the rest of the pedal chain, otherwise you'll get noise, volume drops and other weird artifacts.

Of course, all is subjective and the generic labeling of "good" or "bad" might be thrown away when someone simply loves the sound and a supposedly "bad" pedal.

What about the guitar?

You might be wondering now about something I said before, "wait, what does it mean for a pedal to have a preference to see the guitar's signal? what's the difference?", so let's just wrap this up by talking about the guitar.

Yes, we're so lost about the pedals and their characteristics that we tend to forget the basics, the thing that will be always there as the first part of the signal chain: the guitar.

We must start by making a distinction: Active pickups and passive pickups.

Passive pickups are a sum of coils and magnets, usually followed by a passive volume and tone circuit. Generically speaking, the guitar's output impedance is not low as "ideal" and changes when you adjust tone and volume. This is part of the magic that happens between a guitar and the first gain stage it encounters, and it affects tone and dynamics in a way that many guitar players identify themselves with. And this is way fuzz pedals and other drive pedals, are known to work best right after the guitar without any buffer or other pedal in the middle.

Active pickups as we knew them until recently, are also a sum of coils and magnets but followed by a built-in preamplifier that boosts and shapes the signal EQ and bring the ability to the table to set the output impedance to the ideally low. This is for some the ideal solution, for others not so much, depends on preference and application. Some manufacturers, to get more market and address the dynamics concerns of the passive pickup users, make some adjustments on the impedance to get closer. More recently a new active pickup technology emerged with Fishman Fluence, and from players experience they seem to have reached a balance between both worlds, but I personally don't have any experience with it.

Wrapping up

All that said, today the pedal market is full of different stuff with a very wide range of prices and quality. Price is not a direct proportion of quality, there a lot of other factors that are not in this article scope, nevertheless it can still be an indicator. With so many options we can easily imagine that quality-wise, there is about everything you can imagine out there available.

It may be "ok" to assume that, for a questionable build quality it's safer to opt for a true bypass pedal. But we also have great pedals around that are buffered bypass without any negative impact on the signal. So we no longer need to treat true bypass as a religion, and just try to be better informed of what we need, and the quality requirements of what we're targeting to buy.

In the end, your chain of pedals (how many, which ones, and in which order) is the main factor that dictates what you need in terms of true bypass or buffered bypass options.

Other references

Some great videos are available to give you examples and further explanations on this subject. I will leave you with some of my favorite. Have fun!

Knowledge is a good thing, but use it to overcome problems, not to obsess with it and create new imaginary problems before you even pick your guitar to really listen and feel. Nothing really matters if you are not taking the time to have a good time with your guitar!