True bypass and tone sucking solutions

jellybelly

Ok, I have a couple of options for my pedal board and I wanted to try and cut through the crap and really understand whats necessary. I want to include the following pedals, and I will mark them TB for true bypass, GB for good buffer and KB for kack buffer, as far as I can tell anyway...

Boss BD-2 (KB)

Keeley Rat (TB) (Rat and blues driver may be replaced with Blackstar HT-dual, which has an ace buffer according to the reviews Ive read but Ive yet to try it)

Barge BBjr fuzz (TB)

MXR phase 90 ri (KB)

EHX small clone ri (wooden box) (KB)

Dano tuna melt (KB) (thinking for rehousing anyway though...)

Korg DT10 (KB)

Boss DD-20 delay (GB)

My 3 choices are:

-to have my gain pedals and delay going striaght to the amp with a loop pedal for my modulation and tuner pedals such as the single loop w/tuner out from http://www.little-black-box.co.uk

-True bypass all my pedals (Im quite happy to have the blackstar and the DD-20 in, the dd-20 seems to affect the tone POSITIVELY if anything): this can be done with the small clone, korg, phase 90 with difficulty and I was considering rehousing the tuna melt at some point, probably when the switch breaks again.

-It doesn't matter, just run 'em and I won't be able to tell, im just being pedantic.

your expertise is greatly appreciated!

BanditGuitarist1

I vote 3 unless your a total tone freak or theres to much Buzz...what about a noise supressor at the end of the chain??

Pedro

Go acoustic.............. but srsly, is it a problem? I'd go for the first option first, or try and live with a few less pedals 😉

BTW - is the phase 90 > Small Stone ? I've brought the small stone back to life and use it every now and then, but playing live that tiny volume drop is a bit of a bugger

jellybelly

The phase 90 acctually has a little bit of a volume BOOST which is annoying, but I think that is less apparent on hot amps: things like that stand out more thru fenders. I'd say prefer the phase 90 for what I use it for, it isnt as ambient as the small stone and since it only has one 'colour' setting its less diverse...but its a bit of a stronger effect, if you get me? More obvious that you have an effected signal. Theyre both good, If I could afford two then I'd have the stone back! Analogue man does a volume mod for the small stone I think, you could check him out if its becoming a problem.

As for the tone, I think I may have a bigger issue after all that: I had the tubes changed in my blues deville (from old fenders to new JJs):I thought this would make it sound a lot better, but in reality it is still overly muddy with booby bass and lacks any real definition...that being said playing bluesy lead stuff sounds very good, its just not a great platform for a grungy-rock setup! I can get