Stop true bypassing your wahs!

[ohmygodtheykilledkenny]

Just a thought, but if you're doin everything like jimi, the "tone sucking" of a wah can be beneficial when using the top left input.

[matttornado]

I agree! my Vox wah takes some of the harshness away from my 74 metal panel! I swore by that for the past 15 years. the whole true bypass thing is way over rated too. my rig sounds fantastic with my non true bypass pedals. all of our favorite classic tones are for the most part from stock non-true bypass pedals. go figure.

[Tone seaker]

yea 1000%

[yladrd61]

Most of Jimi's amps were shared cathode so the top left input was nowhere near as bright as the later Super Lead circuit. I have both vintage non true bypass, and modern clones true bypass. The true bypass ones sound much better when they are kicked off

[SteadyEddie]

I'll always go with true bypass. You can load down your signal in lots of other ways. You can build a box with a switch with some capacitance and resistance and even maybe a rotary switch so you can change the amount of loading.

[ohmygodtheykilledkenny]

It depends what period we look at and how we're qualifying the tone. As far as preserving the sound of guitar straight into amp, I agree with you hands down, but for someone seeking a different tone, a little more mellowed than straight through, the wah load down is great. Especially with a brighter fuzz. I'd venture there were a number of split cathode amps starting in late 68 and onwards, judging from the brighter, grainy-er tone on some recordings.

[yladrd61]

I have also seen pictures of the inside of a '69 that was claimed to be one of Jimis Faves changed back to shared Cathode, the only time I am fairly sure that the only performance Jimi had the late Super Lead Split Cathode was at Woodstock and I think both the Uni Vibe and the wah rolled off the highs enough to make the High Treble channel useable with a Strat bridge pickup. PS: I have a '70 Super Lead shared Cathode 330uf, 820 Ohm with EL34s and it totally nails the BOG {Machine Gun} tone

[Xplorer]

hi, i'm sorry, did you mean 820 ohms ?
yes, my SL , shared cathode isn't far. But i think that in bog tone, there's a distinctive jtm45/100 kind of signature too, that i don't find in the SL69, though it's close. but ... he obviously used three amps that night so .. why not a mix ? ^^

[yladrd61]

hi, i'm sorry, did you mean 820 ohms ?
yes, my SL , shared cathode isn't far. But i think that in bog tone, there's a distinctive jtm45/100 kind of signature too, that i don't find in the SL69, though it's close. but ... he obviously used three amps that night so .. why not a mix ? ^^

Yeah, thanx, corrected You could be right (Might Even be the '67 Black Flag) I don't think the one that was miked was turned up as loud as the other 2 either , also he had the univibe which is always in the circuit. I also have Mullard I63 in V1, a Brimar CV4004 in v2, and a Mullard I63 in V3, and NOS Tesla EL34's it gives a much more chimey tone than CP Preamp Tubes

[Lefty Lou]

Pete Cornish spoke of using specially designed preamps, buffers, and line drivers which replicate the characteristics of tube amp inputs thus eliminating the tone and volume losses associated with multiple pedal set ups by completely isolating each pedal from it’s neighbor.

Pete Cornish later extended this idea to effects systems by including a similar design of tube buffer amp between each effect and the next so that the effect “thinks” it is plugged directly into the amp and responds as if it were the only effect in line, as in the solid state versions. In the all tube effects systems each effect ACTUALLY IS connected to a tube whereas in the solid state version it only THINKS it is. The main input to the all tube effects system is, of course, another specially designed tube buffer amp with identical input characteristics to the vast majority of tube amps.

Time and time again I've heard that buffered wahs work best with Fuzz pedals, and if you've ever tried using a non-buffered wah pedal with a Fuzz pedal you'll get what all the talk is about regarding "buffered pedals". I have a FoxRox Wah retrofit (a self-contained JFET buffer/amp circuit) installed in my Budda Wah and it totally fixed my Fuzz pedal issue, so who's to say what works and what doesn't.