Alright if you've made it this far, hopefully you found something interesting. Thanks for letting me get some of this out of my head onto paper. And of course, learning the circuit construction can be a helpful tool to navigate the pedal world, but always let your ears guide you. Delay and Reverb are too inspiring, beautiful, and expressive to be judged simply by a parts list.
]]>Let's keep this one simple. Here's 5 things to know to keep your pedals working hard over the long-haul:
It's long been a buzz word in the guitar pedal world. I hope this helps offer a peak behind the scenes from an electronics nerd's perspective about what this means.
Usually, transparent overdrive means that the pedal adds dirt, but EQ is unchanged. Also, sometimes it refers to picking response, is it dynamic or compressed? My guess is a lot of the hype around transparent overdrives is in contrast to the classic Tube Screamer, which has a prominent mid boost and somewhat compressed clipping character. That's not bad of course, different strokes and all that.
Ok, so how does one get transparent EQ from a drive pedal? Sounds easy enough, just clip the signal, but keep the EQ flat. But here's the rub... clipping inherently affects the EQ. Clipping by default adds higher frequency harmonic content. So if you clip low frequencies, you end up with harmonics in the low mids that can sound muddy and crowded. If you clip high frequencies, you end up with even higher harmonics that can sound brittle and harsh. Furthermore, some components (op amps, transistors, fets) will become overloaded when driven hard with a lot of bass content, which even further muddies the sound.
Common strategies to combat these phenomena:
Most OD/DIST pedals do these cuts to varying degrees/at different frequencies. The way they're implemented goes a long way to shaping the sound. Some pedals cut bass and treble to the extent there is a strong mid boost. Some do it just right so that the result sounds like the EQ hasn't been changed at all. One thing is for sure, if a circuit just adds clipping without adjusting EQ at all, it won't sound very transparent at all, more like boomy and ice-picky. You have to change the EQ to preserve the EQ ... if that makes any sense.
Pedal Selection Considerations:
-Is transparent really what you want? Strat into a Fender amp with scooped mids and sparkling highs? A perfectly transparent drive might sound too thin, and a slight mid bump may be just right. Using a more mid-focused amp? Transparent OD may be just the thing to increase dirt without the mids going overboard. And of course style of music and just plain personal preference play a big role.
-Does the pedal have treble and bass controls? Treble (or tone) knobs are very common, bass knobs are less common. The existence of these doesn’t guarantee it’s a transparent sounding drive, but they do often go a long way in helping you shape how the EQ behaves at different gain levels. Knobs labeled ‘Voice’ usually affect the balance of mids to lows which can also help with this.
ThimbleWasp Anvil
So what about the Anvil? The Anvil wasn't necessarily intended to be a perfectly transparent overdrive, since other pedals exist which cover that role brilliantly. I would say there are some transparent type tones in there, depending on knob settings, but it's always adding a little something to your tone. The Voice knob tilts the balance of EQ toward mids and highs as it’s increased. Now in terms of response, I do find that the jfet configuration really lets your picking dynamics shine through.
All in all our aim was a great sounding, unique, versatile tool. Whether people on the internet consider the Anvil 'transparent', only time will tell. Mainly we just hope you like how it sounds.
]]>You might have noticed that we prefer 'soft' stomp switches with true bypass around here, so we thought we'd share some thoughts about that while you’re here. We’ll start with the bullet points, and you can get on your way. If you’re here for more background info, keep going with the Extended Reading section.
———Quick Info———
Pedal Bypass Types
True bypass: When off, the pedal circuitry is 100% bypassed
Buffered bypass: When off, signal is still going through the pedal’s buffer portion of the circuitry.
Click vs Soft for True Bypass
Click Switch : (called 3PDT) – Simple mechanical switch that connects input jack to output jack when bypassed. Click sound can be annoying in some settings.
Soft Switch : Uses a relay to directly connect the input jack to output jack when bypassed. The switch is much quieter, with no CHAAA-CLUNK sound. It’s still operating as true bypass just like the click switch.
ThimbleWasp Pedals
After considering the options, we decided to use True Bypass with a Soft Sw in our pedals. Our goal is to provide you with the most pure and flexible setup to fit our pedals into your rig, premium feel and performance, and to keep your pedals working for you for as long as possible.
——— Extended Reading ———
Ok, ready for more? Last I counted there are 1 million articles about buffers/true bypass. But, while you're here, might as well dive in. It’s never a bad time to brush up on this stuff.
What’s a Buffer Good for Anyway?
When your signal travels down a long cable, or through several pedals, it can lose some of its signal strength. Particularly, you may notice some tone loss in the high frequencies. In theory, a buffer is a simple electrical device that does nothing to your tone. No volume boost, no EQ change, nothing. What it DOES do is fight that sonic entropy so you tone can remain strong and clear even with a long cable and/or long chain of true bypass pedals. It's not magic, it's impedance (maybe another article some day).
Pedal Bypass Types
We covered the pedal bypass types above. So the question is, are buffered bypass pedals good or bad? Yes ... Buffers are great for the reasons mentioned above. A pedalboard with 10 true bypass pedals and no buffers will definitely lose some tone. On the other hand, 10 buffered bypass pedals in a row might start to sound stiff. Also to consider, not all buffers perform at the same level. The differences will likely be small, but you may find that some buffers just don’t quite feel right to you.
Pedalboard tips
A general rule of thumb if you have a large pedal board is to have a buffer near the front of the pedal chain, and one near the end. These can be standalone buffer ‘pedals’, or a buffered bypass pedal (Boss or Klon, for example). Having a buffer or two in the middle of the board generally won't hurt anything either. A good way to check if you're in need of a buffer (or another one) is to test your rig with all the pedals turned off, compared to just your guitar plugged into amp with a short cable. Also we should note, some fuzzes/wahs don't want to be after a buffer, but need to be first in the chain.
Clicky vs Soft Stomp Switch
Since the start of the true bypass craze in the early 2000s, clicky switches (called 3PDT switches) became very prevalent. And we think that's great. It's simply a mechanical switch that physically connects the input and output and jacks, and bypasses the pedal circuit. That click you hear/feel is the switch locking into one position or the other.
That's cool... but sometimes that click is less than appealing, musically speaking. Maybe fine for some loud rock n roll settings, in other situations that loud CHAAA-CLUNK when the band is in a come-down moment can really stick out like a sore thumb. Fortunately, there's a smoother approach. A soft-touch stomp switch, a little micro-chip, and a relay can be used to achieve the same exact function as the 3PDT. The relay behaves exactly like the 3DPT switch, except it is controlled electrically by the chip. Your signal is still going through direct metal-to-metal contacts from the input jack to the output jack in bypass. So tonally, it’s completely identical to the 3PDT switch.
Another consideration is that in a pedals, mechanical components are often more likely to fail than electrical. Sure, the soft-switch relay true bypass adds a few electrical components, but overall we consider it more durable because the 3PDT clicky switches fail more commonly than the soft switches.
Conclusion
I know some of you may not mind the click feeling. But for us, we decided offering the premium feel with quieter operation was worth the effort to hand-write the micro-chip code and implement the system right from the start of our line of pedals.
– Bill & Phil
]]>They say don't judge a book by it's cover. But what about pedals? We're all about the sound being right first, don't get me wrong but so many times it seems that all of the love gets squeezed into the circuit and there's none left for the visual aesthetic. Then you're left with a kick-ass pedal that looks boring on your pedal board.
Certainly everyone has their own taste. I know I've skipped on buying a pedal that I didn't like the look of and I've also bought pedals because they looked so damn cool. That's OK, there's no shame. It's such a sweet spot when you can find a pedal that sounds AND looks amazing. That's our goal at Thimble Wasp Effects. Killer pedals inside and out.
–Bill
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