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BUY OR NO BUY?
This one is a solid BUY IT NOW if you like stompboxes and pedalboard gadgets that will make your life better. The price is dirt cheap, the quality seems good-to-excellent and the performance is on par with any switcher on the market.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
This box has two effects loops labeled A and B, you can use Loop-A or Loop-B but only one at a time. It’s an either or decision. Selecting between two different distortion pedals seems like a natural application. This box and a couple of distortion pedals can change a clean single channel amp into a 3-channel monster.
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The left footswitch is a BYPASS for the whole pedal. It is an ON-OFF switch for the two effects loops.
HOW TO USE IT
You could use one of these inline with your guitar cable to switch between two distortions, two reverbs, two echoes, echo to reverb, my mind boggles at the possibilities.
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My first use was in the effects-loop insert on my Mesa Mini Rectifier amp head. The signal level on this insert between the tube preamp and power amp is very HOT and easily overdrives the input circuits on some reverbs and delay effect pedals (not a good sounding overload :). With the EX Gear loop switcher in the Boogie-insert signal path it was easy to bypass the effect pedals to prevent nasty sounding overloaded effects.
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BUILD QUALITY
The enclosure is cast metal, it looks like aluminum. Inside three circuit boards handle the audio and LED switching. An 8-pin DIP device turned out to be an opto isolator.
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When the bypass switch is ON the pedal passes audio without power. I tested it from input to output with a Fluke digital voltmeter and found throughput to be very low impedance which is good for tone reproduction. This is also a good indicator that the 3PDT switches used are good quality. Only time will tell if the pedal holds up and remains reliable but all my preliminary data says it’s a very high quality switcher.
IN USE
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The A Loop is ON when the RED light is lit. The B Loop is ON when the Blue LED is lit. I added blue and red pieces of tape next to the loop in-out jacks so it’s more obvious which loop is active. It would be nice if the red LED was next to the loop it serves and the blue LED was next to the loop it serves. Maybe on a future version?
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TWO POWER JACKS
There are two 9-volt DC connectors on this box, one is labeled DC IN and the other is labeled DC OUT. It is essentially a built-in WYE connector for whatever 9-volt DC power is connected to the DC IN. It looks like a good place to power a tuner but maybe it’s best not using the DC OUT.
Powering more audio processors from the DC OUT can create a Ground-Loop between the DC power grounds and the audio grounds on the effect pedals attached to the A and B loops. This looks like a cool feature but experience tells me this kind of daisy-chained DC power can cause problems, especially with high gain amps like Marshall, Boogie and EVH. If you don’t use the DC OUT you won’t have any ground loop hum. I avoid daisy-chain power and WYE connections to eliminate hum before it happens.
LIKES
Two important switches, ON-OFF for the whole pedal and A-B for selecting one of two loops.
Compact
Solid Construction
Good quality jacks and switches
LEDs to indicate ON-OFF and A-B status
DISLIKES
A-B channel LEDs are not located near the loops they serve
EPILOGUE
This is an awesome little switcher pedal. It lets you pick between two effect loops and switch the whole box in or out of your signal path with a single button press. I’m using it with some ultra high gain amps and not having problems with clicks or pops. It does not harm the audio passing through it while giving you impressive tonal switching options for a very low cost.
Compare the switching options this pedal offers with switching systems costing 5x as much and you’ll find this one packs a ton of useful features for a stunning low price.
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ONE MORE THING, What do we do with the fuzzy bag? I have two of them from EX Gear pedals already. The mouth of the bag is too small to repack the pedal in there conveniently. At 1:15am after playing a 4-hour gig, nobody is going to fight to shove this pedal back into the bag for protection. Presumably the pedal is attached to a pedal board so now what do you do with the bag, it can’t even be placed around the pedal? Even in the studio I like to keep pedals out and ready to use, I can’t see it if it’s in a fuzzy bag.
Maybe it’s like the bag that comes on a bottle of Crown Royal, it’s just marketing and basically a useless thing to clutter your life. Lots of pedal makers are including strange little cloth bags in the packing of their pedals. Earthquaker uses muslin bags made out of plain woven cotten fabric as an alternative to bubble wrap or shredded paper. My message is this, forget the bags and other swag, put in a heartfelt note about why you’re passionate about the enclosed gadget or include better documentation and specifications or something actually useful to the user. Fluffy swag is only endearing to 14-year olds who’re getting their first pedals, the rest of those bags are going in land fills.
Good Music To You!
©Feb 2022 by Mark King. It’s not ok to copy or quote without written permission.
Thanks for reading High on Technology.
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