Many of the greats back then like Hendrix for example, used only a few basic pedals and those were what gave them their sound. Back then, I couldn’t imagine Hendrix not going into the studio without his own pedals and specific guitars. Minor differences might have be found in different recording sessions or studios with different equipment used to mic and put the sound to tape.

Fortunately, I was born in the early 60′s and heard many of the greats play live.

Later into the 80′s and 90′s people started looking at tone sucking as the safistication of the studios and their equipment evolved. But even then (and probably to a lessor extent now) guitarists would want to take their setup into the studio as they wanted the same sound on the album that they were playing with in practice and on stage.

Now with studios being mostly digital, and all the modellings that software can provide, I guess it becomes a little less likely that todays musicians are dragging in their complete stage setup to replicate their sound… Although, one band that does come to mind is Boston. Scholz created the Boston sound – patented it really – And recorded the first 3 albums using nothing but his own equipment that he tailored/built completely to create and keep the sound consistant – both on and off stage…

Greg
BrotherTank

Cheers
Alan

In all the discussions that I have read over the years, I’ve seen the same arguments about the 70′s tone sucking, vs the True Bypass giving a truer, more pure sound – even with the arguments about patchcord capacitance and switch contact capacitance affecting the sound slightly. And yet in all these discussions you also see these people looking for the same sound from their favorite player from the 60′s, 70′s, 80′s, etc. – But they still want the “True Bypass” and are worried because the pedals may be buffered and don’t want the tone sucking. They have been quazi brainwashed into thinking that TrueBypass is the answer, but then go nuts trying to find the settings and exact pedal combinations to achieve the sounds of their guitar idols.

The fact is that the 60′s-70′s tone sucking – simple SPDT switching is exactly what made those artists sound the way that they did. Hands off to the folks that want true pure DPDT or 3PDT switching to get the effect completely removed from the signal chain…

But I’ll stick to my original set of 70′s MXR tone sucking SPDT switching pedals,into my MusicMan 210-65 Amp… I have the sound I want… I have the sound of the greats… from a very exciting time in music where experimentation of various pedals and manufacturers produced some of the most amazing music of all time.

Sure… the tone changes in my effect change, but it changes the same way it did back then…. Tone sucking was part of the way the sound of the 60′s and 70′s created.

Greg
BrotherTank

PS: As an electronic technologist, I understand completely all the test results and the effects of each type of bypass.. In the end all that really matters is “Do you like the sound you have?” – Yes… Great.. If not – and if you are looking for the sound of your guitar god like Clapton, Hendrix, Eddie VH, and soooo many others… Remember… There sound came from those Tone Sucking Pedals you have been told are Bad…

BT

regards, Jack

I hope that makes sense! How about-

Instead of

–[]–[]–[]– (pedal chain with buffered fx)

it’s

–{}–{}–{}– (pedal chain with bypass boxes)
|| || || (to/from fx)
[] [] [] (buffered fx)