True Bypass

 THE TRUTH ABOUT “TRUE BYPASS ” (and some other goodies).

What Is True Bypass?

Let’s face it, not everyone has the brainpower of an electrical engineer; it can get quite tricky to navigate through the inner workings of what makes a great pedal without some guidance. Lucky for you (and us), we have a team of highly experienced and intelligent engineers that are willing to shed some light on your guitar effects questions. So here’s your chance to ask an engineer, in our new blog series called “Ask an Engineer.”

The first question we want to tackle concerns True Bypass. There is a lot of confusion about what true bypass actually is, so we’re going to clear it up for you here.

Joe Trau from Martinez, CA writes in:

What is “true bypass” and why do so many players seem to care about it? What Dunlop pedals feature it? Are there different ways to “bypass”?

Dunlop Electrical Engineer Jack Tang responds:

Yes, we do use true bypass, along with a variety of other bypassing schemes. Here’s a summary of the bypass terms we use and what they mean: