Tricks to minimize capacitance on true bypass pedalboard

[Kindly Killer]

I have a Madbean Kingslayer first on a portable pedalboard, so if necessary, I can have a buffer at the input of the board in minutes if I need to. However, at the moment I am only interested in making the True Bypass thing work.

Between the 15' of George L's in my pedalboard "snake" (braided wrap) going to the amp and the 5' from guitar to pedalboard, I'm close to the 500pF that matches my favorite direct-to-amp cable.

However I measure 200pF in the pedalboard itself. When I get time later this week I will go through each of the 4 enclosures (Klone, SD9 that is true bypass, BMP, and looper) and try to pinpoint the biggest problem areas, but right now I'm fishing for tips on minimizing capacitance in a DIY enclosure.

One specific question I have is about the way I see some people's gut shots - they don't connect the ground lug on the output jack. Does that do something with capacitance?

[Paul Marossy]

One specific question I have is about the way I see some people's gut shots - they don't connect the ground lug on the output jack. Does that do something with capacitance?

That's just to avoid redundant paths to ground, and/or to use the chassis as a common ground.

Your cumulative cable capacitance won't be affected by whether or not the output jack is connected to ground.

[midwayfair]

You are extremely unlikely to reduce capacitance much further no matter what you do (are you usiong George L's for the patch cables as well?). If you are this serious about minimizing cable capacitance effects and you play a significant portion of your material with NO pedals on whatsoever (because once you have a pedal on, it's a buffered signal), you're going to have to stick something in there with a buffer.

The only things you can do to minimize capacitance is either using wire that has lower capacitance and using less wire. The capacitance of the wire used in pedals isn't going to be spectacular, but it's not like the enclosures themselves are contributing. It's just the wire that forms the connections inside.

Not to call you out or anything, but the difference between 500pF and 700pF ... that's just a few extra feet of cable in most circumstances. You could just turn the treble up on your amp one notch and it'll undo any "damage" from the pedalboard's capacitance.

[Paul Marossy]

You could just turn the treble up on your amp one notch and it'll undo any "damage" from the pedalboard's capacitance.

That's exactly my feeling on the matter.

[Mark Hammer]

Stick an always-on buffer at the head/start of your pedalboard and that will solve your problem.

[Thecomedian]

You could just turn the treble up on your amp one notch and it'll undo any "damage" from the pedalboard's capacitance.

That's exactly my feeling on the matter.

http://www.gilmourish.com/?p=1611

True bypass means that the signal from your guitar travels on a separate line inside the pedal when the effect is off. The idea is to avoid any colouring from the pedal's cirquit but but with many true bypass pedals on your board you'll get many more feet with cable, which will drain signal and again cut treble. As a result one increases the treble on the amp and the tone get's too bright.