Yeah, almost no tone sucking. I have an enhancer on all the time nonetheless

Quote from: smoguzbenjaminA ground loop causes hum, right? What boss does (I believe) is have a diode in series with the -power pin so current can't go in the pedal through the ground part of the DC jack, therefore stopping ground loops which cause hum.

Unfortunately the diode/resitor circuit does not stop ground loops

Mark -

I've long contemplated the possibilities of Mercury switches . . .

My crazy fueled coffee dream was something a bit different though -

I tend to wear a chunky Nepalese bracelet/cuff thing on my right hand, and when I do fast switches between palm muting and open plucking, or mute the strings with the side of my hand when playing staccatto, it tends to hit the top back heel of the guitar (so *that's* where those marks come from!) I actually ended it up adapting my acoustic playing style to take advantage of the ka-chunky sound, making it an accompanying rythym - I always wanted to bolt a plate of metal to my old guitar and run a wire down from that, and one from my bracelet, so when I hit the side of the guitar with it, it sort of acts like a momentary switch . . . I just couldn't figure what it'd be switching or controlling . . .

Best crazy switching scheme ever though, was the Epiphone Professional combination - a guitar and amp that came together, and had a multipin cable - the only control on the amp was "on/off".  The controls for volume,tone,reverb,tremolo and a five-switch "tonexpressor" were all on the guitar pickguard.  (Pg. 14 in "The Tube Amp Book" Deluxe Revised Edition if anyone wants to see it . . . )

As far as I'm aware, the diode-resistor combo did a good job at stopping hum anyway

Quote from: Mark HammerQuick recap:

Pros of solid-state switching w/buffers:  cheap switches w/long functional life, quiet, expandable, remote switching capabilities, guarantee of low impedance presented to next device in line

Cons of solid-state switching w/buffers: always "on" so cumulative noise and bandwidth loss as number of devices increases, no way of sidestepping power loss issues

Pros of hard-wire switches: positive feel, complete dissociation from circuit so no cumulative hiss or bandwidth loss, easy to install, guaranteed quality bypass signal in spite of power issues

Cons of hard-wire switches:  output impedance issues of preceding device passed on to next device, limited in number of simultaneous switching actions, cannot be situated remotely or easily slaved to secondary switching device, not cheap, takes more internal space.

A good way to incorporate some of the pros and weed out some of the cons is to use relays.  You can control them the same way as the solidstate circuits, but the effect is totally removed like a mechanical switch.  Of course the main issue with these is the space they take up and the price. And, if you have non-latching relays, power consumption.

Anywho to get back to switching ideas, the possibilities are endless.  You could control them will hall effect compasses.  Then when you look at your keyboardist, you could have a rythm effect kick in; look at the drummer and your signal is muted; look at the crowd and get a lead sound; etc.  You could mount some mercury switches to your drummer and when he and his drums levetate and rotate (you know what I'm talking about) you could have different sounds coming from your guitar. (Rotating speaker? [pun]) Give the crowd some poll sticks and your sound will change depending on the majority's preference.  The ideas keep coming and keep getting crazier.  

Being next to a patent office would probably bring quite a bit of inspiration.  Universities do it too (that's my case).

Let your mind wander.....let it lead you.

Brad

My experience with relay switching is that it is noisy. :? It just didn't feel right.