Switching Pedals

The family covers four main kinds of device. True-bypass loopers put other pedals inside switchable loops. A/B and A/B/Y boxes route one signal between two destinations, or two sources into one. Programmable switchers store combinations of loops and settings as presets, often with MIDI. And simple footswitches remote-control an amp's channels or functions from your pedalboard. This page walks through each kind, how the switching actually works, where these boxes came from, and what to weigh up before buying one.

What a switching pedal is

A switching pedal is a box of switches and jacks, usually with no tone circuitry of its own. Its job is routing. The Vein-Tap.com Noose True Bypass Looper, for example, "adds true bypass switching to any effects pedal without having to make a single alteration"¹. The Bright Onion Pedals AB Output Switch "lets you have the input routed to one of the A or B outputs"². Neither box claims to change the sound, only to move it.

That routing role shows up in several distinct jobs:

• Turning groups of pedals on and off together from one footswitch
• Choosing between two amps, or sending one guitar to two amps at once
• Switching between instruments, such as a guitar and a bass, without unplugging
• Remote-switching amp channels or reverb from the floor
• Reordering pedals, or moving a group of effects between an amp's front end and its FX loop

How true-bypass loops work

A true-bypass loop is a send and return wrapped around a footswitch. The pedal you want to control plugs into the loop's send and return jacks: send feeds the pedal's input, the pedal's output comes back into the return. With the loop off, the input jack connects straight to the output jack inside the switcher and the looped pedal and its patch cables are out of the circuit entirely. American Loopers describes its single-loop unit the same way: "Push the switch, and those two pedals are out of the chain completely true bypassed"⁴.

The payoff is twofold. First, convenience: Vein-Tap notes that with the Noose "you can leave the pedal on constantly" and switch it in and out with the looper's footswitch¹. American Loopers says its five-loop unit "is ideal for pedals without built-in switches. Just keep your effect(s) powered on, and use the loop switch"⁵. Second, tone: Voodoo Lab's guide states that "removing unused pedals and their cables from your signal path eliminates the high-end roll-off and tone suck that builds" up in a long chain⁶.

Multi-loop switchers are just several of these loops in one box, with the loops running in series. Bright Onion's configurable loopers, from the 4-switch to the 8-switch models, all work the same way: "The loops run in series, right to left"⁷⁸⁹³. Saturnworks' multi-loop true bypass loopers "let you make any pedal true bypass or turn on/off groups of pedals with a single click," and the two-loop version "can also be used as an A/B pedal, a tuner out, or a kill switch"¹⁰, which shows how much overlap there is between the categories.

A stereo wrinkle: American Loopers' 1CH unit takes a mono signal, splits it to two sends, and sums the two returns, so a stereo pair of pedals can live in one loop and drop out together⁴.

How A/B and A/B/Y routing work

An A/B box is a one-to-two or two-to-one switch. General Guitar Gadgets describes its A/B Switch Box as "simply a switch box to switch one input to two outputs or two inputs to one output," operated by a heavy-duty 3PDT footswitch¹¹. Used one way it picks between two amps; flipped around it picks between two guitars. American Loopers' A/B Box is built to work both directions: "Pedal is reversible so you can use the IN as the OUT and vice versa"¹². One Control's LWP Series AB Box Kit "can be used to switch the output destination of the guitar or bass, and also to switch between a guitar and bass," in a mini enclosure that "doesn't take up much space on the pedalboard"¹³.

An A/B/Y box adds a third position: Y, both outputs at once. General Guitar Gadgets' A/B/Y Switch Box is "a passive switch box to switch one input to two outputs or two inputs to one output" with A, B and both¹⁴. Pete Cornish's A/B/Y Box spells out the Y mode: "Pressing A+B footswitch (LED on) will send identical signals to Output A and B"¹⁵. Radial's Switchbone V2 goes further, an "ABY pedal that also features a third output to allow switching between up to three" amplifiers without noise¹⁶.

Two design details matter to players running two amps:

• Input grounding. General Guitar Gadgets' A/B/Y grounds the input not in use, which keeps unused gear quiet¹⁴.
• Ground lift. When two amps share a ground through your cables, hum can appear. Pete Cornish's box ground-lifts output B on a TRS jack, at the same level and impedance as output A, "suitable for feeding a second amplifier direct or via additional effects units"¹⁵. Gibson's Switch-Track has "a GROUND LIFT switch for isolating the A Output (B is always isolated)"¹⁷.

Beyond two-way switching, American Loopers makes an A/B/C Line Selector Switcher for "switching between three instruments" or lines¹⁸, and Loop-Master's ABCD Loop Switcher extends the idea to four selectable paths¹⁹.

The four kinds of switching pedal

Loop switchers

Programmable switchers and MIDI

MIDI control also reaches individual pedals. Microdesignum sells a small electronic kit that "facilitates controlling guitar pedals with a footswitch" via MIDI, so "some guitar pedals can be controlled by Program Change or Control Change MIDI message"²⁰. For more on the wider world of MIDI pedals, see the dedicated page.

Amp footswitches

The simplest switching pedals are not routers at all but remote switches for amplifiers. Bright Onion's latching footswitches, in standard, mini, single and dual forms, exist "for switching channels/effects on an amp that takes a single latching footswitch" or a dual one^21222324. On the dual models, "each footswitch has an internal slider switch to let you set the LED state to the correct state for the function it's for"²², so the lights match what your amp is actually doing.

Controls and jacks, and what they do

Most switching pedals have few or no knobs. What you get is footswitches, jacks and sometimes small internal switches.

On configurable loopers like Bright Onion's DYO series, the "control" is really the order form: each numbered footswitch is assigned a function and an LED color at purchase time⁷⁸⁹³.

Where a switcher goes, and how it is powered

Signal chain placement

A loop switcher sits wherever the pedals it controls sit, with those pedals patched into its loops. Boss's guide to pedal order places the tuner "first and use buffered bypass pedals that protect the quality of the tone all down the line," and puts amp and cabinet simulators "at the end of the chain, where the signal is then routed to a PA system, audio interface, or headphones"²⁷. A/B boxes that select amps go at the very end of the chain, splitting to two amplifiers.

Two specialized switchers live at particular points by design:

• Order switchers. American Loopers' Pedal Order Switcher "allows you to reroute any effects in between effects, you can take one or more effects and put in between any" others, changing where a pedal sits with one stomp²⁸. A toggle-switch version with no LEDs does the same with a left-to-right toggle²⁶.
• FX loop routers. Bright Onion's Shifter Switch Looper moves a loop between a pedalboard and an amp's FX loop, which the maker calls "a very useful pedal if you want to move a pedal from in front of the amp to the amp's FX loop and vice versa," and handy for pedalboards used with different amps, "avoiding cable changes"²⁹. American Loopers' Amp Effect Loop Switcher reroutes effects connected to its PEDALS SND and RTN jacks between the amp's FX loop and its front end, and "is also very handy when you want to play with an amp that does not have an FX loop so you can reroute" everything to the front without disconnecting anything³⁰.

Power

Power needs split along passive and active lines:

History and landmark switchers

Questions to ask when choosing a switcher

Before picking a box, work through what your rig actually needs:

Questions