Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher Guitar Footswitch  

I have had 2 of these units for about a year.  They have very little usage.  Haven't even been to a gig. The reviewer "Switcher Problems" is somewhat correct that the unit can mess with your tone, however there are no op amps, ect in the signal path.  The signal is going directly in and out of relay switches and most likely it worked flawlessly when new The problem that reviewer and others are mostly likely having are being caused by the extremely cheap quality phone jacks. These of course are where you plug your cables in and out of.  After a short period of usage they will start to have intermittent contact problems.  This will be most apparent on the input and output jacks which get the most frequent use. Contact cleaner does not really help and although the jacks are soldered directly to the circuit board, no solder joints were broken or fractured. When the problem exists on the Buffered input jack, you will have intermittent tone changes.  The high end will drop off slightly (or even severe) and you will be perplexed as to why your tone seems to be different. Hitting different switches to toggle your pedals in and out of the loops will jar the input connection and sometimes 'magically' correct the tone. One may be left to believe that it is happening in the loops themselves.  Obviously any jack that is affected by vibration is going to be a problem in musical equipment being used on stage. I'm writing this review because this is one of those cases where the quality of parts in the product are just good enough to get past the warrantly period and then you have a throw-away unit unless you are able to replace the jacks (which all mount on the circuit board) yourself. I am an electronic engineer and tinkerer and am able to repair mine - but what I thought was a very well priced, "American made", high quality unit is no better than those products coming from 'you know where'. From the picture of the GCX switching unit, it doesn't appear to have the same cheap, all plastic jacks so if you are trying to decide if you should get one of those or 2 of the pedal switchers (which I did) then maybe this will help your decision a little.  I wish now I'd gone with the GCX. Actually - check out the Rocktron Patchmates. In six months or less, when your Pedal Switcher starts cutting in and out or changing your tone (which is the very problem you bought it to correct) - don't say you haven't been warned!

I just got this and tried it out.  I haven't used it with my whole pedalboard yet, but i tried it with all my most notorious tone suckers, notably my big muff and my volume pedal.  I inserted the pedals into loop one and plugged into the NON buffered input.  with the vol pedal half cocked and the big muff off I A/B ed my signal first with the pedals in my signal path, then with them out.  What a phenomenal difference.  It will shock you, i promise.  It will literally force you to grin with glee.  Thats not the end of it.  I then plugged into the buffered input to test how well the buffer could restore my signal integrity with the pedals in the signal path.  This high quality buffer made my rig sound ALMOST like the pedals were not there at all. The big muff became totally transparent and the volume pedal remained crisp and clear even at low volumes.  I don't know what the first reviewer in talking about... this pedal is first rate pro quality gear that will bring any pedalboard to life if used properly.  Buy One.

Had this switcher for several months. At first it seemed to solve loading problems, I started having problems with the unit signal killing, I tried different patch cables. This is not what it says it is, it's loaded with op amps, resistors and electonics. I discovered my signal just died if I accidentally pop released one of the switches, have to reinsert all the plugs to get it back. Seemed to work at first and then grave disapointments and this is not just gold contact transfers. It's more expensive but opt for the Keeley bypass looper.