Grateful Dead Music Forum

Curious to hear what ya'll use to keep your TruTron 3x ready to go.
I know that it needs a few minutes to "warm up", but how do you achieve that without it coming though the chain?
Did Jerry have his pedals on all the time and just switch them on/off with a floor multi-effects board, like a Line 6 or something?

He definitely used a John Curl designed switchbox with the effects on all the time. The effects were on two shelves in a rack, so he could tweak the settings without crouching down, while he used the foot switch to engage and disengage individual effects. I'm not sure when he started using the switchbox, but it certainly was in play during the '80s.

Yes.

Jerry's pedals were all always "on", but each was patched thru a true-bypass switching box custom made for him. It had a long cable that ran to a box on the floor where he could stomp on the switches to control whether or not they were engaged. Also, with his OBEL (on-board-effects-loop) built into the guitar with the two-cords, he could completely bypass the effects switcher and go straight to the amp all at the flip of a little switch on the guitar. This was handy for two main reasons. One; he could get all his effects ready and then flip the one switch to turn them on or off. Two; his volume knob on the guitar was POST-effects which gave him a master volume control at his fingertips and his distortion and MuTron would always see a consistent signal level and behave accordingly at any volume.

B

OK.
So something like Voodoo Lab's Pedal Switcher would do the trick?

I don't find the need for any tricks" - when setting up for a gig, the first thing I do is plug in the Tru-Tron, with the switches as suggested - and the last thing I do is connect the Tru-Tron to the other pedals - so it is "warmed up" - my experience is that it sounds good even not warmed up, you cannot damage it by using it immediately

And to answer your question on the GCX…it works great. Does exactly what Jerry's did.

If you don't mind having a pedal board, you can use a switcher like this one from Loop Master. All pedals always on. Pick and choose with the switcher. No affiliation.

I must be missing something.

The TruTron comes set for true bypass mode so adding an external switcher is not going to have any benefit here.

And my understanding is that it just needs to be powered on to warm up for a few minutes.

drewfx wrote:I must be missing something.

The TruTron comes set for true bypass mode so adding an external switcher is not going to have any benefit here.

And my understanding is that it just needs to be powered on to warm up for a few minutes.

Yes, the TruTron is true bypass, but some other pedals in you chain might not be. Also, with a switcher, you can leave the TruTron and all your other pedals on all the time and engage them when you want to. Each pedal has it's own bypass loop.

hippieguy1954 wrote: Yes, the TruTron is true bypass, but some other pedals in you chain might not be. Also, with a switcher, you can leave the TruTron and all your other pedals on all the time and engage them when you want to. Each pedal has it's own bypass loop.

Understood - but that has nothing to do with the warm up time for the TruTron.

Pinot Noir, Ravel, and a joint bank account that stays full.

drewfx wrote:

hippieguy1954 wrote: Yes, the TruTron is true bypass, but some other pedals in you chain might not be. Also, with a switcher, you can leave the TruTron and all your other pedals on all the time and engage them when you want to. Each pedal has it's own bypass loop.

Understood - but that has nothing to do with the warm up time for the TruTron.

No, it has nothing to do with how long it takes to warm up. That is in the manual. I'm pretty sure the TruTron has to be turned on to warm up. Not just receiving power from power supply.
With a switcher, it's always on. Always warmed up.
True, it doesn't take much time to warm up, but to my ears it only sounds just ok until warmed up.

Well now I am confused - to my recollection, there is no "on/off" with the Tru-Tron, it is either plugged in ('on") or not ("off") - what am I missing?

When the TruTron is receiving power from the power supply, the LED is green indicating it has power but is not "turned on". (Most pedals do not have this feature).
When it is "turned on" by stepping on the foot switch, the LED turns from green to blue.
It has to be "turned on" with the LED blue to warm up.

hippieguy1954 wrote:
It has to be "turned on" with the LED blue to warm up.

Where does this particular piece of information come from?