You say that the RAT distortion pedal offers a “true bypass switch”. Don’t all effects have bypass switches?
Many effects pedals use a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switch to select either the effect output or “bypass”, but this arrangement only disconnects the output of the effect circuit from the signal path. Your guitar’s signal is still “split” between your amp and the input of the effect pedal. This results in what is technically known as “loading effect”, a phenomenon that occurs as the result of running high-impedance guitar pickups into too low of a load impedance. This mismatch causes an overall loss of signal level and a corresponding increase in the background noise and hiss. It also changes the frequency response of your guitar – it’s characteristic “tone” – resulting in a sound that may be thin and mushy even when the effect is supposedly “bypassed”. Although they may not have understood it, many musicians have experienced this annoyance when using effects pedals, and indeed some even refuse to use pedals at all because of it.
