TC Electronic Helix Phaser, User Manual

 Maintenance

Helix Phaser English manual 2015-04-27 

 18

Switching the pedal from true 

bypass to buffered bypass mode

True Bypass and Buffered 

Bypass explained

True Bypass mode is a hard-wire bypass that 
gives absolutely no coloration of tone when the 
pedal is bypassed. This is the default mode for 
your effect pedal.

Using True Bypass on all pedals is a perfect 
choice in setups with a few pedals and relatively 
short cables before and after the pedals.

If…

►

you use a long cable between your guitar and 
the first pedal or

►

if you use many pedals on your board or

►

if you use a long cable from your board to the 
amp,

…then the best solution will most likely be to set 
the 

first

 and the 

last

 pedal in the signal chain to 

Buffered Bypass

 mode.

Can you hear the difference between a pedal in 
True Bypass or Buffered Bypass mode?

Maybe, maybe not – many factors apply: active/
passive pick-ups, single coil/humbucker, cable 
quality, amp impedance and more. We cannot 
give a single ultimate answer. Use your ears and 
find the best solution for your setup!

To set the bypass mode, proceed as follows:

►

Disconnect the pedal and turn it on its back.

►

Unscrew the back plate of the pedal and look 
for the two small dip-switches in the upper 
left corner.

►

The upper DIP switch (the one closer to the 
power in jack), switches between True Bypass 
mode (default) and Buffered Bypass mode.

►

Set the DIP switch to the desired position.

►

Remount the back-plate.

Kill-dry on/off

When you activate Kill-dry, the direct signal is 
removed from the pedal’s output. Use this mode 
when you place your TC Electronic effect pedal 
in a parallel effects loop.

To set Kill-dry mode, proceed as follows:

►

Disconnect the pedal and turn it on its back.

►

Unscrew the back plate of the pedal and look 
for the two small dip-switches in the upper 
left corner.

►

The lower DIP switch (the one further away 
from the power in jack), switches between Kill-
dry on and Kill-dry off mode.

You can only remove the dry signal from the sig-
nal path if you have selected Buffered Bypass 
mode using the upper DIP switch – see “Switch-
ing the pedal from true bypass to buffered by-
pass mode”. Kill-dry is not available in True By-
pass mode.

True bypass

Buffered bypass

Kill-dry off

Kill-dry on