Passive splitter issues

[bifurcation]

I feel like I should know this, but...

Playing with parallel distortion units (and I don't have a buffered splitter), so I ran the guitar pedal a mono Y-cord into an Arkaim Fuzz and a Behringer HM-2 clone. I was expecting tone-suck and/or uneven volume problems, but I was surprised to find that plugging into the Arkaim makes zero signal come out of the HM-2 (even when the Arkaim is disengaged.)

I tried using a booster pedal as a buffer (before the Y, before the HM-2, before the Arkaim), but with the same results.

Would a buffered splitter fix this, or is there something else I'm missing?

 

[Cybercow]

Check to see if the signal phase is reversed on one of those pedals. I suspect the booster used in the testing you did was non-inverting.

 

[Robert]

The Arkaim has a low impedance output straight off an output buffer. The Boss HM-2 has a 1K resistor in series with the output.

It sounds like the Arkaim buffer might be swamping the output of the HM-2.

 

[bifurcation]

The Arkaim has a low impedance output straight off an output buffer. The Boss HM-2 has a 1K resistor in series with the output.

It sounds like the Arkaim buffer might be swamping the output of the HM-2.

Interesting. Would it help if I built a buffered blender, like the back end of this circuit?

Splitter-Blend