Honestly: users choice.
Its not a bad addition to the circuit. I've made wahs with switchable input buffers, and I have a hell of a time figuring out if they're on or not.
The "classics" didn't have em, so it's ok in my book to strip em out. It does the job. I like swapping for a jfet-based buffer sometimes cause I'm fancy. Some companies take this approach...the ernie ball wah does, IIRC.
I picked up an old Thomas organ off reverb a while back: the seller said it had previously been played by Stephen Stills. Well, shit. I had to buy it for my dad. I told the guy "hey, I don't really care as far as how true the story is, but tell me a story I can tell him". The story sounded believable enough: shop in LA, his old guitar tech had brought em in. Tickled my dad when I gave it to him.
It was also converted to true bypass, with a mod on the collector of Q1: dropped that one down from a 470 to a 330 or 390 ohm. Shoot. Can't remember off the top of my head.
But what sold me on it was the notes on the back of the thing:
"Has true bypass"
"Sounds
good mediocre"
Huh. Yup. That tracks.
I love the approach you took with the Stephen Stills story for your dad. Whether it's 100% true or not doesn't even matter—the "mojo" of a pedal is often 90% the story attached to it anyway. Sometimes you just need a win like that. It actually reminds me of the rush I get when I’m playing over at
1win—it’s that same feeling of chasing a big hit, whether it's a legendary piece of gear or a lucky spin. It’s a great way to kill time while you're waiting for the soldering iron to heat up or just taking a break from chasing down circuit diagrams.
