Jam Guitars

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Below are a selection of questions that I get asked on an all too regular basis.

1) Can I visit the shop?

Not any more, I no longer have the premises on Alma Vale Rd. Rent and rates are currently way too high for a specialist shop like this to survive.

2) Will you buy my fantastic guitar/amp/pedal etc

No, but part exchange where practical is a possibility.

3) Which is the best distortion/delay etc pedal?

There is no answer to that question. We only sell pedals that we think sound good but each suits a different purpose and only the person who will be playing it can decide if it fits the bill. We offer a 10 day exchange policy so if something doesn't suit then send it back. If you do insist on asking this question I will probably recommend the one that makes me the most profit - may as well be honest! As a suggestion, treat the pedals like you would clothes - order 3 or 4 and send back the ones you don't like, it isnt very expensive to do and if you decide to keep a couple I will probably pay for the shipping back anyway.

4) Do 'boutique' pedals really sound better?

To most people, most of the time yes but that doesn't mean you can't get good sounds out of cheaper stuff or that you will necessarily like all of the pedals that we sell. This is music - if it sounds good - it is good.

5) What is True Bypass?

True Bypass pedals route the guitar signal straight to the output jack without going through any circuitry when switched out, other pedals still pass the signal through cicuitry when switched off.

6) True Bypass or Buffered?

A question that has never been fully answered. If you have long cable runs and many pedals in your signal chain then buffered is definitely the way go and this perhaps is where a good boutique pedal comes into its own as the quality of the buffered signal is usually very high and unaltered. With some pedals having lots of buffers in the chain can increase the noise level even when the pedals are apparently switched off. Again as always if what you have sounds good - it is good - don't spend too long worrying about it. If you really cant make up your mind, most of the Roger Mayer pedals offer both options

7) What is an isolated power supply?

An isolated power supply has seperate outputs that do not share a common gound connection eliminating ground loops and allowing different polarities of pedals to be connected without any problem. Whether you need one or not depends on whether an ordinary power supply gives you problems or not, but generally speaking the more pedals you have from different manufacturers the more likely you are to need one.