When I photographed Les Paul, he told me he could never understand why people used high impedance pickups. You can run a lot of cable with low impedance pups because capacitance is no longer a huge issue. Les ran all kinds of effects and always sounded great.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Those who say "True Bypass or nothing" and those who say no to True Bypass are both missing the point.

I have a mixture in my pedals, it all depends on the sound you want and how many you use.

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.

If a pedal is in the off position, yet it still colors your sound, that is not cool...so true bypass would be needed...but if a pedal does not color your sound when off, then its not needed...

As far as true bypass, gold cords, platinum plugs, 21st century tuning technology...with all the number of theories and accessories out there, it can become an endless quest...Just find something that works, then just shut up and play You can have all Monster Cables, true bypass pedals, strobe tuners, handmade amps, and expensive picks, but none of that, or your clean signal, don't mean a d mn thing if you cannot play it decently...

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA

I have both an Ibanez TS808 reissue and a Keeley-modded TS808 with true bypass. The Keeley mod (better-sounding when engaged) allows me to get a crisp and clean tone when switched off. The reissue adds breakup, some hiss, and a general level boost that makes me want to rip the cords out and go straight into the amp.

If you care about clean tone, then yes, true bypass matters. Think about it: if I switch my pedal "off" I want it to be off! If you're cranking distortion and effects out the wazoo you probably don't care so much about bypass - and neither does your audience, but there's something to be said for switching all your pedals off and hearing pure Fender tone.

Must be a bad unit or your amp, I don't have those issues with mine.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Well, it isn't a bad unit and don't get me wrong, it sounds fine unto itself. It's when you A/B it with the Keeley at the same settings you notice a pretty big difference IMHO.

The "hiss" I described might be more of a hum, don't know exactly how to describe it but it's added noise. It's undoubtedly the result of the JRC chip rather than the Keeley's TI RC (The JRC is widely regarded as having a louder operation). As for the other flaws I listed, I'm meaning that these exist even on the lowest settings. With the Keeley mod I can get a much broader range of tones. For instance, if I put the Keeley on the complete lowest settings it basically resembles a clean channel. I can't do this with the stock as even at the lowest settings I can hear it passing through the TS circuitry adding some "character" that isn't always wanted.

Don't get me wrong, they both sound fine. Just prefer having the wide range of tones and the sterile cleans of the TB Keeley. I realize though that one pedal doesn't make a categorical imperative - but it is probably the most obvious example of a pedal where folks jump for TB mods.