Radial BigShot I/O True-bypass Instrument Selector Reviews

Works just as advertised. I have an acoustic guitar with active pickups, and a mandolin with passive pickups. I run them both into one input on an acoustic preamp / effects pedal after this I/O pedal. Guitar goes into input 2 with the level control. Mandolin into input 1. I'm able to get both at equal levels. Works great.

Dead silent, simple to operate, and built like a tank. It's a passive device that only requires power for the LED indicator lights which is nice in a pinch. I am running two electric guitars into a massively complex, stereo, midi capable pedalboard with the higher output instrument in "INPUT 2" and the Bigshot I/O handles it with ease. This is exactly the kind of headache free operation you expect from Radial.

Absolutely perfect for keeping a guitar in standby on stage in case of a string breakage or other failure. Added plus for the ability to match levels if needed between different types of guitars, say a Les Paul and a Telecaster. No battery/power supply necessary if you don't mind losing the LED functionality. Price is right as well. This is my third Radial product, after a re-amping box and an ABY amp switcher. Their products are excellent and do the job without adding noise or unwanted color to the signal. Highly recommended.

This pedal switch is excellent for switching (2)
guitars by tapping this pedal's switch. Great for
putting it on a pedalboard

I play In our church praise/worship team. Our instruments are DI'd into the house system so this is a perfect device and compliments my pedal board nicely to allow a popless disconnect. It also makes switching instruments so much easier; with the tap of a switch I am ablento quickly change to my second guitar. Great device.

This is a well-made, easy to use, and effective pedal. I use it to connect 2 acoustic guitars to a single amp and to switch between these two guitars. There is no feedback and both guitars can be muted for tuning.

Replaced a VT Deluxe with this simpler solution. I switch between a fretted and fretless bass in live situations and this makes it very easy and quick to do. My old pedal did the job but introduced too much coloration into the sound, even with all controls set flat. I considered the more expensive Bassbone v2 but decided to stick with the "bare bones" approach to ensure tone preservation, plus my bass head takes care of any DI needs so I don't need that function.

I plug the hotter bass into input 2 and use the trim control to match input 1. I love the tuner output that can be set to send a signal only when pedal is muted. The footswitches are very solid under foot and give a reassuring click when pressed. The 1/4" input/output/tuner jacks are very snug so there's no way your cables will become loose or unplug during use. And power is a breeze with the 9v DC input -- even my inexpensive daisy chain wall plug is a perfect fit. Overall this is a very solid, Canadian-built product that should last for years to come.

I needed a way to change basses quickly & quietly. The Radial Bigshot I/O has worked perfectly for me, in fact now my guitar player has bought one. The input 2 controls make this unit a wonderful piece of equipment, I am able to adjust my basses so their outputs are evenly matched to one another, the mute switch is also a plus! Mount this on your pedal board & go with no loss of signal & no unwanted tone loss. Highly recommended.

I had the previous version which didn't have LED indicators for which input or weather mute was on. Always a bit frustrating. Now they actually listened to me (and I'm sure others) and put LED indicators on the ped. Awesome!! no more guessing. The trade off is to power the LED's you need to power the pedal. Worth it IMO. features are very usable and i love this ped. Not sexy (well now it is with the LED inclusion) but it has a place in my utility gear bag! Real world piece of gear!
ADAM

Works great. I am running an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar into a Katana-100. I needed to cut down on time when switching between songs using the different guitars. Also, save on the stress on the jacks of the guitars, noise etc. Pretty much noiseless, and with the chan.2 control, I can bump up the out put so the sound man has less to deal with when I switch guitars. The only minor issue I see is the 9 volt power supply required instead of a battery. Since it is only for the LEDs, why not have just a 9v battery instead of the plug?

Other than that, it works great!

I just used this on a musical where I had to switch between upright and electric. It made switching seamless and effortless. Using the second input I could lessen the signal from my electric so my amp could be turned up high enough to get a good sound from my much more passive realist pickup on the upright. It made for a good balance when switching between the two. A little pricey I think but it'll do the trick. Wish I had gotten it sooner.

Fairly straightforward device that allows easy switching between the two guitars (acoustic with pick-up and a strat) that I regularly use. Rather than unplugging etc., now just step-on the switch and good to go. Would have given 5 stars but the printed info that came with the pedal must have been for a previous version as it keep referencing a "DIM" control. Downloading the same material from the company website revealed that this control is now called "TRIM." Not a big deal but ...

I was looking for a switcher so I could switch between acoustic and electric quickly for our church praise band. This was the perfect solution. The pedal is well constructed and has features the slightly less expensive switchers just couldn't match. The tuner options were nice but the coolest thing was the input 2 controls. Because I am using an active pickup on my acoustic, it goes into input 2 so I can match the output from the passive pickups on my electric (input 1).
In this new version of the pedal, you don't need to use a power supply, but it helps to tell you the state of the pedal. The first time I tried adding power I got a bunch of static on my output. I thought it was my cables at first, then the pedal, but found that when I swapped the power supply for one with less power output everything quieted down nicely.

Overall, a passable unit, useful for switching between two instruments. Solidly built, with features that enhance its usability. My gripe is the very noticeable loud "popping" noise (and I mean LOUD!) that comes through a bass amp when pressing either of the footswitches — admittedly, the noise is barely noticeable with a guitar amp, but it's essentially unusable with my bass gear (which is what I bought it for). I've tried bass amps both large and small, and the noise is always, well, bad. Yes, such pops are more likely with a passive box, but I have other passive pedals that don't present anywhere near the same problem — the Radial, for some reason, accentuates the noise to a very significant degree. So, for me, I can use it on my guitar pedalboard (electric / acoustic-electric, etc.) but there's no way it can live on my bass board.

This is a good device, but for one major issue.

I bought the BigShot to enable me to switch between my Gibson ES-339 and my American Standard Strat (running into a Line 6 Helix). The Gibson, with its Humbuckers, is quite a bit louder than the Strat with its single coils. No problem--I could use the BigShots's built-in Trim knob to decrease the volume of the 339 to match that of the Strat. While this is a great idea in concept, it failed miserably insofar as my Gibson experienced MAJOR tone suck. I even used the BigShot's Bright switch to compensate, per the unit's instructions, but there was still a very noticeable darkening of the tone.

On the positive side, when NOT using the Trim control the unit is completely transparent--there is NO tone suck at all when not using the Trim control. And I like the LED lights indicating which guitar is active, the Mute switch, and the dedicated Tuner Out feature. I haven't seen any other instrument switcher that has these additional features all together.