Buffer pedals. You NEED one.

  • Thread starter Thread starter psychodave
  • Start date Start date
I wonder how Hendrix ever had tone with all those coily cables unbuffered lol
 
RaceU4her said:
I wonder how Hendrix ever had tone with all those coily cables unbuffered lol
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Valid point. I absolutely love the sound of going into a phase 90 then into a Marshall amp. Changes the tone in such a pleasant way.
 
psychodave said:
So a while back I really got into buffer pedals. I did a ton of research and learned how much I needed one. I typically use 20-30 foot cables to my amp (20 foot into my pedals, 10 foot to the amp). I always knew the cables were causing a little high end loss, but I just adjusted the amp to compensate. After learning about buffers, not only do they help restore the high end, they also help everything feel better. I go into a buffer, out to any pedals, then into another buffer which goes to my amps input. I use one in the loop as well. Now you are probably thinking you don’t need one since your pedal has a buffer already or your pedals are true bypass, well you’d be wrong since buffering both the input and output are necessary for both the feel and signal loss. Don’t believe me, go read up on it. You’ll be surprised…just like I was.

I ended up liking the Cornish LD-1 circuit the most (I have an Empress buffer+, MXR buffer, a cheap Chinese buffer, etc) So I found a circuit board from Fuzzdog and built my own.

If you don’t want to build your own, have Griff here on RT make you one. You can thank me later. Haha

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Interesting about the Discrete Cornish circuit vs an Opamp based buffer. I have one of those DOD 410 pedals, but one of the nice features on that pedal is that even when it is off, there is a buffer you can switch on and off with a switch. Sometimes I will throw it in line and switching it in and out just to compare. However, I think it is an Opamp based buffer. TL072 if I remember right.

I wonder how this would compare to a JFET buffer also, like using a J201 or 1N5457.
 
psychodave said:
Valid point. I absolutely love the sound of going into a phase 90 then into a Marshall amp. Changes the tone in such a pleasant way.
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hes even got coily cable going to the amp, i never really noticed that :LOL:



iu
 
griff10672 said:
and there sure wasn't a buffer in any pedals he was using ..... that I know off anyway
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isnt someone making a pedal now that emulates a 50ft cable?? i know ive seen a few guys that use cables that long on purpose, i thought one of them had a pedal made to be used with wireless systems
 
RaceU4her said:
isnt someone making a pedal now that emulates a 50ft cable?? i know ive seen a few guys that use cables that long on purpose, i thought one of them had a pedal made to be used with wireless systems
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well that would be interesting ...... shit .... now I'm going to measure the resistance of all my cables ..... that could be a neat little experiment ....
 
RaceU4her said:
i dont know about buffers but it looks like he did use a vox wah. JHS did a whole video on his pedals that is a fun watch

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there goes a half hour of my life ..... in a good way !! I'm going to spin one up and watch the rest ....Nice Post !!
 
The one buffer I settled one is the Lehle Sundaydriver. It works buy converting the high impedance signal of the guitar into a low impedance one. Most other buffers add something to the tone. Not the Lehle
 
No noise issues with using the single power jack for both circuits? I've been planning on building something exactly like this and assumed it would need two.
 
griff10672 said:
My Boss ES-8 has been a god send since I started using an Amp Switcher ..... you have to run sooooooo much cable .

With the ES-8 I can turn the input buffer on or off per patch .... the same for the output buffer .....

thing with buffers is ..... they can really mess with Fuzzes and certain old school modulation effects .... sucks when you can't implement a vintage Flanger in your current signal chain because the buffer you need to run amplfies the Clock in the Flanger ....... tick ... tick ... tick .... tick ....

but if you're running all true bypass pedals ..... a decent buffer will change your world !!!

on the flip side .... if you have something with a buffer in it ... in your loop ... and something that has one in your front end ..... you're " usually " good
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The 29 Pedals Euna has a cool feature where it has a loop that is active when the pedal/buffer is off so you can put your fuzzes in that loop and then toggle the fuzz/buffer at the same time.
 
iff said:
The 29 Pedals Euna has a cool feature where it has a loop that is active when the pedal/buffer is off so you can put your fuzzes in that loop and then toggle the fuzz/buffer at the same time.
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another trick I just recently found out about is implementing a small transformer in the fuzz pedal itself ..... it mimics having a pickup right before the fuzz ... the Thorpy FX Tacit Blue comes to mind ... I haven't tested the idea out yet ..... but it should allow you to place the Fuzz almost anywhere in your chain and not have it effected by a input buffer ....
 
I have a pedal tuner/buffer at start of the chain and also a stand alone buffer before sending to the amp.

makes a huge difference.

Not all buffers are equal.
Here's a good spec for what i belive works well.

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I went down this rabbit hole during Black Friday sales. I ended up keeping the Empress +. Love it for it’s versatility. Made a huge difference that I didn’t think it would warrant me to keep any sort of buffer but I was wrong. I tested with 10, 25 and 35 ft lengths. Didn’t notice much 25 and less but 35 was very noticeable.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
Don't boss pedals have buffers in them? So if you run a super chorus last, there is your output make up. I use a koko boost as my first in line.
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Boss output buffers are typically 1kohm (or 1000ohm). If the cable going from the Boss to the amp is 20ft or less and of high quality then the Boss output buffer will help and be better than no output buffer at all,,,,,,,but the 1000ohm output is not ideal for longer or lessor quality cables and if true transparency is your goal, in that case you want an output buffer of 200ohm or less, the lower the better.

Many TCE pedals already have this built-in and/or switchable buffers, especially the models with the toneprints. These make for awesome last-in-line units because they serve for the effect as well as the low-ohm output buffer.
 
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