Buffer pedals. You NEED one.

  • Thread starter Thread starter psychodave
  • Start date Start date
The right buffer will make everything sound better. Just like the wrong buffer can trash you entire tone. I’m personally a big fan of the buffer circuit that Musicom Labs does. I feel like it restores the highs without shelving the low end.
 
How is a buffer different from a boost? I'm no electric engineer but I don't see how buffers wouldn't color the sound to some degree or another. And I have a feeling that if you ran a chain with hundreds of feet of cable and multiple buffers it'd still end up poorly.
 
IMO it’s just something you have to check yourself. I really hate most buffers. MXR buffers suck and I always use bypass pedals with them. I don’t like the buffer in my SD1 but I’m fine with my old TU2 and recent Polytune mini. Right now I just use the buffer in my tuner.

I plug a short cable straight from guitar to amp, amp set loud and clean. That gives me the baseline tone. I haven’t found I need more than the buffer in my tuner. I also hate buffers that artificially add top end. If it sounds more toppy/pokey in the highs with a buffer than a very short cable then it is adding top end shimmer and I can’t stand it.

Maybe it’s because I’m usually plugging straight into a cranked plexi. Gaustad uses all sorts of extra cables. But I don’t use any extra cables. And it sounds like a short cable so it’s all good imo.
 
I have one for long cable runs in my loop and inputs from front of amp.
Most Boss pedals are a buffer also.
 
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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Might as well ask what each pedal in the chain is doing while we’re here lol

i usually only use compressors on clean signals but I’d bet that’s not what’s going on here…
 
psychodave said:
Depends on the loop, but once you go into any pedal or unit, what is the impedance at that point going back into the amp?

The Cameron CCV loop is an insert loop. Worked great, but even with using a simple delay with the shortest of cables (like less than 6 inches total), the high end was chopped quite a bit. Going into and out of a buffer solved this issue. This is why Dumble invented the Dumblator. It's basically a buffer for the loop.
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I’ve never heard of an “active” device making a low impedance signal into a high impedance one ? Usually once it’s low it stays low.
 
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Buffers all the time and doesn't afraid of anything.
 
soooooooo .... I've gotten some inquiries about the psychodave line driver/buffer .....

how do you guys want me to do this ???

you want single buffers ??

dual ?? ( like Dave's )

or a triple ?? cover your input / output / loop ???

I'm thinking doing singles and try to keep them cheap and small ... with a 1590A enclosure ..... why buy a triple if you only need a single eh ?

and do you guys want on/off footswitches ?? power light ??
 
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