Talk to me about buffers

Racerxrated said:
My SD1 is on my board; but off. That’s how it buffers my signal with my 72 Marshall. Maybe you mean ‘always on the board’.
I rarely turn it on these days.
Click to expand...
Sorry, should've clarified. I was referring to say for example having a booster or compressor ON all the time. that's what I meant. :giggle:(y)

However, boss pedals as I understand have an "always ON buffer", so they buffer the signal regardless of whether the pedal state is ON or OFF. Of course, so long as they have power. But I recall the buffer in Boss pedals didn't really rejuvenate the signal like a standalone buffer does. Perhaps everyone's experience is different and of course everyone's ears are different as well, but to my ears at the time, they took some high end out of my tone, at least it was enough to be noticeable to me... and I remember doing the test with a 10 foot Mogami 2524 cable into a boss pedal and then a 20 foot Mogami 2524 into the front of the amp.

I remember trying an SD-1, DS-1, TU2, NS2. sadly, they all had similar results with the high end.

Cheers
 
I hate most buffered pedals on the market. I hate the way they kill the presence and low end punch. The Pete Cornish pedals have the only buffer I used and really liked it in the chain. But those are really expensive.
However, about over a year, I helped a friend put together a pedalboard that he was intended for his more metal playing.
He had a wah, volume, compressor, boosts, ODs, chorus, delays, phaser... and most of them were not true bypass. So, A/Bing his pedalboard, with all the effects off, and the guitar direct into the amp was night and day. He was losing so much signal that it was scary, how different it was from the guitar plugged straight in.
He chose to get one of those Mesa-Boogie High-Wire buffer pedal, and after we added it to the board, it was insane how better his signal was! The thing is really good and versatile! You have a loop with two buffers(in and out), a clean boost, a level compensation switch for the loop, tuner out and mute, all in the same MXR Phase90 size pedal, and that sounds pretty good!
That became my second favorite buffer, losing only to the Cornish ones.
So, if you can, give it a try. It's really good!!
 
Bash_Man said:
Sorry, should've clarified. I was referring to say for example having a booster or compressor ON all the time. that's what I meant. :giggle:(y)

However, boss pedals as I understand have an "always ON buffer", so they buffer the signal regardless of whether the pedal state is ON or OFF. Of course, so long as they have power. But I recall the buffer in Boss pedals didn't really rejuvenate the signal like a standalone buffer does. Perhaps everyone's experience is different and of course everyone's ears are different as well, but to my ears at the time, they took some high end out of my tone, at least it was enough to be noticeable to me... and I remember doing the test with a 10 foot Mogami 2524 cable into a boss pedal and then a 20 foot Mogami 2524 into the front of the amp.

I remember trying an SD-1, DS-1, TU2, NS2. sadly, they all had similar results with the high end.

Cheers
Click to expand...
My tone, with the SD1 on the board and using my 2 inexpensive boost pedals(Joyo Ultimate Drive, Boss OD1X) was perfect; tight good lows, enough highs to cut your head off if necessary and great mids. When I removed it, the high end didn’t suffer to my ears but the tone itself was far more bloated; almost rectifier like without a boost. Returning the SD1 back to my pedal chain solved this ‘bloat’.
 
Just keep in mind that if you stick a buffer out front, it may make your fuzz or wah behave differently; not to say better or worse, but different. I think the TPS side did an episode on that, if you're interested.

Fine, fine, looked up!



 
Get a loop switcher instead. I have about 6 pedals in front and noticed an immediate improvement in my tone by having each pedal on its own loop. Cuts down on all the extra cable and nosie that pedals add even when "off".

I got a basic 6 loop that just act like on off switch, no programmable memory, buffers, etc. Was about $100 used.

For you FX loop most amps are buffered so I never worried about it.
 
I turned the "Buffer" switch on my Peterson tuner and haven't noticed a difference but playing at low volume. I'm going to keep playing around with it. I'm planning on getting an updated pedalboard soon with better power, more pedals, etc
 
I use the buffer in my Peterson StroboStomp HD.

Wa and fuzz are usually the pedals that might have a issue with a buffer. I just put them in front of the tuner if a issue. Rarely needed to do this.

I never felt I needed a buffer in the effects loop. But I am sure there is examples where it would be useful.
 
Not discounting dedicated buffers at all, I try to make sure whatever I hit first in my chain has a good buffer. Keeping in mind though that the buffer is only good for getting your signal to whatever the next active device in the chain is. If you've got 6 pedals that are always in the chain, whether engaged or not (unless they're hard bypass), the first buffer's impact is only going to survive to the first device, and each device in the chain is going to be the buffer for the leg of the journey. That's a bit of an over-simplification, but each device in the change then becomes the buffer-of-record, until it reaches the next one, and so on.

I use a pedal switcher, which someone else mentioned. It has an input buffer and relayed switching of each pedal as needed, then a low Z signal being sent to the amp. This helps ensure that pedals that don't have great buffers or shoddy bypass don't have to effect the signal except when they're being used.

FWIW :)
 
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