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Obviously this is going to be incredibly subjective, but it's a forum, not a Q&A site, so let the opinions fly.
My pedal board right now is a mix of Boss and Digitech Hardwire; from axe side to amp side:
Boss TU-2 Tuner (Considering a replacement; the T/B TCE Polytune 2 is at the top of the shortlist)
Boss CS-3 Compressor (on the shortlist to be replaced by something like a Keeley 4-Knob or MXR M87, both T/B)
Hardwire CM-2 OD
Hardwire SC-2 Valve Distortion
Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus (Same basic circuit as the CE-5 with some tweaks to the filtering circuit, no plans to replace it)
Hardwire RV-7 Reverb
This board had started out all Boss, and oriented toward bass (I'd had an ODB-3 in place of the guitar gain effects and an LMB-3 instead of the guitar compressor), but has evolved towards more guitar use. When I replaced the ODB-3 with the CM-2, the tone change was immediate and significant for the better. Since that time I've favored true bypass pedals over the stacked buffers of my original lineup.
I fear, however, that I may be going too far; with a 15-footer on either side of this board plus 6 pedals inline, I think it would be good to keep at least one buffer around to reduce cumulative capacitance. If I ditch the TU-2 and CS-3 for true-bypass replacements, the sole buffer pedal in the whole chain is the CEB-3 tucked in toward the end of the board.
The question, then, is whether it might be better to keep the TU-2 (or upgrade it to the slightly better TU-3) and thus keep a buffer at the beginning of the chain plus the one toward the end. To know the answer, I think I need to know whether capacitance comes more from long cable runs on either side of the board, or from the connections within a board, or both. If the connections within the board have a significant effect, then keeping a good buffer in front of the board (as well as the one toward the end) sounds like the best plan. Otherwise, just cutting the length of unbuffered high-impedance signal run roughly in half anywhere on the board is fine.
My pedal board right now is a mix of Boss and Digitech Hardwire; from axe side to amp side:
Boss TU-2 Tuner (Considering a replacement; the T/B TCE Polytune 2 is at the top of the shortlist)
Boss CS-3 Compressor (on the shortlist to be replaced by something like a Keeley 4-Knob or MXR M87, both T/B)
Hardwire CM-2 OD
Hardwire SC-2 Valve Distortion
Boss CEB-3 Bass Chorus (Same basic circuit as the CE-5 with some tweaks to the filtering circuit, no plans to replace it)
Hardwire RV-7 Reverb
This board had started out all Boss, and oriented toward bass (I'd had an ODB-3 in place of the guitar gain effects and an LMB-3 instead of the guitar compressor), but has evolved towards more guitar use. When I replaced the ODB-3 with the CM-2, the tone change was immediate and significant for the better. Since that time I've favored true bypass pedals over the stacked buffers of my original lineup.
I fear, however, that I may be going too far; with a 15-footer on either side of this board plus 6 pedals inline, I think it would be good to keep at least one buffer around to reduce cumulative capacitance. If I ditch the TU-2 and CS-3 for true-bypass replacements, the sole buffer pedal in the whole chain is the CEB-3 tucked in toward the end of the board.
The question, then, is whether it might be better to keep the TU-2 (or upgrade it to the slightly better TU-3) and thus keep a buffer at the beginning of the chain plus the one toward the end. To know the answer, I think I need to know whether capacitance comes more from long cable runs on either side of the board, or from the connections within a board, or both. If the connections within the board have a significant effect, then keeping a good buffer in front of the board (as well as the one toward the end) sounds like the best plan. Otherwise, just cutting the length of unbuffered high-impedance signal run roughly in half anywhere on the board is fine.
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