Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

[aleclee]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

I always thought that gold plated plugs was a good thing to have. I thought I read somewhere before that they helped with the signal conductance. (If that's even a word)

Gold plating helps a bit with resistance but it's the cable's capacitance that causes the treble roll-off associated with longer cable runs.

[EDX]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

i don't think there's anything more to add thanks to blueman and LLL, but still i can resume it onto some simple words and still advice guys taking a read onto the article LLL shared.

the function of a buffer is to replicate the input signal in low impedance, why would you want that?
the higher the impedance the more it gets affected by cable capacitance, and passive pickups, even single coils, are very high on impedance, so whatever cable you plug, long or short, cheap or expensive will always affect the signal produced by high impedance pickups, even if it's a little, they will still affect the sound, how, most noticeably bleeding high end out of your sound, how you can correct this?, well a buffer or buffered pedal on the start of your board, can even be the first pedal, or installed in the guitar, this will turn your signal into low impedance and protect it from degrading so bad from long cable runs.

fine, so lets use all buffered pedals, well not so right, at some point since buffer is always on you will notice added noise (you can notice earlier with high gain settings) so let's not fill a board with buffers and buffered pedals.

nope, don't ditch your favorite true bypass pedals as tone suckers, you only need at least 1 buffer (or buffered pedal) earlier in you chain to assure your tone so your true bypass pedal can run nice without sucking tone

[LLL]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

fugeddabouddit

[Darg1911]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

I do that often enough with my sloppy pick hand.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

Good for you....now bypass your strings

[Darg1911]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

So??
It is a detail of no real consequence!
Loads of stuff alters the "tone"....
Your mood, the room, the current....in other words loads of stuff.....why get obsessed with something as minor?
You can still play...
If not, then I guess details really matters, and life is very complicated....

Because I'm funny that way ...

[guitarSQUIRELL]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

One way to get around an effect that sounds great when ON but sucks the spice out of the signal when OFF would be to use a true bypass looper. Simple enough to diy with those.

If all pedals 'have' to be true bypass then getting low capacitance cables everywhere & avoiding gold plated plugs can help the signal from losing too much high end.

Then again, some of those true bypass switches themselves are tone suckers, while some buffers are poorly implemented giving rise to issues, so its not a very perfect world unless you start modifying deeply, including the amp which might be creating impedance mismatches in its loop.

Long story short, dozens of pedals out there, hard to audition all options but most will have atleast one legit review somewhere online, so narrowing down a few to check out helps to decide what works in your signal chain.

I always thought that gold plated plugs was a good thing to have. I thought I read somewhere before that they helped with the signal conductance. (If that's even a word)

[Chickenwings]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

A chain of true bypass pedals sucks tone too.
There is no best solution for any of this stuff.
You just have to try things until you can find the best solution for your gigging needs.

[Hank-]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

One way to get around an effect that sounds great when ON but sucks the spice out of the signal when OFF would be to use a true bypass looper. Simple enough to diy with those.

If all pedals 'have' to be true bypass then getting low capacitance cables everywhere & avoiding gold plated plugs can help the signal from losing too much high end.

Then again, some of those true bypass switches themselves are tone suckers, while some buffers are poorly implemented giving rise to issues, so its not a very perfect world unless you start modifying deeply, including the amp which might be creating impedance mismatches in its loop.

Long story short, dozens of pedals out there, hard to audition all options but most will have atleast one legit review somewhere online, so narrowing down a few to check out helps to decide what works in your signal chain.

[Myaccount876]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

20 feet of cable includes all the jumpers between pedals, and the cable from the last pedal to your amp. It's not hard to have 20 feet of cable.

Except if you have enough jumper cables between enough pedals to get over 20 feet of cable, I'd assume at least one of those pedals are on at any given time (or one of those pedals have a built in buffer, like all Boss pedals), lowering the impedance. If you have over 20 feet of cable before you even get to the first pedal in your chain, the signal degredation can be noticeable.

[blueman335]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

20 feet of cable

20 feet of cable includes all the jumpers between pedals, and the cable from the last pedal to your amp. It's not hard to have 20 feet of cable.

[Myaccount876]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

The optimal buffer just lowers the impedance of the output signal, which will reduce it's susceptibility to signal degradation over longer cable runs, which tend to have a higher resistance and capacitance. True bypass leaves the impedance alone (keeping it high). If you don't have even 20 feet of cable, you don't need a buffer - some effects like treble boosters do not like certain buffers before the input; these effects should be the very first in the chain, and when the effect is on, the signal is low impedance. If you have more than 20 feet of cable, you can benefit from a buffer, unless you have an effect that is always on at the very start of your signal chain, like a boost or something. In that case, the impedance is already low and not too susceptible to long cable runs (unless we're talking stupid-long cable runs as you're playing arenas, in which case, why are you asking the forum? Hire an electrical engineer to help design your stage rig).

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

So??
It is a detail of no real consequence!
Loads of stuff alters the "tone"....
Your mood, the room, the current....in other words loads of stuff.....why get obsessed with something as minor?
You can still play...
If not, then I guess details really matters, and life is very complicated....

[Darg1911]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

As it is I really do not care......
Does it help anyone play more music??

No, but a tone altering buffer still bugs the **** out of me. I'm funny that way

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Difference between BUFFERED and True Bypass......

As it is I really do not care......
Does it help anyone play more music??