Didn't notice this before until

[mantis]

Hello all,
Until I put the Boss DD-7 back in my chain and removed the Flashback Delay. Let me explain the situation and tell me what you think.
It's not that bad or anything, just noticed a tonal shift with both the DD-7 and Flashback delay pedals.

Ok,
I have noticed the slight roll off of my high's in my rig and tried a few things to fix the issue. I think it might be a good idea to pick up the Bonafide Buffer but before I do I'll give you a layout and what I tried.
I have 8 TC Electronics pedals and a few of them have Buffers in them. I don't think taking them out of Pure Bypass helped any but using one Boss pedal in the chain does. I know Boss puts buffers in all their or most of their pedals and you don't have the ability to turn them on or off. I have a DD-7 which I replaced with a Flashback standard size pedal and this is when I noticed the Darker or Less Treble tone.
So if I put the Boss DD-7 back in place where the Flashback lives, I get my highs back just like a Buffer would. This pedal lives 3rd in the chain in my effects loop.
Here is a complete layout so you get the idea.
GUITAR>>10FT PLANET WAVES GUITAR CABLE>>Poly Tuner in true bypass>>Sentry set in Buffer mode>>>Send>>>Mojo Mojo>>Dark Matter>>>Spark Booster full size pedal>>2 ft Planet Waves cable>>Return of Sentry, Output>>10 Ft Planet Waves Cables>> Front of amp.
AMP SEND>>10 Ft Planet Waves cable>>INPUT of Ernie Ball 250k Volume Pedal>1ft Planet waves cable>>Tri Chorus Anniversary mode>>Flashback Full size Pedal>>Hall Of Fame Full size>> BBE Sonic Maximizer>>10ft Planet Waves cable>> Return of Amp's Effects Loop.
So when I put the Flashback in place of my DD-7 as I said, the tone got a bit darker, when I put the DD-7 back in the high's come back. The Hall of Fame is in Buffer now , so is the Flashback and the Sentry which is in front of the amp using it's loop for the Drive pedals.
So I expected the Buffer circuit in the Sentry to bring back the High's but it didn't. I did this also with the Hall of fame which is 2nd to the last Pedal in the chain( Sonic Maximizer is last before the return of the effects loop).
I really like the delay abilities of the Flashback and don't want to use the DD-7 Which also has incredible Delay abilities. I don't think really one is better then the other other then the fact the Boss is retaining my sound quality and the Flashback is not.
With all the Buffers I have turned on Sentry first , then Flash back, then Hall of Fame, I figured that would have done the trick. So should I grab a Bonafide Buffer and place it where? I know it's supposed to be first in line so I'm thinking between the Tuner and Sentry?
Thanks in advance for your time.

[mantis]

Re: Didn't notice this before until

Ok all fixed,
I removed everything from the signal chain and discovered that the front end effects chain did slighty color my sound when everything was off. I removed the entire effect loop effects chain and went direct.
The Sentry Built in buffer helps very little. I switched back and forth between True Bypass and Buffered Bypass and it was ever so slight on what it was preserving.
When I added in the effects loop chain and removed the Front end , which at this point I plugged directly into the amp and bypassed all front end effects including the Sentry noise gate, I noticed a slight drop in high end from the effects chain in the loop.
When I run all 10 effects all off but all connected I noticed compound high end loss. It was not much more when I was direct and a single chain of effects where Installed But when both the front end and effects loop effects where in place all off, you notice a slighty more Tonal loss in the high end.

Now for the fix..... ENTER THE BONIFIDE BUFFER. YES!!!!! This thing actually works as said on the videos on TC's website and youtube. Let me be very clear, this thing didn't restore ALL of my highs, just about 95 or 96% of them. If you remove all pedals from both strings, the guitar straight in still sounds a bit better then with all 10 now 11 pedals in place with the Bonafide buffer but MAN DOES IT HELP. It's a much better buffer then what's in the pedals. I can notice a difference. I actually set the Sentry back to True Bypass now. But honestly I just leave that on all the time. It's not like I turn it off, it's a noise gate and I have it pretty transparent. Unlike the Boss which I use to hear the gate close with some strange digital sound, you have to listen for it being anal like me.

So if any of you are having any tonal issues with your large size pedal boards, I strongly suggest picking up a Buffer. Tc electronics is very nice and delivers the goods. I don't think it's perfect like there is no long cables in your system but honestly it helps a lot. Sounds much better and closer to nothing connected then without it.

Here is a pic of it , it's the first pedal in my chain as my guitar is plugged into it and then I built a small Planet Waves Cable to go to the Tuner so it's even in front of that. It's off set in it's IN and OUT so I decided to put it on the top level with the effects loop chain but it's not connected there. Just like the volume pedal, thats the first thing in the loop, it's a 250k pedal passive and it works great and it doesn't seem to color the sound at all. I removed it from the effects chain and then put it back in and I didn't hear any difference at all with or without the Buffer installed.