Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

[wickenspoet]

I have 8 pedals on my board. The first pedal is a buffered Korg DT-10 tuner.

I've always heard that a balance of buffered and true bypass pedals is best, especially near the beginning of the signal, because a pedal with a good buffer will help carry your signal through the chain.

Too many buffered pedals would result in a muddy affected tone, and too many true bypass pedals would result in a weak signal... so a mix of both is best, with a nice buffer at the start of the chain for a strong signal out of the gate.

Since I run 8 pedals in a row, this theory has discouraged me from trading my buffered Korg DT-10 for a true bypass tuner like the very cool looking Korg Pitchblack... because I'm afraid that if my first 2 pedals are true bypass, my signal will have a weak start.

Does this theory make sense in your opinion?

.

 

[dano8180]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

For my pedal set up and to my ear, my Boss TU-2 sounds best after my micro vibe and wah, but before my dirt/mod/and time based pedals. Signal chain: Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe, CAE wah, Boss TU-2, MI Audio Blues Pro, MI Audio Crunch Box, MXR Stereo Chorus, MXR Carbon Copy. I don't hear any drop in tone or weak signal when all pedals are bypassed in this order. Hope that helps!

 

[briggleman]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

Its all theory my friend. Really, you have to experiment and see what works and what does not. All true bypass does lead to some signal loss, some people compensate with just a single clean full eq boost pedal. Others will just use what they like and if it gets muddy, they find the offender and compensate in some fashion, but in the end, it comes down to ...... If it sounds good..... It is good. Simple. Try the Korg, see if it affects the tone, if you like it and it does affect the tone in an undesirable way, get a booster to compensate. Sorry to be so .... shall we say... wishy washy in my answer, but there really is no right answer in this case, Theory yes, reality, no!

 

[devastone]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

If you have a pedal that is a fuzz face type circuit, those should be directly connected to the guitar, they have a relatively low input impedance that interacts with the impedance of the guitar's pickups. Wahs also seem to like to be pre-buffer (but after a FF), but if it isn't true bypass, it will suck some tone even when it is off.

But after that, a buffer is a good idea.

All the usual statements apply, YMMV, IMHO, etc...

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

The korg DT-10 has a great buffer circuit. SO much that I sold my Pitchblack and bought one.

 

[BrianS.]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

I built a simple buffer that I added to the end of my effects chain. Honestly, I'm not sure if that is the best place, but I have some pedals at the beginning of my chain that don't jive well with a buffer in front of them, so...

Point being...you could have a dedicated buffer & use the tuner you want.

 

[SlyFoxx]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

A short article on the subject from a guy who knows more about guitar rigs than anybody else.

http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html

 

[hydro]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

The pitchblack is funny... i seem to recall that it does have a buffer but only when turned on, which is silly because it mutes the signal when it is on.

Whatever the case, it is a GREAT tuner, because if you are an old blind drunk bastard like me, you cannot read the meters on other brands in a dark club. The Pitchblack gives you a huge readout that even I can read.

It also has a 9v out so you can easily daisy chain power to another pedal. I actually wish it did have a bypass buffer or maybe a dipswitch to toggle it, in case you like your tuner at the front of your signal path and want a buffer there also.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

A short article on the subject from a guy who knows more about guitar rigs than anybody else.

http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html

And this is dead on point. A buffer needs to go as far to the front of the signal chain as possible to be effective and for that reason I would keep the tuner you have where it is.
I am fighting this issue with my both of my rigs as I run a Wah then Compressor into the front end of my amp then have a 15 foot double cable set up to and from my loop for Delay digital verb and Chorus. I play almost exclusively modern Worship stuff and as a result I simply have to be able to get the ambient drenched in reverb .4 note delayed U2ish tones out of my rig if I want to get payed for playing the gig. The delay and Verb MUST be run after any distortion (in my case from my preamp) or it just sounds nasty and since i use a tube amp not a dirt box for my crunches I am stuck with running the long cables and a buffer on the front end of the loop to my board.
Without a buffer I get the same affect that a tone control rolled off on a guitar gives from the capacitance on those long cable runs.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Should a buffered bypass be the first pedal in your effects chain?

What I've found is that it depends or rather varies from pedal to pedal. For example I have three true bypass pedals, a wah, tuner & delay. Out of those the wah doesn't have proper true bypass, although it's advertised that way. The tuner & delay are both truly true bypass. What you can do is test each pedal individually to see if their bypass mode is disturbing the signal or passing it properly compared to the other pedals in your collection.

As for having a buffer in front, I guess it depends on how long your guitar cable is that's connected to the guitar. If it's like 10-15 feet then i'd put a buffer after the third or fourth pedal in the signal chain & one at the very end if necessary so that the signal sounds very much like what you hear going straight from the guitar to the amp. Also check the patch cables individually between two pedals, I found a tone sucker or two in my collection for some reason from the Warwick 5-patch cable pack I had bought once. :sad: