What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

[ErikH]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

Understand the boost vs buffer but having the gain control in the loop of an amp that does not have a loop level control can be useful. Only question would be is how clean and transparent would it be at lower settings and used only as the buffer?

Could not agree more on the use of a buffer even on a small board if you are using a long cable run!

IME with the LPB1, it colors the tone a bit much for my taste, even at low levels. It's pretty clean otherwise at a low setting. My favorite clean boost is the AMZ MOSFET Boost. It's a DIY circuit and is really clean until you get past about 1-2 o'clock on the dial. With it all the way down, it acts as a buffer and super transparent. My build is the older version. He's since made a few changes to it.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

I use an SHO the way most people use a LPB-1 or a micro amp.

Everything sounds like chizz without it.

No worry about TB/buffered nonsense, I run it how it sounds good.

I am no pro and I don't get paid to do this.

 

[Agileguy_101]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

I use an SHO the way most people use a LPB-1 or a micro amp.

Everything sounds like chizz without it.

No worry about TB/buffered nonsense, I run it how it sounds good.

I am no pro and I don't get paid to do this.

When I had a box of rock I was impressed how good the boost side made everything sound. I should get a sho clone to use like tone candy.

 

[King IzzO)))]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

Yep, I just use it with a tiny bit of boost on it, it's really remarkable the difference it makes.

 

[Ascension]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

Looking HARD at this buffer for the board I run with my Zinky. Anybody here run one of these?
http://visualsound.net/pure-tone-buffer/

 

[aleclee]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

Even on a small pedalboard, a buffer at the end is beneficial to keep the signal strong to the amp.

You don't know what you're talking about. Any "signal drop" over such a relatively short cable run is going to be a function of capacitance, not impedance. Anything you hear is a result of EQ/Fletcher Munson rather than actual impedance-based tone changes.

Ask yourself how a dynamic mic can send a signal to a mixing board over a much longer cable/snake run without buffering.

 

[ErikH]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

You don't know what you're talking about. Any "signal drop" over such a relatively short cable run is going to be a function of capacitance, not impedance. Anything you hear is a result of EQ/Fletcher Munson rather than actual impedance-based tone changes.

Ask yourself how a dynamic mic can send a signal to a mixing board over a much longer cable/snake run without buffering.

You're right, I don't know what I'm talking about. The years of experience has told me wrong.

A dynamic mic has a low Z out, balanced lines where an instrument cable is unbalanced with a normally high Z output from passive pickups. Makes a big difference on how quick the degradation of signal is on long cable runs. The balanced line has 2 inner conductors and a shield which is much more resistant to outside interference. The added bonus is the balanced signal can travel a lot further without degrading.

What's a relatively short run? 10 feet? 15 feet? Most guys I see have an 18 foot cable going from their board to the amp plus an 18-25 foot cable from the guitar to their pedalboard. Now add up all the patch cables and circuitry. That's a long run for a guitar signal to travel.

And yeah, capacitance of the cable has an effect as well (with passive pickups). But with a low Z out buffer at the end of the pedalboard and low capacitance cables, that'll keep the signal nice and strong to the amp with minimal high end loss.

If you're sitting at home and just plugging straight in or have 3 or so pedals and a couple of 10 foot cables (or shorter), use the lowest capacitance cables you can find. Sure, that could work great at home. On stage, you'll want longer cables which means more capacitance and more signal degradation from the unbalanced signal. That's where the buffer comes in to play. Keeps things consistent.

 

[BrianS.]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

I ordered the parts to make the GGG buffer. Thanks ErikH.

So, who uses a "stand alone" buffer on their board, rather than a buffered bypass pedal that also serves another function?

 

[CountFeedback]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

I've tried a doobtone then recently a CAE buffer, both were ok, I've been most satisfied with a BOSS pedal or two doing the buffering.
Maybe more important good patch cable(like George L), weeding out pedals that are problematic, and trying to keep your system as simple and concise as you can manage (i.e. I wish I could fit 2 more pedals on my board, but if I want better tone I should pull 2 or 3 out of the line instead.)

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

i generally only use one or possibly two pedals for the type of live stuff i do, but if i do use my pedal board (which is all nice sexy boutique true bypass stuff) i find it sounds better with a buffer at the start and at the end. Its only 5 pedals in the chain, but signal loss and a reduction in harmonic clarity is noticeable to my ears. Of course, all of these details matter a whole lot less when you are next to a full band, and playing in various rooms with diverse acoustic properties.
Fave buffer? T1M is guess.....but morley wah's sound really good when off too.

 

[BrianS.]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

Yeah, I've only got 5 pedals on my board, but I do notice some loss of signal strength when I don't have a buffered pedal in there.

 

[LReese]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

K - I'm going to geek out a bit....

Aside from Fuzzface clones, I find some pedals like the Hartman Flanger and the Fulltone Choralflage sound different when fed from a buffer. Not sure what I like better, but it can be different. All in all, a buffer at the beginning of the chain (or immediately after those pedals that sound better with a non-buffered signal) seems the way to go. Most pedals (a Badgerplex pre seems to be an exception) should give a buffered-signal equivalent signal to the amp when on. As usual, YMMV.

I like the idea of what I think Pete Cornish wants to accomplish - feed each pedal the signal it sounds best with so that's why all the buffers. If the buffers are transparent I'd think that approach would be acceptable.

 

[hermetico]

Re: What's your favorite pedal board buffer?

My favourite one is Wampler Decibel+.
It's a buffer and a booster in a pedal (even that I don't use the booster capability).
It sound as good as the Xotic EP Booster.
High Quality, perfect sound.
I am running it a 12V, tho.