Who, How, When do you use your buffers (or not)????

[Stevo]

I was playing with headPhones today with a pedal I made and for grins hooked up my buffer after it.. It had a definite difference in sound kind of like a boost but not in the volume sense.. Sounded much better than just the pedal.. Was wondering you dont see buffers sold on the market yet they are an extremely effective addition to your chain. Why dont you hear about use your buffers after or before (I dont know) I like it after the chain!!! Do pros use buffers I have never seen one on a pedal chain or a remark to the sense, you would think that musicians would have there buffers as important as their picks!!!  It is easy not to use one but when the tone is so clearier and more pronounced dont you think there would be a pedal just as the buffer and not homemade ones we all use or do we?.......I know some pedals have built in buffers (not IC ones I think).. but they are just for bypass circuitry set-ups!!...Who uses one all the time and who doesnt really know the extra kick in sound you will get if you use one???

[R.G.]

This was before my tenure there, so I think it's not a conflict of interest for me to comment on the history.

The only effects company that I know of that sold a buffer per se was Visual Sound. They sold the Pure Tone buffer, for doing exactly what you describe. I'm not sure why it's no longer sold.

[waldo041]

i use one of these:

http://www.caesound.com/cgi-bin/cae/info?bufPreamp

i have it in my guitar, wired like this:

http://www.dozin.com/jers/guitars/tiger/schematic.html

after i installed it and played it i also wondered why guitar players do not use the buffer in there chain. i like it in the guitar, pre-volume as it allows for the guitar tone controls to better shape my effects versus after the effects. hope this helps.

peace,
waldo

[Stevo]

Isnt it better after the chain....or could you use two ?

[R.G.]

Buffers take fragile, delicate high impedance signals and give them MUSCLE so they can drive loads that would harm them otherwise. The protoypical example is a guitar driving either (a) a long, high capacitance cable or (b) a low impedance, tone sucking pedal. The buffer provides enough drive to get these things pulled along to follow the signal no matter what the load is.

That being the case, there are two places that are really good for buffers, and one kinda good place. The kinda good place is at the input to a long string of effects. The really, really good places are before a long cable, like those from the guitar to the effects and from the effects to the amp. Generally effects have lower output impedance than a guitar, so they are not as prone to tone sucking as a raw guitar signal.

The **best** place for a buffer is in or on the guitar itself, before the cable.

[wampcat1]

This was before my tenure there, so I think it's not a conflict of interest for me to comment on the history.

The only effects company that I know of that sold a buffer per se was Visual Sound. They sold the Pure Tone buffer, for doing exactly what you describe. I'm not sure why it's no longer sold.

I can comment on that...a while back I had a chance to sit down with Bob Weil for a bit and pick his brain. That was one of the questions I asked and the main reason is market! Not a big enough demand for them. Most of the people buying pedals would have to be educated on why they need a box that is just a buffer. That said, I believe (IIRC) bob simply stuck the buffer circuit in all of the VS pedals, I believe it is IC based.

Take care,
Brian

[MartyMart]

That's probably why lots of guys have a Boss pedal at the start/end of a rig... they all
contain a buffer
I remember Pete Cornich mentioned this in the recent UK Guitarist FX pedal special edition !
Anyone see that ?

Marty.

[BDuguay]

I'd like to see that article Marty. Can you give me more info please?
Thanks,
B.

[MartyMart]

I'd like to see that article Marty. Can you give me more info please?
Thanks,
B.

I'll post the two pages up as a new topic, interesting but short !!

Marty.

[sopapo]

the buffer teorically let you hear the guitar sound without degradation of the cable,but this degradation its something that some people dont wanna really loss........it something that is in the "guitar sound thing "
(speaking razonably I dont mean you play trough 40m of cable)

I mean that some guitarrist are used to the bass that "give" the cable (or less highs) (or the interaction of pickup and cable and amp input) is part of "our sound" and when a buffer is on the signal patch they dont like it because this bass loss but its the nature of buffer.. to bring back the highs lossed....

I know several guitars player that have Tyler guitars that have an mid boost built in that that also buffer the signal (bring down the impedance) and in minimum position the effect of the electronic keep on I guess this is for the bufered signal....  all of them have modified the guitar to have no buffer/boost at all,they like it more of this way....

I don t want to say that all bufers are ok...the buffer of the boss pedals it should be improved of course and the buffer of other equipments...

the significance of tone often is related in a popular way to a certain content of bass frecuency

I think that to make a "transparent" buffer is not that complicated, in fact I make experiments and with a single transistor and two resistor it cab be posible to make a good buffer.......
only that it has to have certain highs rolloff for that the average guitarrist dont think that "suck tone" and it be equal to a cable but without the degradation in distance.......

Its possible that the best buffer makers like cornish,axess etc make this....
in relation to the question of stevo at first axess make a good bufferpedal....

all of this is my opinion of course I dont pretend to do an statement

Best regards
 

[deke99]

Another buffer that hasn't been mentioned is the VHT Valvulator I.  I plug my guitar straight into this unit with a 10' cord, then through all my effects and on to the amp.  I notice a significant difference in my tone when using it vs. not.  The V1 converts the high impedance signal to low impedance.  It also has 4 isolated 9V power supplies for good measure as well as an A and B output.  I send A though the rig and B to the tuner so that it is out of the tone chain.  I love it, my tone has balls despite all the the pedals that I keep building based on my addiction to this site!javascript:void(0);
icon_lol

[phaeton]

In the days when i would record direct a lot (always an inspiration at 3am) I would often go through either my Boss DS-1 or TS-10 Tubescreamer.  Even for clean sounds, it brought the level up a little bit and improved the tone a lot.  It still sounded like I was recording direct, but it didn't have the slash-your-head-in-half-with-a-machete squeaky clean sound.

[petemoore]

   
  After I put one in my guitar [just now]...on a DPDT Bypass pot [Jfet buffer] I knew I need one.
  With a 1'' bit I drilled for the battery from the bottom of the guitar [sticks right in under the strap peg, for clipping the battery clip to the battery [from the back of the guitar, the battery and battery clip holes intersect] for the circuit itself [in the back of the guitar].
  Buffer off= definite dullness, rolled off highs
  Buffer on= big difference, much brighter, especially with all the effects off, but even slightly with [some of them don't 'notice' so much] on.
  So in my case with 10' cable to a bunch of patches 'n switches in effects boxes, then a 6' cable to reverb then 3' to amp...it's 'necessary' for what I want it to do.
  The DPDT is there so FF's can do the volume knob on guitar gain trick...or if the battery dies...lol.
  Altogether speaking, the guitar, and particularly the cleaner tones, are a great deal ...less sad... shall I say with the buffer in there, big difference enough to say lots more usable, brightness on the clean tones [very important] was being missed.
  The battery clip used as the power switch works great, I pull one pole off and twist it so it's not touching the + side, very easy, probably easier than messing with the guitar cable for me...I might have to 'remember to plug it in once in a while//

[vanhansen]

I don't run very many effects at all anymore, just a delay and chorus in the effects loop and then an overdrive or booster out front but I still have a buffer in place aside from what's in the delay and chorus.  At the end of the effects loop chain sits the Discrete IC Buffer from GGG.  It definitely helps my sound a lot.  I was totally amazed at how much life it brought to my sound.  It's always on.

[petemoore]

  Yupp that buffer took a couple hours to put in 'right'...everythings solid with 'it...totally worth the while installing that. 
  If playing out, I'd be using even longer cables than I am...
  Whoops...I didn't have 1 megs for the bias string so I used 2m2's !!

[vanhansen]

  Yupp that buffer took a couple hours to put in 'right'...everythings solid with 'it...totally worth the while installing that. 
  If playing out, I'd be using even longer cables than I am...
  Whoops...I didn't have 1 megs for the bias string so I used 2m2's !!

Cool.  So you're using the same buffer as me?  Did you use my thumbnail perf layout?  Just curious.

[Stevo]

I want to play with the buffer on all the time now.....it wou;d get hard not using it, the sound has so much more drive to it!! Not a volume but a tone drive!!

[markr04]

Who uses one all the time and who doesnt really know the extra kick in sound you will get if you use one???

I belong to the latter . Can active pickups, such as EMGs, benefit from a buffer?

[Stevo]

I dont realy know but an active pickup is like an effect so I would think it would really help them out.. I may be wrong!!!!

[vanhansen]

EMG's have such a high impedance I don't think a buffer even matters with them.