Buffer Question

[alteredsounds]

I'm running all my dirt boxes and wah through the front of my amp and modulation fx via the fx loop.  Sounds great, no problems with the sound.  The problem is the noise caused by the pedals in the loop and/or the cable run from the amp to the board and back.  The pedals in the loop are an ISP Decimator, Boss DD-20 and a Catalinbread Semaphore.  The noise is a hiss and the DD-20 causes the most.  Although I can gate it with the Decimator, I can hear the hiss in with my guitar sound when I play.

As an experiment I put my mxr vh phase as the first pedal in the loop and it was a massive help.  Am I right in thinking that it's acting as a buffer and compensating for the cable runs?  If so, can I just build a buffer box?

Sorry for the long question!

Cheers,
Nick,

[burnt fingers]

I'm not sure if the buffer will solve your problems but there are some good little simple ones on AMZ.  They are pretty quick easy builds with minimal parts.

I build the Jfet and the opamp buffers.  I liked the op amp better. 

Scott

[Stephen]

On the keeley site.....he states good rules of thunmb as to pedal line up..

     The thing is he makes sense too.
A phaser should in his opinion always be at the beginning than a delay at the end...go there and find it...it is useful!!!

[markm]

That makes sense.