When using multiple pedals, too many buffered effects can create noise or a harshness of tone. Some manufacturers are designing circuits that allow the user to select whether the buffer on or off, or on even when the effect is disengaged. This allows the guitarist to select some buffered and some without — a flexibility that becomes more and more critical as the number of pedals increases.
So having a buffer in each pedal made a lot of sense. Boss has built some truly usable and timeless effects. For instance, even 35 years after its release, the DS-1 is still a great sound and a genuine classic.
When Boss compact pedals hit the market, they were a revelation in design and facility. But even MXR had some short-comings. There is a constantly expanding universe of interesting sounds out there and Boss has usually lead the way, producing interesting, creative tools for the player to individualize in his or her own way. While other effects companies have come and gone and some have come again , Boss has thrived for nearly 4 decades — continuing to innovate, providing new facilities, new sounds and new…er…colours.
Cable capacitance means that lots of guitar cables , or long cable runs, can quickly kill the top-end of your signal. A buffer will combat this. Switching noise. Those heavy-duty switches are a double-edged sword.
They're physically loud when clicked, which means that if the circuit is microphonic in any way, you're likely to hear the click coming out of your amp. Moreover, the way the main circuit is brought in and out of the signal chain quite often results in an audible 'pop' if there is any DC in the signal path.
This can be mitigated using a pull-down resistor, but can be difficult to eliminate completely. Even a pedalboard of mostly true-bypass pedals isn't a silver bullet against signal noise. Pedals can interfere with one another - for example, an always-on guitar tuner out of your main signal path - and issues like ground loops and hum caused by poor wiring in the building or grounding issues can be beyond your power to resolve.
Buffered bypass is simply where part of the circuit stays in the signal path whether the main circuit of the pedal is active or not. This has some advantages - for example, it means you can implement tails on delays and reverbs , but at the cost of keeping certain parts of a circuit in the signal chain.
Another advantage is that you can keep a consistent output impedance for the pedals that follow, regardless of whether the main circuit is on or not. This can avoid changes in signal strength, and at worst, outright changes in the timbre of your clean signal. Buffer is always on, even when the pedal is off. A buffer presents a consistent output impedance to the pedals that follow. In practice this just means a more consistent level and signal strength.
Helps preserve tone with long cable runs. If you have long cable runs, or lots of pedals, then the capacitance of these adds up, resulting in roll-off of treble from your signal.
In this case, the benefit of true bypass - that you're "connecting straight from guitar to amp" is actually a drawback. Having a buffer in your chain mitigates this issue, resulting in a more stable and punchy-sounding signal. Switching is quieter.
Often due to the way that relay bypass is implemented, the switching is both physically quieter, and quieter in terms of signal noise. Switch feel is often nicer.
Obviously you can get ultra-luxe switches in that form-factor that are buttery smooth. Unfortunately, they're expensive enough that few manufacturers use them. Although most buffers are transparent, it's possible they can introduce signal noise to your chain. Thanks, tonefreak, I've always been wondering what the cost difference was. But aren't they grossly marking-up their pedals? I thought it would serve them better if they could move more quantity-wise at a lower price and be known for quality using a 3PDT switch rather than a cheap plastic piece and bad tone when you run it with other pedals?
There are millions of people that swear by those Boss tones, why would they mess with that? I'm not saying the pedals sound bad, but the pedals after them sure sound pretty bad after a while. I myself used the DD, keeley BD-2, and keeley DS-1 that had mods done to make them sound better while in a chain and I had no complaints at all Oh, I'm sure you're right and all of us here would see the benefit, but try explaining the benefit to a boardroom full of suits who probably see nothing wrong with the kajillions of dollars they're already making due to the huge spread between their costs and their earnings.
You could always do the mod yourself. Defeat the FET switching system would leave the pedal "on" all the time. With the schematic, you can figure out where to wire the "ins" and "outs".
The two on the left are Boss pedals I true bypassed:. Lolaviola Member. Messages 8, John Phillips Member. Messages 13, John Phillips said:. It's also much easier to implement for a small builder making hand-made pedals - you just need a switch - than it is to design and build a good buffered switching system, so I suspect that a lot of the marketing hype about it from some smaller makers is at least partly 'making a virtue out of necessity'.
Mechanical switches are also prone to failure. I've personally replaced way more 3PDT 'true' bypass switches than Boss, DOD, Ibanez etc electronic switches put together, despite there being probably thousands of times more buffered-switching pedals out there. I have actually had to replace the switch in one single Boss pedal I've had to replace three 3PDTs in pedals I've actually owned.
Uma Floresta Senior Member. I think their buffers are pretty good. The real problem with Boss pedals is that all the new ones are digital. Messages 16, Uma Floresta said:.
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