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Post subject: The Best Pedal I Never Knew I Needed (NPD!)
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 11:13 pm
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A couple of days ago I got my Empress Effects Buffer+ in the mail. I've got to say, I've never been so excited about a pedal that doesn't really do anything super fancy. Or maybe I'm just weird enough to think of something like a Buffer as exciting. :lol: Anyway, rather than type everything over again, here's a review that I just wrote for Prymaxe Vintage.

...I recently bought a high end tube amp (Grammatico Kingsville) and I began noticing how much better everything sounded when I plugged directly into the amp vs going through my pedalboard. I also kept noticing that the amps I play through live would get muddy low end and either not enough highs, or very shrill highs. But I didn't know that there was anything which could be done, so I just assumed that either I was playing through a crappy amp or that it was just the way it was and I couldn't do anything about it.

Then one day I was browsing for pedals (a dangerous hobby), and came across the section of this site labeled "buffers". Since I had never heard of a buffer before, I read product descriptions and watched youtube videos until I understood what they do. I realized that I was going through about 50 feet of cable live when I play through my pedalboard and so I decided to try one of these buffers.

I chose the Empress Effects Buffer+ because of all of the features it offers. Nothing else comes close in this price range. The ability to adjust the decibels on the input is extremely useful to me live to even out the volumes between my lapsteel, Fenders, and Les Paul. The boost is a vast improvement over my previous one, it allows for a boost in volume loud enough for taking solos live without adding additional gain or coloring your tone. You can still get it to push a tube amp into overdrive if you set it high enough, and it has a huge range.

The buffer really made a huge difference in my tone. And while it's not exactly like plugging straight into the amp, it's 80 or 90% there compared to my pedalboard without it. The low end is tighter, the high end is present but not ear splitting, and most importantly it retains most of the mids that were lost to my long cables and true bypass pedals before. Amps that I didn't like before sound good now! I can't imagine not having this pedal as a part of my rig anymore. I'm so glad I got it. If you're on the fence or you've never heard of a buffer before, you won't be disappointed if you try one!...

Here are the youtube videos that sold me on it. First, for those of you who are scratching your heads at the mention of buffers,


And from Empress Effects,

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Post subject: Re: The Best Pedal I Never Knew I Needed (NPD!)
Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 1:31 am
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I went for a couple of years with no buffers on my board, and when I added one back in last year, I wanted to go back in time and kick myself for ever buying into the 'everything must be true bypass' hype. :lol:


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Post subject: Re: The Best Pedal I Never Knew I Needed (NPD!)
Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:29 am
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Vulpinity wrote:
I went for a couple of years with no buffers on my board, and when I added one back in last year, I wanted to go back in time and kick myself for ever buying into the 'everything must be true bypass' hype. ::


"True bypass" was pure snake oil. The fact is low level signals like guitar outputs need to be buffered sometimes to cope with long cable runs. While it's encouraging to see that people have now seen through this, I am left wondering if standalone buffer pedals are the answer or whether they really just contain the exact same OP amps and circuitry as a cheap overdrive pedal, dressed up as a boutique* item.

* I hate that term

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Post subject: Re: The Best Pedal I Never Knew I Needed (NPD!)
Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:32 am
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"Chaining a bunch of true-bypass pedals loads the guitar with a *lot* of capacitance, which will cause a quite-noticeable reduction in your guitar's high-frequency response when all the pedals are bypassed. That's why folks who use true-bypass pedals often use a buffer between the guitar and the first true-bypass pedal."

Quoted from David Lamkins (Lamkins-guitar.com)

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Post subject: Re: The Best Pedal I Never Knew I Needed (NPD!)
Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:29 am
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I would say at least one buffered pedal is necessary on a pedalboard. The problem is where to have it in the chain, as some pedals can be picky about having a buffer before or after them. Germanium fuzzes for example really dislike buffers before them, but they generally go pretty near the front of the chain anyway.


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Post subject: Re: The Best Pedal I Never Knew I Needed (NPD!)
Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:45 am
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Miami Mike wrote:
"Chaining a bunch of true-bypass pedals loads the guitar with a *lot* of capacitance, which will cause a quite-noticeable reduction in your guitar's high-frequency response when all the pedals are bypassed. That's why folks who use true-bypass pedals often use a buffer between the guitar and the first true-bypass pedal."

Quoted from David Lamkins (Lamkins-guitar.com)


Mike is absolutely right. If you run a lot of pedals, a buffer is essential even if every pedal you own is true bypass. The capacitance of all that wire will kill your tone in a hurry.

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Post subject: Re: The Best Pedal I Never Knew I Needed (NPD!)
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:41 pm
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Nice review Texas, thanks for posting.

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