Excellent! THANKYOU for clearly demonstrating the difference in the tone you can hear using these handy bits of kit. Instead of wanking on some re- parroted BS like so many other posts, Showing and then explaining "why is it so" Great work!
56:04 I think, what input impedance the output of the fuzz face sees matters for the fuzz face’s tone. Changing the output impedance of the kingsley buffer only affects it indirectly. In other words, increasing the output impedance of the kingsley only tries to lower the unwanted top end that resulted from placing a (very?) high impedance buffer after the fuzz face. Am I wrong? So I think, changing the input impedance of the buffer that follows the fuzz face would control the characteristics of the fuzz tone more. I have a radial engineering di that has an adjustable input impedance which I find very useful. Very nice episode, thanks.
So good to see Mick getting in the zone again. I know how it feels to be a bit disconnected from music during a busy period or tough mental season, so it’s always good to make a bit of a connection again. Really excellent information and explanations from Dan as well! Great video guys.
Ecosystem Affirmation! I have a bunch of cheap pedals on a board that I use for recording. I have always had a cheap buffer in one spot early. Because of the show, I "thought", I might need it at the amp. I did that, and the whole feel and system I was used to changed... it did not feel like "mine". On two guitars as well. I moved it back, but it proves the point. I built to my ears and for me (for me is the operative part and a big part of your point) it needed to go back. Believe it or not, I had the pain Mick played he had in the beginning, but this episode alleviated it! Thanks gents.
The buffer into the Secret Weapon was hilarious. Completely overturned the accepted “wisdom”. Dan (Drive) has done some magic - it’s the new Klon ;-O Some fantastic insights throughout this episode. Most of us are here for this “tedious” stuff - who else would throw an hour+ at this on RU-vid. Great work as ever. Chapeau.
The Vertex guy. He’s the only one who would talk about buffers more. He must have 20 videos on buffers. Except, although he says to play with one’s rig, get the sound they like, over listening to _his_ preferred way, he usually recommends the Mesa Boogie High Wire, or Empress Buffer, Buffer+, or stereo Buffer+. It’s usually because they have input and output buffers, and the effects loop. Leave any non buffer friendly pedals at the front, then the rest in the loop, and it works. But the high end difference can be disarmingly different, and one can find themselves trying to darken that tone up a bit, depending on the pedal being used.
Fuzz being a newly acquired taste to me I recently bought a JHS Smiley (silicon fuzz face style of pedal) when I put it in the "dirt section" of my pedal board I immediately thought it was broken it was sputtering and weak and dying-sounding (they also have a switch on the side of the pedal to also give it that sound intentionally if you want to). I was all set to look at returning the Smiley, then read online it needs to go basivally at the start of your chain and definitely before any buffered pedals. Once I put it at the start it sounded amazing (like it's supposed to) and cleans up really nicely. JHS should have put this as a direction paper in the box, but apparently this was supposed to be common knowledge. Anyhow thanks for explaining it here.
I love this episode, as a recent electrical and electronic engineering graduate all I can think is how much better my impedance matching lectures would have been with you guys and “are all buffers created equal” One thing I would have added is about how current is draw by resistance, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. In that mind I think of the buffer like a jet or any fan, it sucks in and pushes out, that’s why it still makes a difference even if you have a long cable in front and a short cable to the amp
May I pick your brain for a moment? I want to do some testing generating pink noise somehow, run it into my pedals one at a time and taking a look at an EQ graph in my DAW. The objective is to see how does each pedal affects my signal and specially, how the EQ responds to dialing boosters. But HOW can I generate the Pink Noise?
I've got a buffered tuner at the front, and some Boss pedals in the middle, and a UAFX pedal with a buffer at the end. And there's a noticeable difference between straight into amp vs thru the board. The high end is still there, but the "liveliness" of the pickups is lost. It's the aural equivalent of looking through glass: it may be clear to look through but it's not the same as nothing being there at all
I’ve long struggled with the artificial top end of buffers (at least the ones I’ve had). What finally worked in my rig was an echoplex style preamp, the Chase Tone Secret Pre, set to unity and always on. I used to be snobby and think something “always on” meant you didn’t know how to use your guitar and amp. But as Dan said, you’ve got to use your ears to find what’s best in your rig (and don’t let people on the internet tell you what’s right).
Yup EP Pre's are the secret weapon, to buffering AND a sprinkle of magical "something" extra. You cannot turn them off once theyre on. My first test was Wicked Game, the opening open B string dive with the BadgerPlex on was immense, i could never play that tune without it on ever again - it was night and day. I tried to explain the magic to someone, who was dubious, but sent him my BadgerPlex (which i bought while i was in the middle of (hopefully) recovering from a shoulder injury) for testing, and he became a believer, even fixated :) I'd already been so impressed that i declared i would NEVER sell it. While he had it for testing, i promised him that if i had to give up playing, it would return to live with him, gratis. When it became clear my shoulder was never going to recover and i had to quit playing after 35 years, his first question, despite being a great mate was "what are you doing with the BadgerPlex? " :) It now lives with him, im a man of my word....ive told him i sometimes feel like calling up and having him play through it for me to hear its magic again :) The BadgerPlex build quality internally was above any pedal ive ever seen...and came with a spare unobtanium JFET to boot :)
But really, the buffers aren’t creating that top end sound, its just isn’t being dulled down..? Obviously they didn’t not touch on cheap buffers in this, but is that really possible?
@@mattflickinger8151 The buffer won't amplify it but it can shape it. You can hear the difference in the types of buffers in the top of the section. Some sound spikier than others, which may be what you need based on your rig. Not what I needed in an EL84-type amp.
@@spiltmilk615 As Dan explained, that is due to the relationship between the buffer and what's plugged in around it, and how the various input or output impedances affect the resonant peak frequency. There's no 'sound' to the buffer. The 'spiker' ones are just allowing the resonant peak to be higher than ones where the guitar has a higher source impedance, or the buffer has a high output impedance.
@@spiltmilk615 got it. I have only used the TC Electronics tuners for buffers, so never really compared before. I figured for the most part, buffers just presented a more direct sound which restored the high end, and didn’t have any tonal influence on their own
Some hard core nerding in this video, but excellent, excellent value to your viewers. No one else is going to take on a topic like this and spend the time to lay it out like this. Kudos.
This was timely. After playing for almost 30 years, I've got my first fuzz pedal arriving in a few days. As such, figuring out how that will work with the buffers in my setup is going to be just a tad bit important.
I do exactly what you do Dan, use a reverb buffer (Flint) at the end of chain and I AB’d it several times, and it really works well. I recently built a Creation Audio Labs buffer box, and it’s the best buffer I’ve ever heard, but I just still don’t like it at the front of my chain, and never have liked any buffer up front with the tones I like, which are Blues, Rock, hard, Southern and classic rock.Thanks for the show guys! I never want to think about buffers again because y’all solved it.
The reason the fuzz didn't mind the buffer on its input is because the Mk1 Tone Bender, MK1 Zonk Machine, and thus the secret machine already have a transistor buffer as it's first transistor stage. It's why the Mk1 Tone Bender is so fizzy and biting in its sound. As you showed earlier adding a buffer before a buffer doesn't really change anything at all.
This is the greatest video made by man or beast. I've been playing for over 40 years and this is the first time I'm understanding this!! One question: Are there any effects this might have in an effects loop if I have another buffer just before the initial input of the amp, etc.
Absolutely! Buffers can have a MASSIVE effect in effects loops, depending on the loop itself. Passive loops can be really susceptible to tone suck from long cable runs, again depending on what pedals are in them. But yes, potentially a big difference. Cheers, from one Michael Taylor to another!
My God! I’m finishing this buffer show now and that was amazing. We always want to see a new drive pedal vs another trendy or classic drive pedal. But my God, when Dan changes the impedance on the Kingsley that blowed my mind.
After this amazing video, I came up with the following for my simple rig: - Strat/Tele - 15ft Mogami Gold cable - EP Booster - Chase Tone Secret Preamp (Always on for color) - Catalinbread Topanga Reverb (in buffered bypass mode to allow use with reverb and non reverb amps. I'm only using the EP for lead playing, so it is off often.) - 15ft Mogami Gold cable - Fender Bassman Thoughts?! I'm just recently transitioning from Guitar > Cable > Amp and I'm escared. Thank you!
Yeah man. Loads of dynamic and variation in all that. Depends how much you can crank the Bassman. Ours comes alive around 6-7 which is insane loud for most places these days!
@@ThatPedalShow , thank you so much for the reply! My main fear is losing authority from my volume and tone controls on the guitar. I'm running the amp at 4 1/2 or 5 with a THD attenuator for health and neighborly reasons, heh. 6 or 7 is a heck of a lot of fun as well.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but even though a buffer can/will help maintain or improve tone, it doesnt really seem very necessary or important in the grand scheme of things. I say that because, to this day, in my line of work, I see A LOT of pedalboards and only a very tiny percentage of them have standalone buffers (excluding the ones that are built into the pedals). In all my years of touring and working for musicians I almost never see buffers on all these massive pedalboards. So, although I absolutely appreciate what a buffer can do, I also feel that they aren’t very necessary and most musicians for many years have never really had the need for it until all these RU-vid videos made them out to be more significant than they actually are. That is just my opinion…but curious what other people think. I know the die hard tone-nerds and sound-snobs of the world would say that buffers are imperative, and that’s fair enough since they do actually work, but I just don’t see them being that important seeing as how we have managed without them for all these years and have been able to sound great without them.
Wow, i've watched all your buffer shows over years, and many others from Josh (jhs), Mason (vertex) and everytime something is missing but this time you had touched a lot of dark areas about buffers. Thank you guys. I love boss stuff and i will use it forever, but i'm one of the guys that don't like their buffers, it does a difference but not what i'expecting
I liked Dan’s comment that the developer of a pedal circuit has a guitar and a cable in mind, giving an input signal to his new circuit. That’s what I believe for amps, even more so. This is the reason why I test buffers comparing the tone to the pure guitar -> good, medium length (5 meters) cable -> amp tone. A LOT of buffers are even too efficient in preserving high frequencies, that’s probably why they gained a bad reputation. If you end up with more treble than expected for that amp, you will have a shrill tone, which a better balanced buffer can avoid. I hate JFET buffers for example. The good old bipolar buffers (see the Tubescreamer) are the best compromise between cheapness and tone/feel under the fingers.
first 12 minutes and 15 seconds are the new be-all/end-all of buffer explanation. I appreciate you all recording another hour for us even though you didn't need to =p
Good episode. I think the best takeaway was the fact that there isn’t one answer. After this I removed my in/out buffer (a Mesa Highwire) and reverted to a simpler chain but with a tiny wee Fulltone 2B at the end. Certainly doesn’t sound worse and pretty sure it’s better. The 2B is more forgiving plus has a tiny bit of compression/gain as a dial-in option.
I've done quite a bit of experimenting with this. I've found what works best *for me* is a (Suhr) buffer at the start and a (Suhr) buffer at the end of my board splitting the signal to two amps. But I'm sure that wouldn't work for everyone. I don't tend to use fuzz pedals, and I use curly cables between guitar and amp, so I'm already rolling off some highs. I love my tone, and surely that's the main objective?! :)
I typical play with only 35'-40' of total cable and a max of 6 or 8 pedals so Ive found that as long as I have at least 1 buffered pedal on the board I'm good. I typical use lower wind humbuckers- PAF, Filtertrons, Bill Lawrence/Wilde low inductance blades.
Loved this episode thanks, i work in computing now but studied electronic eng in college so i totally got what your points and now want to incorporate buffers into my board. Question... Can you have the wrong buffer?.. I was so surprised to hear differences in different buffers. At a spec. level is there particular buffers that (on paper) would work better for low gain, high gain (metal), humbuckers, single coil, active and so on. Granted that many of us would not be able to try a selection of buffers in person and would be taking a shot in the dark ordering one from a internet store.
Love your show..!! Usually prods me to switch to playing my Tele..after days of practicing on my acoustic…👍🏼 But I gotta tell ya… some of these things take me back to the 80’s component stereo systems… People were SO obsessed with the next thing that they were adding equipment ( just for the higher specs) that produced audio that was only audible to dogs…😳… But I still love you guys and your show..!!!✌🏼😎
I always thought of a buffer like a damn. The signal is leaked from the cable despite the shielding, but a buffer allows it to build up again to the same integrity it was originally; or closer to it. So, much like a damn stores up the water to make sure that the full amount of water pressure is available if needed, so, too, does a buffer build up the signal to ensure that the same integrity is available when we open up the volume pot. I guess similar to your garden hose analogy.
I found all dedicated buffers added almost a synthetic top end back in. You really lose feel as well IMO. So I bit the bullet and went all George L's to help mitigate. Wow what a difference and much more natural feeling as well.
I have similar experiences (and hate) for buffers as you. This episode shows, that some buffers are different then others, but also explains to me, why I cant stand standard TS9 (or 808) on my board (whater its on or off).
@@stanislavmigra hey so have you ever tried a TS style pedal without a buffer? I really like the TS sound but dislike the buffer. I use a biyang X-Drive which is a 3 mode non-buffered TS style pedal.
According to the rules of the rigdoctor you want a buffer in an Input Z of 1 MOhm and Output Z of 80 - 150 Ohms, thus these qualify: Klon But other buffers that are specced like that are: TC's Bonafide Buffer, Suhr Buffer & Red Panda (Op-Amp) Buffer.
This is a good guideline, but not an absolute. There are conditions where higher output impedances (within reason, up to maybe 250-500 ohms output Z or so) will sometimes be better than others with lower output impedances depending on the design. Equally, there are time when buffers that meet the 1M input, 100 ohm output specs aren't so good. It all depends on the design. In the case of the Klon Centaur or buffer circuits that repurpose the buffer section of the Centaur, there is an inherent issue with the IC. The TL072 is a great chip for overdrives and has a very specific sound and color. It's not particularly linear and moreover the entire TL0 series has very poor current output, as well as stability problems driving output capacitance (not an ideal trait for a quality, neutral buffer). I've spoken with TI (Texas Instruments) reps about this in the past and they emphatically state, "normal use at least 1000 ohms (1K) series output to keep stable under normal conditions." Also the input biasing is very poor - this would not be a good choice for a buffer if you want the closest representation to your guitar plugged into your amp with a 10ft. cable in terms of neutrality. The Klon Centaur is a great overdrive, but not a great buffer for the reasons outlined above. Disaggregating the buffer circuit from the Centaur and using it as a stand along buffer, doesn't give you the "Klon of Buffers," but at best, a mediocre buffer. By running it down to 100ohms or further away from 1K (1,000 ohms) makes it increasingly unstable. With all that said, it's best to use your ears and see if all this results in something you can detect sonically between a higher quality buffer - something like the Mesa Boogie High Wire, and the Klon Centaur. It all depends on how neutral you like your sound and this is an easy baseline to establish, simply use a short cable into your amplifier and get a sense of what that sounds like, then start comparing different buffers with longer cable runs following them. Driving 50ft. on the output of the buffer being tested would be a decent test that would simulate normal pedalboard conditions, cable runs, connectors, and wiring between pedals, etc.
I have a buffer in my signal chain at the beginning of my signal chain and I got rid of it it changed my guitar tone not for the best it sounded horrible and I lost the feeling under my fingers and my buffer wasn't a cheap one it was a good one with 10 star reviews
that kingsley thing could probably tame the marshall bright cap... or a twin... nice work and really appreciated. for me the confusion is that it sounds like impedance is going "through" circuits./ pedals etc. in a cable I can understand but I dont get how a buffer at the end could lower impedance earlier on in the chain when the signal has been through a few pedals and would "logically" indicate signal loss that needs to be recovered. (i like my tumnus after my mini fuzz face... thanks Mick)
@@kodykindhart5644 I do except that this hose has lots of holes (to ground) and a few taps, pumps etc in the path. The bottom line is they work and the guys showed how. For me it doesnt really matter except when they are switched in and out on my board. (A Tumnus after fuzz fixes most of my issues).
Somehow that video gave me the urgent desire to by a G3 that has 12 loops that only filled with 30 ft cables. I don't know why but that idea is just so funny to me! :D
Perhaps the difference in buffer type (like klon) is different impedance values. All you need to do Is get the stats on it.....THEN compare. 1k ohm vs 100 ohm for example
Mick, your Harmonic Tremolo sounds awesome, better that my current multi trem/verb pedal, but it makes me love the sound qualities of my Lovepedal Optical Vibe even more. Unfortunately, I tend to limit myself to ten pedals or less on a board.
Thank you gentleman that was very educational please don't forget how super awesome that fuzz sounded when he had the buffer in front of it not the fuzz face but the other one
Fifty-two seconds in and I already have all the info I need. 🤣 Edit to add: My BOSS TU-2 has been residing at the back of my pedal train since I got the Octavix. Sounds fine there.
Steve here, Hello..... Wanted to like humbuckers but I prefer P90's and single coils, now I know why. Is the tone cut on my Vox a buffer then or am I just getting ahead of myself? Thanks in advance.
This is quiet interesting, as i am using a pedalboard rig. So relatively Short cable (3m) going into a switcher with my amp modeler on the board going or just using the headphone out. Now when using long cables to Go to the desk or maybe a poweramp/cab would a buffer still Make sense, if so where would i put it? Thanks for the informative Video!
Great video! Thoughts on buffers like the euna and oamp from 29 pedals? Just curious since they have tone control and an effects loop so they’re a bit different.
So I’m going to have 5 drives on the new big rig. I would probably put the buffer after all of them, but would I just bypass it if I used the fuzz on the Automatone? Honestly I never was a fuzz person before, but you guys are converting me lol! I have a Timeline second to last in the chain so maybe that would be enough? 🤔
What about the Fulltone Clyde Deluxe? It has a buffer to fix the Fuzz squeal problem which can be on(Buffer) while the Wah is on or off. But it’s specific to fixing the Fuzz problem, so I don’t know the difference in that and others. I know that my Fuzz Face doesn’t like other buffers, yet those Wahs buffers it does. Why? *Why do Boss pedals sometimes help that squeal problem, but sometimes don’t? Is it because it’s an output buffer, or are these completely different types of buffering? Mason from Vertex tried to explain it on a reply once, but he didn’t know enough about the Fulltone Clyde Wahs to be certain about anything. Or, how about pedals like the Sabbadius Fuzz Faces and Mr White Boost, which have a Wah Trick knob. It works very similarly to the knob on the Fulltone Clyde Deluxe. If the fuzz squeals, one turns the knob until it’s in the sweet spot. With Dan explaining the way the Kingsley knob changes things, I think that may be what the Wah trick knob and the Clyde Deluxe buffers do.
Okay lads a very interesting video but and here comes the rub, my pedalboard has 12 pedals of which 4 are true bypass and 8 are buffered with a Morley volume pedal after the OD's/distortion. So I guess I have no need for a dedicated buffer but does having all these buffered pedals ruin my tone? By the way my second pedal is a Ryra Klone.
Hey, one of my comments got lost! I was pointing out how you guys messed up doing the water hose analogy, because you didn't explain impedance. Then, you had the "cutaway" where you did explain how the impedance works. I think you did a bang-up job of explaining that!
I wonder if I can muster the same discipline required to learn a new lick and go back to watch again enough times to really learn and incorporate. Maybe it's true for many of us that we have our core rig, with some always on loops (whether the pedal is always on or not) and just vary and adjust our upstream drives for tonal variety. If I always have a Peterson Strobostomp first and an ARDX - CXM - Boss RC10 looper last, then don't I just live with it and adjust everything else the best I can? Seems like a whole lot of buffering going on. Cheers, guys.
When is Dan going to write a book explaining all of these things (shown in videos like this) at _this_ level so we can actually understand it without an EE degree? I'll buy a copy! ;)
But if your plugging into a buffer and than effect 1 your changing impedance before the engineered effect takes place and assuming the buffer has done its job on the output of said effect before entering effect 2 and so on down the line Shouldn’t their be a isolated buffer after each effect to ensure a rebalancing of impedance from effect to effect? We do it with power supplies now be it linear or switch Frankly an overall darker tone in itself isn’t a terrible thing, so maybe instead of buffering front and end why not add an eq at the end in this way you can even exceed the high end loss that the buffer if dark is not your thing I use a radial ABY to completely bypass my pedal board for such test and frankly with the Marshall jvm410 I’m not hearing enough difference to warrant adding buffering although many of my stomps are buffered already like the UA Astra, Golden and Starlight Big difference changing to Cioks DC-7 from the voodoo labs regarding noise but as far as signal loss, at least for my rig, not hearing it And then it hits the sm57 and regardless what I’m feeding him the tone at the mains changes as per his overpaid ears
Has any used the BBE Sonic Stomp pedal? I bought a second hand one a while back and it is superb!! I use it in a subtle way to dial in a bit of clarity. It’s odd because it doesn’t sound like it’s doing much until you turn it off. Great video as always TPS!!
Absolutely. It is a brilliant pedal to return lost tone. I use one on a board that feeds a REVV D20 or Tone King Imperial Mk II. I also use the BBE 422 Sonic Maximizer rack unit with another board and for acoustic guitars with piezos, because I really dislike native piezos and the BBE 422 brings back the tone of the actual guitar. In my opinion it is a misunderstood pedal that more folks should know about. I like the old ones better than the new ones, for no really good reason.
@@DRChevalier Yes certainly a misunderstood tool but one I recommend people looking into. I’ve used the rack units also which are fantastic and actually, the plug-ins weren’t too bad either. I think my two BBE Sonic stomp pedals are the old ones because I bought them so cheap, under £50 each.
@@craigheadland3210 I looked on Reverb for a while to find mine. It has the grey white border with red centre and I paid $ 60 CAD for it. I have never tried the plugins, thanks for the tip, am going to go look at them today.
@@DRChevalier No problem! Yes mine are the white boarder ones too. I got really lucky and found my quite easily on E-bay. I bought the second one to use as an Aux send/Rtn for re-amping, I put vocals and all sorts through that pedal
@ThatPedalShow I see! Very cool! Another legendary bit of British cultural and artistic export (not unlike TPS ❤️) is "The Total Perspective Vortex" - a machine built with the intention of showing beings the infinity of creation, which became used as a method of torture. It first appeared in the Secondary Phase of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, when Zaphod Beeblebrox was subjected to the vortex and became the first person to survive it. You guys are legends! Cheers!
I hear no difference. But then again I'm 73 years old with a hearing loss from not wearing ear protection for the past 55 years, So message and warning sent...Carry on.
Sorry a bit late to the show on this vid. Got a question though: I use a Line 6 HX effects for all my effects (including drives) and use a 4 cable method which means I have 40ft of cables (4 x 10ft). Would I need a buffer external from the hx effects or will an effect within the hx effects (like an ep booster or klon clone) cover this? And where would i put it? Thanks.
So it all depends on the contents of the pedalboard that we have, right? Then how about in my series of pedals, one of which is that I use the Zoom G3n(digital multi effect). While some other pedals include the type of true bypass pedal. Do I still need the pedal buffer or not? Hope someone can help answer it.
What if you're using your amp's effects loop for delay and reverb? Would you then need two buffers (or two buffered pedals) on the board to yield the benefits? I imagine so, but this is literally the only thing I think you didn't address here.
Don’t spend money on a separate buffer. Get a tuner pedal with a quality built in buffer for the start of your chain, and a reverb with a quality buffer for the end of your chain.
Ooooh also real question! Is there a way for me to tell if my pedal is buffered or not? I have a tuner pedal that's not a main brand, should I assume it's buffered? Did some experimenting with it trying to A/B it but I couldn't tell the difference if there was any. Is there perhaps a technique or a set up that I could use to test if I had buffered pedals or not?
Two ways Justin. 1. Unpower it and see if the sound goes away way you turn it on. If it doesn't, it's probably true bypass. 2. Get a true bypass loop switch and stick the tuner in that and turn the TB loop on and off. You should hear it if you have a lot of cable. Cheers!
This Video would have make sense if you would have stacked like 20 pedals behind the buffer going into the amp ... and then turn the buffer on and off ...
I am not an electrical engineer, but at 14:10 I don't think inductor vs capacitor is correctly explained. Both store electricity, but my understanding is that an inductor stores electricity in a "magnetic field", while a capacitor stores electricity in a "electric field". Or in other words, an inductor stores energy in the form of a magnetic field, and the capacitor stores energy in the form of an electric field. But not that this matters so much :-)
The info is correct, although I didn’t specify exact what the difference is, the pickup is wire wrapped around a magnet creating an inductor, storing and releasing energy, works opposite to a cap in the sense that as the frequency goes higher there is more resistance, in a cap as the frequency goes higher there is less resistance. Where these two meet and cancel each other out and you’re left with only the resistive element is where you have resonance. The amplitude of that frequency is governed by the amount of resistance, and that frequency is tuned by the amount of capacitance
So, if I run my guitar directly into a homemade splitter “box and three input jacks” while running two amps with three pedals in each chain. Should I put my buffer before the splitter? Would this be enough to make up for the split?
Two reasons why this comment may safely be ignored: 1. I got a 'C' (pass, but...) in physics at 'O' level 45 years ago, since when I have not really bothered the scientific community; 2. I suffer from high frequency hearing loss. And yet - I wonder whether Dan's helpful analogy could be refined a bit further. The addition of a pump between two sections of leaky hose is probably best thought of not as increasing the amount of water reaching the plants (actually, higher pressure may mean that more rather than less water is forced out of the holes!) but as restoring the pressure or force of the flow coming out of the end of the hose, making up for the loss of pressure experienced thanks to the numerous punctures. Not trying to be clever - just trying to help refine a very helpful illustration of what a buffer accomplishes.
