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I found this on www.pedalsnake.com
I've always felt that with BOSS Buffered Pedals I didn't
lose any high end.
Just wondering what you guys think about this?
"True bypass" means:
When a pedal is off, the pedal input and output are direct-wire connected, with no electronics involved.
This "truly" bypasses the pedal's internal circuitry, rather than just "turning off" the effect within the circuit, as is done by a "non-true-bypass" pedal.
It is ironic that "true bypass" has become a modern buzz word since the 1990's, because the 1st pedals ever made in the 1960s were true-bypass (even though they didn't call them that). But it was soon discovered that the 1st "true bypass" pedals could suffer high-end tone loss when too much cable was strung between the guitar, pedals, and amp.
The problem was cable capacitance. Guitar pickups don't drive capacitance well, but a buffer circuit drives capacitance fine (it has a lower output impedance than a pickup). So, the "always-on buffer" became one of the early innovations in the pedal industry. When you turn this type of pedal off, the circuit is still active ("dry" signal)--only the effect has just been removed. All the cable capacitance from that point on to the amp is driven just fine. Up to 50 feet or more!
Today, most pedals are still buffered, or non-true-bypass. So, why has true-bypass made a comeback lately?
"Super ear" players of the ax world claim to hear a difference between a true-bypass and buffered pedal. They say buffer circuits "color" their tone, so they use ALL true bypass pedals, and short, expensive cables to prevent tone loss. (But, true-bypass pedals act like a non-true-bypass pedal when on. An effect circuit must drive the line, which will still "color" tone.)
But there is a catch to using all true-bypass from the guirar pickup to the amp...cable capacitance adds up with cable length, no matter what cable you use. So, if you have all true-bypass pedals, and use:
20' cord from guitar to pedals
10' of cable between your pedals
20' cord from pedals to amp
...you will have 50-foot "cable" when all your pedals are off. This can cause high-end tone loss, no matter what cable you use.
So, it is always good to have at least one good, buffered pedal (like a tuner, or special "buffer" box) in your chain, whether you use PedalSnake or not. One good buffer in the "guitar pickup chain" will seldom be noticed, even by a "super ear".
At Stage Magic, we might add, we (and our ax buddies) have yet to see anyone tell the difference, in an BLINDFOLDED A/B test, between:
Guitar plugged directly into an amp with a good, short cable
Guitar plugged into a chain of 3 (or less) good buffered pedals (like Boss)
We use 3 pedals to make it a fair test, because any signal loss will add up the more pedals one uses (it would be easier to tell the difference if a chain of 20 buffered pedals were used).
But...we're all "old school" players. We played millions of loud rocknroll shows in the 70s and 80s through wide-open 100W Marshall stacks...so we may not have all of our hearing left. Still, we think it's fair to say that good buffered pedals do not affect tone to any noticeable degree for the vast majority of players, and certainly not for audiences.
I've always felt that with BOSS Buffered Pedals I didn't
lose any high end.
Just wondering what you guys think about this?
"True bypass" means:
When a pedal is off, the pedal input and output are direct-wire connected, with no electronics involved.
This "truly" bypasses the pedal's internal circuitry, rather than just "turning off" the effect within the circuit, as is done by a "non-true-bypass" pedal.
It is ironic that "true bypass" has become a modern buzz word since the 1990's, because the 1st pedals ever made in the 1960s were true-bypass (even though they didn't call them that). But it was soon discovered that the 1st "true bypass" pedals could suffer high-end tone loss when too much cable was strung between the guitar, pedals, and amp.
The problem was cable capacitance. Guitar pickups don't drive capacitance well, but a buffer circuit drives capacitance fine (it has a lower output impedance than a pickup). So, the "always-on buffer" became one of the early innovations in the pedal industry. When you turn this type of pedal off, the circuit is still active ("dry" signal)--only the effect has just been removed. All the cable capacitance from that point on to the amp is driven just fine. Up to 50 feet or more!
Today, most pedals are still buffered, or non-true-bypass. So, why has true-bypass made a comeback lately?
"Super ear" players of the ax world claim to hear a difference between a true-bypass and buffered pedal. They say buffer circuits "color" their tone, so they use ALL true bypass pedals, and short, expensive cables to prevent tone loss. (But, true-bypass pedals act like a non-true-bypass pedal when on. An effect circuit must drive the line, which will still "color" tone.)
But there is a catch to using all true-bypass from the guirar pickup to the amp...cable capacitance adds up with cable length, no matter what cable you use. So, if you have all true-bypass pedals, and use:
20' cord from guitar to pedals
10' of cable between your pedals
20' cord from pedals to amp
...you will have 50-foot "cable" when all your pedals are off. This can cause high-end tone loss, no matter what cable you use.
So, it is always good to have at least one good, buffered pedal (like a tuner, or special "buffer" box) in your chain, whether you use PedalSnake or not. One good buffer in the "guitar pickup chain" will seldom be noticed, even by a "super ear".
At Stage Magic, we might add, we (and our ax buddies) have yet to see anyone tell the difference, in an BLINDFOLDED A/B test, between:
Guitar plugged directly into an amp with a good, short cable
Guitar plugged into a chain of 3 (or less) good buffered pedals (like Boss)
We use 3 pedals to make it a fair test, because any signal loss will add up the more pedals one uses (it would be easier to tell the difference if a chain of 20 buffered pedals were used).
But...we're all "old school" players. We played millions of loud rocknroll shows in the 70s and 80s through wide-open 100W Marshall stacks...so we may not have all of our hearing left. Still, we think it's fair to say that good buffered pedals do not affect tone to any noticeable degree for the vast majority of players, and certainly not for audiences.
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