USE BUFFERING TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

A buffer is a 1:1 amplifier stage. It helps preserve your signal through the cables of your rig, preventing loss of treble frequencies due to capacitance. Even true-bypass pedals use buffering components when they’re on, as they need them to generate their tone. ‘Buffered pedals’, however, continue to add buffering to your signal even when the effect is off, as opposed to truebypass pedals, which simply direct your signal from input to output, with no intervening circuitry, when the pedal is off.

“If I’m not putting the pedals in individual loops on a switcher, I don’t use more than two buffered pedals on a ’board,” argues Daniel Steinhardt. “The problem of pedals with buffers is not the sound of the pedal, but what happens to the signal when that pedal is bypassed. One buffer is generally fine, but anything more than two can start to eat away at the tone. On the other hand, if you’ve got loads of true-bypass pedals on your ’board and no buffers at all, you can lose high-end due to capacitance, so up to two buffers can be beneficial.”