STOMP SCHOOL
The Truth About Bypass, Pt. 2
Greetings fellow tone freaks and gear
geeks, welcome back to “Stomp School.”
This month we’ll continue our discussion of
bypass – true or otherwise. However, we’re
going to focus more specifically on “
buffered bypass” and how it may affect your
tone. Actually I’m going to let my esteemed
colleague, Analog Mike, do the discussing
for this one. You and I will do the listening:
“A buffer is basically an active device that
takes your somewhat weak guitar signal
and amplifies it. Usually a gain of one
– or a unity gain – is used
so the volume does not
change and your sound
remains constant. Your
signal is converted to a
lower impedance so it
can travel through long
patch cords without los-
ing its strength.
“A buffered pedal (for
example a BOSS or Ibanez
pedal that is turned off) will allow
a good tone to make it through a
cheap or long patch cord. Some years
ago I sold several true bypass pedals to
a player with a large pedalboard. He said it
sounded terrible and that one of the pedals
must have a problem. When he brought the
board to my shop, all the pedals checked
out fine. We determined that his cheap
patch cord from guitar to board was killing his tone, but he never noticed it as he
had previously used a few buffered pedals.
Replacing the cable solved his problem and
the new pedals worked great.
“There are various opinions regarding the
use of a buffer in a signal chain. Some
seemingly opposing opinions are given by
authorities who certainly can’t be wrong,
as their clients have awesome tone. Using
a true bypass remote switching system or
a full pedalboard of boutique pedals is
one extreme, while a board full of BOSS
and Ibanez pedals or a switching system
with buffers on each switch is the other
extreme. My belief is that buffers can be
used, and should be used in some cases,
but the number of buffers in your signal
path should be minimized.
board to get the signal from your guitar into
good shape early on. But this is a problem
if you’re using a vintage pedal like a Fuzz
Face. A germanium Fuzz Face needs to inter-
act directly with your pickups for the magic
clean-up effect to occur when you roll your
volume knob down – the pickup and volume
knob actually become part of the fuzz circuit.
Other pedals like a germanium treble boost-
er or Rangemaster-type pedal will sound bad
if there are any buffers before them – they
get bright and nasty sounding. If you have
one of these pedals,
Teese RMC wahs now feature buffers to help them
play nicely with vintage fuzzes.
put it early in your effects chain before any
signal buffers or buffered pedals.
“Most players using a wah pedal prefer to
place it before a fuzz in their signal chain,
but a vintage wah will not behave well with
a fuzz – losing its tone and sweep. Adding
a buffer inside the wah will allow it to function better with the fuzz when the wah is
on. Turning off the wah – with true bypass
– kills the buffer so it will also work well
when it’s off. Foxrox Electronics makes a
wah retrofit kit, which can be added to
most vintage-style or boutique wahs. Teese
RMC wahs now include this ‘fuzz friendly’
buffer circuitry.
“The reason I do not like too many buffers
in the signal path is that the tone changes
are additive. Each one will slightly change
your tone and can reduce the interaction
and liveliness of your guitar strings. Even
though the tone coming out of a good buf-
fer may be very nice, passing it through
multiple copies can make it a bit sour. For
example, a particular buffer may have a
frequency response with a nice little peak
at 700Hz, but after five of these buffers
the peak will be five times higher and may
get annoying. Each active component also
generates noise, which adds up. I have one
buffer at the end of my pedalboard (a delay
pedal with a nice buffered bypass) to send
the signal to my amp on the rare
occasion that I have no other ped-
als turned on. When something
like an overdrive or distortion
pedal is on, your signal is beefed
up strong enough that no buf-
fers are needed afterwards and
a direct connection to the amp
cannot be beat.
“As always, there are many
variables, so it is best to do
some trial and error testing
with your personal rig to
find the best sequence of
pedals and buffers for your
specific setup. If it sounds
good, so should you.”
Thanks Mike! Well, that’s a wrap for
now. Check back with us next month for
another exciting installment of “Stomp
School.” Until then, keep on stompin’!
Tom Hughes
(a.k.a. Analog Tom) is the owner and proprietor of For
Musicians Only ( formusiciansonly.com) and author of
Analog Man’s Guide To Vintage Effects. For Musicians
Only is also the home of the FMO Gear Shop.
Questions or comments about this article can be sent
to: stompschool@formusiciansonly.com.
Analog Man
( analogman.com) is one of the largest boutique effects
manufacturers and retailers in the business, established by “Analog” Mike Piera in 1993. Mike can be
reached at AnalogMike@aol.com.
