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Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 5:33 pm
by Pete
So I know generally oscillating and germanium fuzz pedals shouldn't be placed after a buffered pedal. Keeping that in mind, I decided to do a little private fuzz shootout with my fuzz pedals, placing them before and after my Boss-TU-3. The goal was to see if I could hear any differences and determine if any of my fuzzes need to be placed before a buffer.

So I thought it would be a cool idea to have a thread like this detailing people's finds with specific pedals. It could serve as a guide for making pedal placement easier, by detailing which pedals should go before a buffer. :thumb:

Anyway, here were my findings:


1. MXR Blue Box-I heard no difference at all-before the buffer, after the buffer.... didn't seem to matter.

2. Blackout Effectors Crystal Dagger-again, worked absolutely fine after the buffered pedal. Sounded exactly the same as it did being placed before the tuner.

3. Death By Audio Soundwave Breakdown-This one definitely needs to be placed before a buffer. When it was after the buffer the pedal was really noisy anytime you stopped playing. It also didn't do the cool oscillation stuff as well, when you roll down the guitar's volume knob at certain settings.

4. Devi Ever Destructo Noctavia-Oscillating fuzz, so not a surprise that it worked better before the buffer. Funnily enough I found that placing this pedal after a buffer had the opposite effect than with the Soundwave Breakdown after the buffer. I feel like part of the Destructo Noctavia's charm is how batshit crazy and noisy it is...That's how it's supposed to be and when it was placed after the buffer it really tamed the pedal.

5. Devi Ever Bit: The Legend Of Fuzz-worked well both before and after, however there was a drastic change in sound on one setting when it was placed after the buffer. With the texture knob up all the way the sound was WAY more crunchy, trebley and high gain when the pedal was placed after the buffer. Otherwise the other settings seemed to sound the same

6. Devi Ever Ok-Works way better before the buffer

7. Devi Ever Noise Floor-I heard no difference with the regular fuzz, however I felt like it worked a little better before the buffer when the noise switch was engaged.

8. Catalinbread Perseus-It totally did not work at all placed after the buffer. The sound cut in and out like crazy, which is interesting because my other suboctave fuzz (Blue Box) didn't seem to care where it was placed.

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 8:10 pm
by rfurtkamp
Can echo the Blue Box giving no fucks about placement.

Ampeg Scramblers don't care. It's a different tonality *sometimes* after buffers, but...rarely so.

Most Devi stuff works after buffers and gets meaner. I have some after, some before.

Fender Blender, gives no fucks.

Velcroar and Phantom Ring like being first.

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 8:17 pm
by Scruffie
rfurtkamp wrote:Can echo the Blue Box giving no fucks about placement.

Ampeg Scramblers don't care. It's a different tonality *sometimes* after buffers, but...rarely so.
The bluebox has an opamp input so its input impedance is already reasonable.

Scramblers actually have a buffer at the front of the circuit design which is unusual for a vintage fuzz, it's not super high impedance though.

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 11:13 pm
by morange
Just what I was thinking, hey just pull up the schematic and lets see what that input stage looks like. :lol:

Image

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 2:28 am
by Pete
morange wrote:Just what I was thinking, hey just pull up the schematic and lets see what that input stage looks like. :lol:

Image

:lol:

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:16 pm
by SquareWaveFuzz
IME Big Muffs don't usually care about buffers, but my double muff hated them.

Anyone know how super-fuzzes work with buffers?

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:17 pm
by lordgalvar
SquareWaveFuzz wrote:IME Big Muffs don't usually care about buffers, but my double muff hated them.

Anyone know how super-fuzzes work with buffers?
My Roland Bee Baa and LAL 46 don't do too bad with buffer, but a few things give the 46 trouble (like the echorec did and the boss cs-3). Ibanez Standard Fuzz liked being at the beginning of the chain.

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 7:43 pm
by digi2t
I had a problem with the Parallel Universe II not being able to go into oscillation mode when buffers were in front of it. I found a simple solution that solved that issue; AMZ pickup simulator. I stuck it in front of the PU, and voila, everything was back to normal. http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm

While buffers can help with tone suck issues, they may create issues with effects that have impedance sensitive circuits. If you really insist on running a sensitive pedal in a certain spot, and it's not reacting as it normally would, try a pickup simulator in front of it. It might solve your problem. Sometimes, the simulator is small enough to fit right inside the pedal in question. I built mine right into the PU, now I can place it anywhere in the chain.

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:30 am
by MechaGodzilla
SquareWaveFuzz wrote:IME Big Muffs don't usually care about buffers, but my double muff hated them.

Anyone know how super-fuzzes work with buffers?
None of the superfuzzes I've tried liked being after buffers.

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:17 am
by Ev_O)))
I always forget to give this test a whorl when stuff isn't gelling quite right.

Re: Pedals that can't go after buffers

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:01 am
by UnicornTrap
SquareWaveFuzz wrote:Anyone know how super-fuzzes work with buffers?
I have no clue about the vintage ones, but my ssbs buzzz works great after the buffer (empress).