GBtech talk

Buffer or bypass?

TECH

TALK

Buffer or bypass?
TRUE-BYPASS OR NOT TRUE-BYPASS? THAT IS THE QUESTION.
WE UNRAVEL THE MYSTERIES OF BUFFERED EFFECTS PEDALS

the author

Dan Steinhardt is
our resident effects
expert and author of
our monthly Pawn
Stars column.
When hes not
hunting down rare
and exciting pedals,
hes making
pedalboard problems
disappear at
TheGigRig Ltd
(www.thegigrig.com).

Some of the most common

questions Im asked by dedicated
stompbox fans relate to the pros
and cons of true-bypass and
buffered pedals. Both have
their advantages, but to get the
most out of your pedalboard, an
understanding of each type and
how they are going to affect
your tone is essential.
There seems to be a lot of confusion
about the role buffers play in great
guitar tone. Lets see if we can clear

100 guitarbuyer september 2009

this up for you. When we talk about

buffered and true-bypass effects
were talking about the state of the
pedal in bypass mode, when the effect
is off. When a pedal is on, it is always
buffering, that is to say changing the
impedance of your signal in some way.
You buy a pedal for the way it sounds
when its on, but its the way it affects
your signal when its turned off that
were primarily concerned about here.
To understand the role that buffers
play we need to look at two very

important elements of great guitar

tone: impedance and capacitance.
Were not going to get too technical
here, but a general understanding
of these factors will make a world
of difference to your tone.

WHAT IS A BUFFER?
A buffer is a device that changes
a high impedance signal into a low
impedance signal that can drive
capacitance. So what on earth
does that mean? Lets start at the

GBtech talk

beginning and look at the signal

from your guitar.
The pickups on your guitar will
have an impedance rating measured
as DC resistance in ohms. For example,
the output of the neck pickup in my
Telecaster is 6.2kohm (or 6,200 ohms).
The bridge pickup is slightly hotter at
6.7k. Im sure a lot of you will have
seen these figures on your pickups and
wondered what they mean. In general
terms, a higher impedance will mean
more output, but lets look at the
relationship that this figure has with
the guitar cable.

CABLE CAPACITANCE
The cable that you use to plug your
guitar into your amp or effects will
have a certain amount of capacitance,
so what does this do? In the simplest
of terms, the capacitance in a signal
cable will affect the top end of your
tone in the same way that the
capacitor linked to the tone control
inside your guitar lets you roll off high
frequencies (although it actually does
a whole lot more, including tuning the
frequency hump of the pickups, but
more on that later).
Your cable acts just like a capacitor
and will allow a certain amount of the
top end frequencies to pass to ground.
You can easily check this yourself by
plugging your guitar into your amp
using first a long cable and then
a short one. Youll hear more top end
with the short cable. If you double the
length of cable, youll double the
amount of capacitance, so youll lose
more top end in a longer cable.
Its the relationship between the
capacitance in the cable and the
output impedance of your pickups that
causes the change in tone. The higher
the output impedance is from your
pickups, the more susceptible it is to
the capacitance effect of your cable.
This may seem confusing, as
you might assume that the
increased output from a hotter,
higher-impedance pickup would
make the signal more robust.
A very high output humbucker such
as a Seymour Duncan Invader has an
output impedance of 16.8k. This is
very high for a passive pickup. These
pickups do have a very aggressive
sound and a lot more output than my
humble Tele, but my Tele will lose less
top end in a long cable run. You could
have a pickup that was twice as loud as
the Invader, but it would sound muddy
and undefined. On the other hand, if
the pickup doesnt have enough output
it can sound thin and weedy. A big

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Buffer or bypass?

SWITCHING STYLES
BUFFERED AND TRUE-BYPASS SWITCHING IN DETAIL
Lets have a look at simple
true-bypass and buffered
switches in an effect pedal.
In the true-bypass diagram,
following the signal path you can
see the guitar signal is connected
to the centre pole of the switch. In
this case its a double pole, double
throw switch (or DPDT). This
means that there are basically two
independent switches that are
operated by the same footswitch.
In one direction the two centre
poles are connected to the two top
poles enaging the effects circuit.
Stepping on the footswitch
disconnects the top poles and
connects the centre poles to the
bottom, which is a simple piece of
wire connecting the guitar signal
directly to the output of the pedal.
Now to the buffered circuit.

There are several ways to do this,

but the basic principle is the same,
which is to use only one switch
and put it on the output side. The
guitars input is connected to the
switch (in this case an SPDT, or
single pole, double throw) and to
the input of the effects circuit the
entire time. The switch simply
chooses between the output of the
effect or the output from the
buffer. As the switching duty can
easily be performed by a transistor,
which is a much cheaper option
than using a standard footswitch,
most companies designing on a
budget opt for this method, but
thats not to say that top pedals
dont use a buffered circuit. Many
do and many sound fantastic
because of the high quality of the
buffers they use.

n A true-bypass switch

n A BUFFERED switch

YOU WANT TO make sure that any buffer

in your signal path is transparent
part of designing a pickup is about
balancing the output against this
capacitance effect.

PEDAL BUFFERS
So how does a buffer in an effects
pedal interact with capacitance and
impedance? A buffer is very similar to
an amplifier. In fact, its an amplifier
with a 1:1 ratio. Now, like an amplifier,
the design of the circuit is very
important because it has the ability to
change your tone. This is not desirable.
You want to make sure that any buffer
in your signal path is transparent.
If I plug my guitar into a buffer, the
input of the buffer will see the
impedance of the pickup coil. This is
where we need to understand how the
input impedance of the buffer works
in relation to the output impedance
of the pickups. Typically, a Boss-type
pedal will have an input impedance
of around 1 megohm (1,000,000
ohms). A good rule of thumb is to
make sure the input impedance into
a pedal is high. 1 meg is good.
It works like this. The pickup from
my guitar has to drive the capacitance
of the cable, and then drive the input
impedance of the pedal/buffer.
A low impedance signal from my
guitar through a good quality lead
will easily drive the high impedance
signal of 1 megohm at the input
of my buffer.
The guitar signal goes through the

cable, then through the pedal/buffer

and even though the sound is the
same and the output level is the same,
the impedance has been changed and
is now much lower. Typically this
impedance, which was about 6-7k
(6,000-7,000 ohms) from the guitar,
is now around 1k (1,000 ohms) from
the output of the buffer.
This lower impedance from the
buffer is what we rely on to drive the
long cables. With an impedance of
1kohm you can drive a massive
amount of cable with very little tone
loss remember, a higher impedance
results in more capacitance and more
high frequency loss.

BUFFER QUALITY
Many effects pedals, such as Boss and
Ibanez stompboxes, employ a buffer in
the signal path. Remember that this
buffer is on even when the effect is
turned off. The quality of these simple
buffers has been debated over many
years. The fact is that these are not bad
buffers, although there are some much
better dedicated signal buffers out
there. Problems really occur when you
start to chain these buffers together.
Like an amplifier, the buffers will
have a signal-to-noise ratio, typically
from 2-4 percent. With a single buffer,
this amount of additional noise is very
hard to hear, but as you chain these
buffers/pedals together this can start

to affect your tone adversely.

GBtech talk

BUFFERED BOARD

Many players love the tone of

guitarists with simple boards only
running a few effects and I have
absolutely no doubt that its the
stacking of these buffers (or lack of)
that adds to or detracts from the
clarity and effectiveness of some of
these great guitar sounds.
In response to this, many
pedal builders started employing
a true-bypass design, something
which has become very popular
in modern boutique guitar effects.
This means that when the effect
is bypassed the signal does not go
through a buffer, but effectively
disconnects the effect circuit
completely from the signal path.
Problem solved? Not quite
You see, even though youre
getting rid of any adverse effects
the buffers might have on the tone,
by removing them completely you
are now relying on the output
impedance from your guitar to
drive the capacitance from not
only your cables, but also the
footswitches and the patch leads
of all your effects.

WHATS THE ANSWER?

The solution is a carefully
thought-out combination of the
two: both true-bypass and buffered
pedals. Lets have a look at two
typical pedalboards one
featuring buffered effects, the
other true-bypass and solve
the problems on each.
Both of these setups have some
issues. On the buffered board, the
guitar signal is going through
a whole heap of buffers, each
adding its own thing to the sound,
changing the dynamics and
altering the transient response of
the note. The true-bypass board has
no buffers but has so much extra
cable, including the patch leads,

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In my personal experience I get the best results going through no more than three
buffers on one pedalboard. In the buffered board example below we have six, so
lets cut that down to three.
The first thing that were going to do is remove the buffer in the tuner with
a simple AB switching box. Next, were going to put a couple of the effects in
true-bypass loops. I only know of a handful of overdrive pedals designed to take
a buffered, low-impedance input. This isnt to say that they dont work with
a buffered input, but generally when a designer sits down to make an OD pedal,
he plugs the guitar straight into it, so we want our ODs to see the signal direct
from our guitar. Getting the tuner out of the signal path with an AB box is a great
start, but we also want to put the ODs in true-bypass loops so that when we bring
them in they see the pickup impedance directly.
So, with an AB box and a simple true-bypass double looper, we have cut our
buffers from six down to three. Our overdrive pedals are working the way they
were designed to and our signal path is still buffered after the ODs, so were getting the correct low
impedance to drive the long cable from our pedalboard back to our amp, all without experiencing the
negative effects of too many buffers. Heres the buffered board before (top) and after (bottom):

TRUE-BYPASS BOARD
This true-bypass pedalboard is an example of someone
who really has put a lot of thought and money into
getting some great boutique effects, but unfortunately
as all the effects are true-bypass the impedance from
the guitar has to drive not only the cable to the
pedalboard, but all the patch leads between the
effects and the long cable back to the amp.
Thankfully fixing this one is simple. All we need to
do is place a really good buffer after the OD pedals. The
buffer will drive all the capacitance so we get our top
end back and the ODs still see the impedance straight
from the guitar. So we have chosen an always on
dedicated buffer unit designed specifically for the job.
Remember that in true-bypass boards you should always use the best quality cable you can afford.
It makes a big difference, especially up to the point of the buffer. There are loads of really good cable
manufacturers out there, such as Horizon, Klotz, Evidence Audio and, of course, George Ls. Dont
skimp here and your tone will thank you. Heres the true-bypass board before (top) and after (bottom):

Buffer or bypass?

that the elusive

plugged straight in
sound is nowhere in
sight. Because the
tone is dull, the amp
is set to be bright, but
the problem will now
come when one of the
pedals is engaged. The
impedance of that
pedal changes when
its turned on and acts
like a buffer (because
it is), so because the
amp is set up with
a lot more treble the
sound immediately becomes tinny and
harsh. My solutions to each of these
problems are outlined here.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE
RULE
Before you race out and buy
mega-expensive short guitar cables,
it is important to note that
ultra-low-capacitance cables do not
always sound better. A certain amount
of capacitance in your cable can be
a good thing as it does more than just
affect the top end. It also reacts with
the frequency hump of the pickup.
The more capacitance in the cable,
the more it loads the pickup and
moves that frequency hump down
towards the lower frequencies. Lower
the level of capacitance and the hump
moves towards the upper frequencies,
accentuating the top end. What many
perceive as simply the sound of the
cable is in fact the effect of the cable
capacitance on the pickups.
There are examples of players like
Brian May who famously used his
curly cable for most of his career. That
curly cable has loads of capacitance
but, used in his setup, actually worked
really well. Albert Collins used
a 120-foot guitar cable because he
liked the way it sounded.
Theres no doubt that these guys
are the exception to the rule and
most players prefer the sound of
good-quality low-capacitance cables,
but as you all know by now, when it
comes to great tone the rule book gets
thrown out the window.
If youre in any way serious about
your guitar sound, then I urge you to
experiment with this. Go into a guitar
shop that has a few examples from
cheap to very expensive cables and use
your ears to find which you like best.
Once youve found the cable that
works for you, employ the above
techniques on your pedalboard to
keep your tone consistent. GB

september 2009

guitarbuyer

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