do i need a buffer or not?

[bassman_2_1]

Just seeing if anyone got any advice weather i need a buffer. Got quite a few pedals now heres the list for admirers

2loop pedal-Dod envelope filter-whammy-ampeg octave-moog murf-dual valve distortion-maxon eq-phaser-chorus-flanger-delay

I have slight tone loss and volume loss running through my board. Its not really a major problem but if fixed would be worth the price of a buffer. Where would a buffer be placed too at the start?

 

[JonnyAngle]

I think some of your pedsls have built in buffers

 

[walterw]

it's all about the first pedal. make it one with a buffer and you should be OK.

 

[bassboysam]

it's all about the first pedal. make it one with a buffer and you should be OK.

I thought the buffer goes at the end.

 

[bassbrad]

I thought the buffer goes at the end.

No, a buffer or line driver should be 1st to off set any insertion loss thru the chain, you could ad another at the end if you run a long signal.

 

[bassbrad]

Well you didn't say if you are using an active or passive bass, one of the reasons to use an active bass is a buffered output, not that a dedicated buffer would be a bad thing.

 

[bongomania]

Yeah even with the list of pedals, we don't have enough information. What exactly is the "2loop" pedal? Is it a mechanical true bypass loop switcher? If so, what is in each loop--and are any pedals NOT in the loops? Bass active or passive? Are any pedals "on always", not bypassed?

Plus, there are good buffers and bad buffers. A bad buffer will give you tone loss problems--so you could put the world's most awesome buffers at both beginning and end of your chain, and if a crappy buffer is causing tone loss in the middle, the tone will still suck. So you'll want to carefully examine whether a bunch of your pedals in series are just murdering your tone; if they are, an added buffer will not help.

Where a buffer can help is if you have a passive instrument, a long cable or two, or a long true-bypass fx chain.

Generally you'd put the buffer between a passive bass and the pedalboard. The exception would be if you happen to find out that the output impedance of your last pedal is very high, and the input impedance of your amp is very low, and you've got a long cable between them. Pretty esoteric and uncommon, but it can happen.