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"Tone Suck" -- Real? Imaginary? Misattribution?

#41
mindflow said:
Not to be an idiot but can someone explain having a buffer at the front of your chain and why it's bad to have your tuner first?
I am new to effects, within the past few months, there is so much to learn, everytime I think I'm getting it there's something else I stumble upon, ha
Click to expand...

Read this article.

True bypass myths debunked

Long story short,...if you are running passive basses; having a quality buffer in your chain is a good thing, especially if you need to run long cable runs and signal chains. Doesn't matter where in the chain it is; as long as it's there. The buffer will give your signal the oomph it needs to get through long chains. Run all the TBP pedals you like just put a buffer somewhere in the chain.

The BOSS buffer is perfectly fine. Some Fuzz/OD pedals do not sound as good with a buffer in front of it (I think where the buffer/tuner first confusion is coming from). Since an active bass is buffered from the start,...those Fuzz/OD pedals don't sound good with them. Some (if not most) Fuzzes/ODs sound fine with a buffer in front OR with active basses.

IMO (and no offense),...I feel like "tone suck" is really just a bunch of snobbery, usually reserved for audiophile types and vinyl junkies. I've never encountered any pedal that changed or degraded my clean tone so bad that I felt like it wasn't serviceable or that the pedal was a bad one. FWIW,...the only notoriously bad bypass I have in my chain is a Mooger Fooger,...and it's fine by me.

Maybe I'm deaf, but I just shutup and play. ;)
 
#42
MoogerFooger for sure. Awesome effects, yes, but I've noticed with synthesizers going through a medium-sized pedalboard, I'm getting both tone suck, AND extra "noise". Just added a Lehle D Loop, which also has a super sweet buffer, and my noise problems are over.
 
#43
fitz420 said:
heres my experience with tone suck. i have 6 high quality true bypass pedals and all of my cable, including pedalboard patches and leads is made with canare GS6......i thought high quality cable would prevent "tone suck". i still experienced noticeable loss of high end and less articulate lows. i had a very transparent buffer made by a reputable builder and put it 1st in my chain of effects. the difference is immediately noticeable. i now feel more like i'm plugging directly into my amp with a small cord instead of using a total of around 40' of cable. well worth it.
Click to expand...

I am going to assume you have a passive bass. I actually wouldn't call this tone suck. It is simply impedance loading on the pickups causing a low pass filter which is cutting the highs.

It should not have affected the low end though... that is very strange.
 
#45
I definitely noticed that the Boss buffer on my old RC-20xl looper changed my tone in a bad way, which is a shame because I liked the features of it and the RC-50 quite a bit- ditto the ODB-3 and LMB-3 that I had long ago.

I also generally prefer to use mostly true bypass pedals combined with a few nice buffers or always-on effects to drive long cable runs. For now I keep my Tronographic Rusty Box near the front of the chain and always on, or I'll use my Wounded Paw Blender which has a buffered effects blend. As far as a buffer screwing with my fuzz, fortunately not all fuzzes are negatively affected by buffers- just depends on what you are using and how you are using it (I usually only use fuzz stacked with other effects, so I have to use a fuzz that can handle that)...
 
#47
Oreomeister365 said:
My digitech whammy had a noticeable suck (mostly "zing"). Most pedals not so much.
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+1

I don't know if I've ever liked the term tone suck, because it really just changes it a bit for the worse. The whammy (xp100) to me took just a little something away.

The Moog stuff (only own/used murf) also adds noise, but, again, I wouldn't call it tone suck or low end loss. Some pedals add noise, some lose some frequencies. It happens, but I just don't like the term. Its not always horrible, nor does it always make a pedal worthless.
 
#49
I believe tone suck is real... But I also welcome it to some degree. I found the tone coming from my bass straight to the amp was harsh and muddy even after adjusting the eq on the head and the tone knobs. Once I added my Bass Driver the sound mellowed out and allowed for slightly better adjustments on the eq's. When I added my wah the suck mellowed out the tone even more, and now that I have my Bass Chorus, I can craft a tone with the eq on my amp that I quite like, which may be because it may have buffered bypass. I've not noticed any suckage from my Small Stone, which is good. My next two pedals will complete my board: Boss TU-3 and the Carbon Copy. I'll have to update when I see how they affect my tone if at all.
 

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