The perfect buffer to give the "straight in" tone and feel?

[hunter]

If I plug straight into my amps with a proper 9-15ft Mogami cable is my reference tone. Unfortunately I need a few pedals, Wah, Tuner, 1-2 drives, etc. I can choose 100% true bypass pedals. Well cable length goes up of course, to the board, in the board, from board to amp. Without any buffer the sound can get dull, especially riding the volume.

Here's what I tried as a remedy:
-Radial PB-1 (buffer/booster with drag control). It's a great pedal, but just not the same. Drag at high settings has the right top end but no butt, drag down is too mellow
-Boss Waza (CE2 or SD-1) quite nice, but just not really that chewy feel of straight in
-Buffer of my Strobostomp Mini - Ok but feels bright/technical vs full/organic like straight in
-Buffer on UA Starlight, also using the preamp colouring of the Delays. Really nice, but I don't want 100% AD/DA before my amp, and the pedal is big and expensive to just make tone preservation
-Schaffer Replica always on - suuuuper cool, but unfortunately very noisy with gain
-Xotic EP1 always on - quite cool but I'm missing some frequencies on the very high highs

What is your suggestion for a buffer or booster that preserves tone and feel of a short cable throughout a longer cable run?

 

[newholland]

i dunno that that exists, tbh, but the closest thing ive found that makes my ears happy is an mxr micro amp set at noon. its not flat, it adds a little bottom and a little top, which makes it useful to me as thats what usually seems to get away with other crap in line. theyre cheap, and they do the work of impedance stabilization, but theyll also melt down the front side of an amp if you want that.

 

[laxu]

What Mogami cable are you using? You can see from this list that most Mogami cable isn't that low capacitance.

My guess is that your issue might be the opposite you are thinking: Your guitar -> cable -> amp setup might have more capacitance, and you like how that sounds. Pile on the extra cabling, and it grows to be too much.

You could try simply swapping for lower capacitance guitar -> first pedal, and last pedal -> amp cables, without adding buffers. Worth a try with e.g shorter cables.

I use Klotz La Grange (65 pF/m capacitance) and Sommer Classique (78 pF/m) cables and for my entire board have one of my Strymons set to buffered bypass. To me it sounds about the same as cable -> amp because the cable is already very low capacitance.

 

[hunter]

What Mogami cable are you using? You can see from this list that most Mogami cable isn't that low capacitance.

My guess is that your issue might be the opposite you are thinking: Your guitar -> cable -> amp setup might have more capacitance, and you like how that sounds. Pile on the extra cabling, and it grows to be too much.

You could try simply swapping for lower capacitance guitar -> first pedal, and last pedal -> amp cables, without adding buffers. Worth a try with e.g shorter cables.

I use Klotz La Grange (65 pF/m capacitance) and Sommer Classique (78 pF/m) cables and for my entire board have one of my Strymons set to buffered bypass. To me it sounds about the same as cable -> amp because the cable is already very low capacitance.

Cool idea. I'll check. I have a few others, even some Vovox. That list is definitely helpful.

 

[TubeStack]

I have my Mesa Stowaway first in line on my board, works well for this.

 

[RGB]

I use an Axess BS-2 that I think works great, but it looks like they no longer make it.

They do have a few new buffers though...maybe one of these would do the job. The DBTM looks particularly handy. Buffer and Line Driver for both ends of your pedalboard.

Buffers | AXSGTR®

The best guitar buffer pedal, germanium fuzz un-buffer, patch-box, ground loop hum isolator, amp splitter, and pedalboard utility solutions.

axesselectronics.com

 

[fetishfrog]

My favorite buffer in terms of tone was the VHT Valvulator 1. It sounded great, better than straight in imho. It was heavy though, took up a lot of space, and could be finicky.

I’ve also used a Lehle Sunday Driver which was perfectly transparent.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Sounds like a job for the Rig Doctor!

…but you could also just buy the TC Electronics Bonafide.

 

[hunga]

Waldotronics Tiger Buffer — Jerry Tone Store

Mike Wald, aka Waldo, creator of Waldotronics, has been researching Jerry tone and unveiling each detail to our community for over 15 years now - as more and more information has emerged over the years, Waldo has been able further refine each piece of the Jerry tone puzzle. Finally, after years of q

jerrytonestore.com

No affiliation

 

[DrewJD82]

I use an Axess BS-2 that I think works great, but it looks like they no longer make it.

They do have a few new buffers though...maybe one of these would do the job. The DBTM looks particularly handy. Buffer and Line Driver for both ends of your pedalboard.

Buffers | AXSGTR®

The best guitar buffer pedal, germanium fuzz un-buffer, patch-box, ground loop hum isolator, amp splitter, and pedalboard utility solutions.

axesselectronics.com

I totally forgot Mario was getting back into business. I’ll definitely be making some purchases here once I start finalizing my pedals-only board, namely the Fuzz Unbuffer.