Comments on: Buffers Before Fuzz

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:19:27 +0000

Love this kind of info and w some level of knowledge without being a parrot of typical bad pass-ons. Buffers and by pass are a confusing mess and I hate the “try it and see” as if our ears serve as the ultimate judge. They don’t and there are rules and things that sound bad. A wah is a filter and filters sound better before dirt. I put my CAE bypass wah before my main board Radial buffer pedal and that seems to do the trick for anything to follow. I use Wampler and nothing vintage. Wah, buffer, all bypass, final chain tube buffer circuit in my Ibanez tube unit.

By: Jay Doyle

Jay Doyle — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:00:01 +0000

If one looks in old textbooks you will find versions of this circuit, but with a resistor in series with the input transistors’s base. The gain of the circuit is the 100k feedback resistor divided by the input resistance – so you are indeed correct when you state “the guitar pickups impedance is acting as an input resistance” and therefore each guitar sounds different. Using a buffer cranks up the gain of a FF stage because the gain is then super-high with the 100k divided by a few tens (or so)ohms.

It may also be helpful to remember that the feedback resistor from Q2 emitter to Q1 base is the same as if the resistor was from Q1′s collector to Q1′s base.

By: JL

JL — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:48:26 +0000

I have built several types of buffers from this site as well as Beavis Audio. I’ve put them before my board, after my board, and before AND after. End result – let your ears be your guide. I personally like the “Plon Fentaur” buffer running before my board (I use single and humbucker guitars into tube amps). Love what it does to my overdrives, my fuzzes…all my pedals. Great clarity, harmonics.
LOVE the site. Thank you very much.

By: Chip Audette

Chip Audette — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:26:37 +0000

I built a fuzz with an op-amp buffer in front that was switchable. That way, I can go back-and-forth between buffered and not.

I found that with the humbuckers, I like it buffered. With single-coils, I always run unbuffered.

YMMV.

Chip

By: rboyo

rboyo — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:32:20 +0000

What’s a good solution for a buffer in front of a positive ground Fuzz? Can you make a buffer Positive ground?

By: Todd Smith

Todd Smith — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:26:43 +0000

Great info! Love your site. I’m going to add you to my blog roll.