How Many Boss Buffer Pedals Before You Get Tone Suck?

Can you hear the difference between the buffer circuits in these Boss pedals? How many Boss pedals would you use on your pedalboard before using a true bypass switching system?

Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
00:08 - Silicon Buffer
01:01 - JFET Buffer
01:38 - op-amp Buffer
02:28 - What About Output Buffers?
02:47 - Pre-Emphasis De-Emphasis Circuit
04:25 - The Volume Difference From Using Lots Of Buffered Pedals
05:57 - The Tone Difference From Using Lots Of Buffered Pedals
06:50 - Final Thoughts

The most common type of buffer circuit used in Boss pedals is the silicon transistor type buffer and this is the buffer circuit used in most modern Boss pedals. It adds back in some of the treble and presence that is lost from the added capacitance of most standard cable runs, in this case that's 20ft of cable or about 6m.

A JFET type buffer is used in some Boss pedals like the TU-2, TR-2 and later versions of the DD-3. I can't really hear the difference between the sound of this JFET buffer and the more common silicon type buffer circuit.

On some older designs like the SP-1 and DC-2 as well as newer designs like the DD-5 and this CS-3, Boss use an op-amp buffer. This op-amp buffer sounds to me like it adds a little more presence to the sound than the silicon and JFET buffer circuits.

There is a bit more to it than just those three examples though, so far I’ve only been talking about the input buffer on each pedal. There is also an output buffer, which can be different to the input buffer. So even these three types may change slightly in sound because of the type of output buffer used.

The main offenders for really altering the sound in bypass mode are Boss pedals where the bypass signal passes through extra circuitry rather than just the input and output buffers. It’s often called the pre-emphasis and de-emphasis circuit which is basically like a noise reduction circuit for mostly older analog delays, flanges and choruses. Older effects where they wanted to reduce the noise in the circuit, including the original CE-2, DM-2, and DD-2, they all have this kind of circuit in the bypass signal. The DM-2 that I was using here sounded like it was compressing the high end a little.

When you chain a lot of Boss pedals together you'll likely hear the signal level drop a little, the EQ also changes. The more Boss buffer circuits that you have in the signal chain, the more pronounced the change in volume and tone will be.

These are just things to be aware of when you're using a lot of Boss pedals or any pedals that use a buffered bypass. I think the change in tone is pretty subtle when there is only one pedal in the chain. When you're using one Boss buffer pedal at the front of your pedalboard before going through a lot of true bypass pedals and then maybe one at the end, then they're really useful to keep the level strong and prevent you losing treble from a long cable run.

The research I did for this video included a lot of information from this article on Boss buffer pedals which I highly recommend https://stinkfoot.se/archives/3736