Best Buffer of 2018

Coppersound Pedals

Gravity Bomb

Newton’s First law meets the second World War. Gravity Bomb is a clean boost and buffer. There are a lot of great mini boost pedals out there, but we wanted to do ours a little different. Instead of using transistors, we utilized a Burr Brown, audiophile op-amp capable of adding around 20dB. The circuit foundation is the underrated MXR Micro Amp. At zero, Gravity Bomb is a buffer. At 10, it shakes the coins in your pocket. Towards the end of the dial, a combination of natural amp and pedal drive will be heard. Running the pedal at 18 volts will yield greater headroom and keep the signal cleaner throughout the entire dial. Amp and pedal distortion amounts will vary depending on rig set-ups.

29pedals

EUNA

EUNA is the Elite UNity Amplifier from 29 Pedals. An input driver that replaces a conventional buffer, EUNA is built to protect and condition your instrument's signal to prepare it for whatever you want to do with it. Console grade build, three great sounding filters, and an alt-path insert loop for your classic fuzz and wah circuits that don't want to be buffered. Also features the 29 Pedals WHATEVER power supply, which accepts 7.5 to 35 volts of AC or DC in either polarity with no change in tone. EUNA is made by 29 Pedals in California. Even a few true-bypass pedals and 20' of cable can hang out your guitar's output and make it feel mushy and dark. Buffers can help, but they are often very simple circuits that create sonic issues of their own. Meet EUNA! EUNA is an Elite UNity Amplifier. It is designed to protect and condition your guitar’s signal. Use it in place of an input buffer. Plug directly in, first in the chain. You can safely remove all other buffers after it if you wish. We recommend an output driver at the end of your chain. You can use a conventional buffer, or try our output amplifier OAMP. Plug your guitar directly into EUNA with the shortest cable that is convenient. EUNA features an effects loop that activates when EUNA is OFF. It was designed for use with vintage or vintage-style fuzz pedals. The interaction between your guitar and your fuzz is disturbed by any buffering, so EUNA’s effects loop allows you to switch between a buffered input and guitar-direct-to-fuzz. You can also use the loop to remove your tuner’s buffer from the signal chain. Let us know what other uses you find for the loop! If nothing is plugged in to the loop, the pedal is true-bypass when switched off. EUNA features 29 Pedals’ WHATEVER power supply. The WHATEVER power supply accepts 7.5 to 35 volts of AC or DC (either polarity) with absolutely no change in tone. It’s true!! EUNA has three sweetening circuits - Harmonics, Bright and Low. Low adds a little bit of low end. Not too much, just a little bit for some sweet oomf or to make up for low-end loss in your pedal chain. Bright adds some brightness, and Harmonics pushes the air band where guitar harmonics are. Harmonics adds sweet, tube-like chime to any rig. EUNA preserves "touchyness" and "snap." There is also an increase in effective dynamic range of your signal, and in some cases coil noise is reduced! The custom-tailored load kicks the resonant peak of your pickups out typically about 5 or 10k compared to a load of a few true-bypass switches and reasonable cabling. The pickup’s top-end rolloff is smoother too. You'll feel more chime and less pinchy top-end. EUNA will take over +18dB input with extremely low THD* - many other pedals fold about +10dB or less! The extra headroom on the front end means that EUNA will pass through your entire signal. That extra headroom means that fast transients won't ever run out of room - no relatively normal electric guitar could clip this, even for an instant. It's absolutely flat from 10Hz to 50kHz, but all the above features create a perceived tone "sweetness." EUNA can be modified to accept up to +22dB! Connect power to the WHATEVER power input with a standard DC plug. You can use AC or DC, either polarity, 7.5 to 35 volts. EUNA consumes about 100 mA. Use the footswitch to engage or disengage EUNA. The light is brighter when EUNA is ON. When EUNA is OFF the insert loop is ACTIVE. If nothing is plugged into the insert loop, EUNA will be in True Bypass mode when switched off. You can connect a pedal to the Send/Return jacks. Connect SEND to the INPUT of the pedal you want to connect. Connect RETURN to that pedal’s OUTPUT. EUNA is very DIY friendly - the Opamp is socketed so you can very easily audition chips. Notes on the PCB will help experienced DIYers tailor EUNA completely to their rig. EUNA will drive down to 600 ohms perfectly flat, but there are a few places tweakers will delight in hacking. Remove only 4 screws and you can service/mod the entire audio path without disturbing the power supply side or removing the board from the chassis. The construction is a single 4 layer PCB with 2oz copper throughout. Huge traces and fully plated holes, like high-end recording equipment and hifi gear. This method provides superior fidelity and transmission. No jumper wires, fewer soldered connections, shorter paths, more copper. The power supply side is completely isolated from the audio side with a layer of shielding and separate ground planes connected at a single point in a proper star-ground configuration. No electrolytics in the signal path, only for PSU filtering. 1% thin-film resistors, WIMA film caps and other audiophile-grade components complete the short signal path. *THD better than 0.01% at +19dBu input & 10K Ohm load. THD better than 0.01% at +17dBu input & 600 Ohm load. 125mm x 92mm or 4.875" x 3.625"

JHS Pedals

Little Black Buffer

Though it’s a fairly nondescript-looking piece of gear, our Little Black Buffer may be the most powerful tone-shaping tool that you put on your pedalboard. By adding it to your signal path, you’ll restore all the high-end detail, output level, and tonal character that involved pedal chains and long cable runs steal away. And because the Little Black Buffer is an on-all-the-time sort of thing, you can save precious real estate by mounting it on the underside of your pedalboard. Give the Little Black Buffer a try. You’ll wonder how you went so long without one. KEEPS YOUR TONE CLEAR, POWERFUL, AND PRISTINE If you’re as pedal happy as we are at JHS, you’re going to want a quality buffer in your signal chain. The Little Black Buffer is like giving your guitar’s tone a shot of adrenaline, ensuring it hits your amp with the same strength and character as it left your fingers. - Converts your guitar’s hi-Z signal to lo-Z for driving long cables and pedal chains - Retains the original tone of your guitar without tone loss from other gear in your signal chain CONVENIENT LOW-PROFILE DESIGN An active buffer, such as the Little Black Buffer, is content to be a workhorse piece of gear that quietly does its job in the background. That’s why we designed this little guy to be compact, sturdy, and simple to integrate into your rig. - Small size is ideal for saving pedalboard space - Can easily be mounted underneath your board - Built rugged - Black powder coating keeps the buffer hidden in the background Plug your guitar straight into the input then out into your pedal chain. No need for a switch. THIS PEDAL REQUIRES STANDARD 9V DC NEGATIVE POWER, CONSUMES 19MA, AND MEASURES 3.6"X1.5"X1" THE LITTLE BLACK BUFFER IS DESIGNED TO WORK WITH INPUT SIGNALS THAT ARE BELOW 10V INPUT GAIN. ANYTHING ABOVE 10V INPUT GAIN WILL CAUSE THE UNIT TO CLIP. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE WITH BASS GUITARS.

J. Rockett Audio

Steampunk Boost/Buffer

This highly versatile yet simple pedal is a perfect 2 in 1 Buffer Booster. The buffer is perfect for fixing any impedance issues created from using long cables and big boards. The buffer will allow you to save your tone and regain any high end loss that may occur. The good news, it is fully selectable so if you don’t want it there is an internal slide switch and an LED indicator to let you know of it is in or out of the circuit. It can also be used whether the boost is engaged or not.

Wampler Pedals

dB+ – Boost/Independent Buffer

A full frequency boost and independent buffer brought to you in a small footprint mini pedal. All great guitar tones have a solid foundation. Too many cables going in and out of your pedal board and to and from your amp can sometimes accidentally rob of you your guitar’s natural higher frequency tones (making your tone muddy) and in essence – creating “tone suck”. A quality buffer can help prevent those high frequencies from being lost and with a clean boost – you can make sure your guitar always sits in the mix. Introducing the Wampler dB+. The dB+ has all the same great features as it’s predecessor – the Decibel + – but now you have the ability to turn the buffer on and off independently as well in a now micro pedal size. Whatever your needs may be, the dB+ is ready to deliver. From studio or stage, it’s a one-knob problem solver toolkit. You no longer have to suffer high-end signal loss, or “tone suck” again. You never have to have your boost on just to have your buffer on. You can now take ownership of your tone and have it exactly as you want it at all times.

TC Electronic

Bonafide Buffer

Ultra-Compact High-Quality Analog Buffer with Automatic True Bypass

Truetone

Pure Tone Buffer

The famous buffer that is in all Truetone pedals is also available in a tiny, Custom Shop package. Put it first in the chain of effects, plug in your input and output cables and a 9V power supply (like the 1 SPOT…), and your guitar will sound like it’s plugged directly into your amp with a short cord. It’s that simple, and yes, it really works. Completely eliminates cable capacitance and tone sucking.

JHS Pedals

Buffered Splitter

There are so many reasons to add the JHS Pedals Buffered Splitter to your pedalboard. But the most important one is great tone. If you’ve ever split your guitar’s signal with a passive device, adapter, or even certain effects pedals, you know that the results can sometimes be less than stellar. This happens because many of those products simply cut your tone in two, sending one half one way and the other half the other way. You can end up with a tone that is muddy and lifeless. Adding our Buffered Splitter to your chain not only avoids these issues, but it will perfectly drive your long cable runs and pedalboard chains as well. Trust us on this one. If you need to split your signal for any host of reasons, putting our Buffered Splitter on your board will give you your tone back. Simple and effective signal-splitting device There are a ton of applications for adding a Buffered Splitter to your signal chain. Whether moving a tuner out of line or running a dual-amp setup, once you use the JHS Buffered Splitter, you’ll never be without one again. Here are just a few options. - Send one signal to a tuner that is out of the signal chain while retaining your full tone - In a dual-amp setup, both amplifiers will see a powerful, clean signal - Bassists can send one side to their amplifiers, while sending the other to the board Keeps your tone clear, powerful, and pristine If you’re as pedal happy as we are at JHS, you’re going to want this quality buffer in your signal chain. The Buffered Splitter is like giving each output a shot of adrenaline, ensuring they hit your amp with the same strength and character as they left your fingers. - Converts your guitar’s hi-Z signal to lo-Z for driving long cables and pedal chains - Retains the original tone of your guitar without coloration from the other gear in your signal chain Convenient low-profile design A device such as the Buffered Splitter is content to be a workhorse piece of gear that quietly does its job in the background. That’s why we designed this little guy to be compact, sturdy, and simple to integrate into your rig. - Small size is ideal for saving pedalboard space - Can easily be mounted underneath your board - Built rugged - Black powder coating keeps the buffer hidden in the background

West Co Pedals

Grease Juicer

West Co's first signature pedal inspired by one of the world's funkiest drummers, Curt Bisquera. Buffer-Splitter-Fuzz-Envelope Filter. A unique pedal that has the fuzz in front of the envelope filter. If you like your funk a little nasty, this is for you. Can also be used as an envelope filter only. The detector and audio circuits are specifically tweaked for bass (green knob and LED version) or guitar (orange knob and LED version).

Mosky Audio Technology

DEC Buffer Booster

A pedal that offers excellent, stable buffering AND a fantastic clean boost, in one great, durable, easy-to-use ! With one single knob to accomplish everything, it trims the fat – we didn't want to make a booster that does too much to be considered just a booster, but not enough to be considered a legitimate light overdrive. Plus, functionality like that tends to just run up the price. our goal was to make sure that this pedal can buffer with excellent fidelity, boost like nobody's business, yet be as easy to work with as possible. No unnecessary complications of either function, and no sacrifices when it comes to the core tone! It's a one-knob problem solver toolkit in pedal form. Just dial that one knob where you need it to go and you'll have the functionality you need right then – and if you ever need it to turn from buffer to boost, or boost to buffer, it's as simple as adjusting that one control.

Skrydstrup R&D

BF2M Dual Buffer/Line Driver

Our BF2M Dual Buffer/Line Driver has proven itself as the ultimate in the business. The BF2 contains two independent buffers. Our high impedance input buffer ensures a constant high impedance load on your guitar at all times, and furthermore it provides you with an isolated Tuner Output and a low impedance output (SEND). From the (RETURN) jack the signal goes to our highly recognized ultra low noise Line Driver, which will drive even a very long cable back to your amp, without changing your tone or adding noise. MUTE switch for silent tuning.

Xotic Pedals and Guitars

Super Clean Buffer

Eliminate losses due to long instrument cords and multiple effects. +12dB of clean boost and EQ dip switches for total control.

Emerson Custom

Concord Utility Buffer

Handbuilt in Bixby, Oklahoma USA using premium audio grade components to provide ultimate clarity and signal response. This utility pedal "buffers" your signal to bring back the clarity and high end sparkle of your input signal that is lost when you use a lot of pedals and/or have lots of cable between your guitar or bass, and your amp. This pedal is a tool that once you have on your rig you'll never wanna be without it. It can be run at 9-18v (18v for more headroom).

ThorpyFX

The TEAM MEDIC Buffer, EQ, Boost and Boost +

The TEAM MEDIC is designed to be the most versatile pedal around. It is designed to suit all guitars including Bass guitars and deliver you a real enhancement to your tone. Hyperbole aside, this pedal has some very cunning tricks up its sleeve. It combines a switchable Class A buffer (switchable to true Bypass) with a 3 Band Active EQ (Bass, Mids, Treble) enough gain on tap to boost your amp into submission and then a foot switchable option to add even more boost on top, sending your amp into creamy overdrive. It also has an internal power arrangement designed to give the highest headroom possible so the pedal works really well with all pickups from low gain single coils all the way to high gain active units. I designed this pedal as a tone enhancer, it can therefore push your guitar sound from excellent to astonishing. It can help EQ a badly EQ'd pedal. It can give you a frequency bump in the mids to cut through or it can match your pedalboard to an unknown hired backline. In all these situations the TEAM MEDIC excels and crucially you sound like YOU, only better. Aside from achieving fantastic sonic credentials the TEAM MEDIC is built like a tank with physical features such as recessed knobs and top mounted jacks. Robust build does not have to come at the sacrifice of looks, the TEAM MEDIC uses a combination of a beautiful stainless steel laser etched centre console wrapped in a tough baseplate. Internally the pedal is immaculately built using premium 1% metalfilm resistors, Wima and Panasonic capacitors, Neutrik jacks and Burr-Brown Opamps. These are the crème de la crème of the electronics world and when coupled with a robust gold plated PCB and dust sealed potentiometers the recipe is as good as it can possibly be.

Catalinbread Pedals

Epoch Pre

Our Epoch Pre was modeled after the exact preamp circuit from the original EP-3, from the 22v power supply to the JFET preamp, to the circuit loading contributed by the echo function. Not only does it provide boost it acts like a mastering plug-in on the master fader - making your whole pedalboard sounds bigger, lusher, wider, the Epoch Pre can bundle all the frequencies without squishing them like a compressor!

KMA Machines

Belfry - Buffer

There once was a time where all the streets were grey and dark, filled with dust, dirt and lifeless existence. Humankind was lost and slowly losing its belief in the beauty of the world. Until one day, something began to tower above the smoke-filled chimneys. Something with a serene and clear clang that steered the people out of the darkness and towards the enlightenment they had craved. Open your ears and hear the sweet chime coming from the graceful Belfry Buffer. The Belfry Buffer is KMA Audio Machines’ take on a high-fidelity studio-quality buffer that’ll keep your signal safe from the tone-sucking constraints of long cable-runs and epic pedalboards the size of a small spaceship. This leaves your instrument sounding as crisp, clear and natural as if it was going straight into an amp and nothing else. Belfry sports a unique multi-path design with two buffers running in parallel in order to greatly reduce noise (123dB signal-to-noise ratio and a mind-bogglingly low Total Harmonic Distortion rating of 0,0007%) and to push the output stage for a supremely free-flowing signal. The Belfry’s high 1Meg input impedance ensures that even pedals with a high output impedance can be used before it without any issues, while the low 200Ohm output impedance will guarantee a full frequency spectrum, independent from what’s coming after the Belfry. Hence you won’t experience any tone colouration such as the dreaded over-pronounced and shrill highs, which can be typical for many lower quality buffers. With the Belfry, you will simply sound like you again. Nothing less, nothing more. Powered by a standard 9V DC power supply, the Belfry internally converts this to 18V for massively increased headroom. This helps you preserve your precious core signal and consequently tone, including all the sparkling highs and that nice round and punchy low-end. In addition, Belfry sports a super-small housing in order for it to fit on or even under your pedalboard without any problems. So, plug in to the Belfry Buffer and hear your tone ring out as clear as a bell again. Powered by an optional standard 9V DC (max.) PSU (negative center, 2.1mm, approx. 12mA current draw) Every pedal is designed, assembled, silkscreened, tested and numbered by hand in our small workshop. We use external manufactured PCBs to guarantee our high quality standard and keep the price of our pedals reasonable. The use of an indestructible powdercoated die-cast enclosure ensures a maximum durability. We trust in our environment and want to keep it clean, that's why none of our pedals have the possibilities to be powered by batteries. Info: Delivery time varies between 3-14 days, depending on our stock. For detailed requests please message us via sales@kma-machines.com

Mesa Boogie Amps

High-Wire™ Dual Buffer & Output Boost

The HIGH-WIRE™ is our Dual Buffer and Line Driver in a one-stop solution that addresses both Input and Output challenges in the same space saving chassis. Between Instrument and pedals, it provides a stable, consistent load for your guitar’s pickups, ensuring your signal arrives at the first pedal intact and full of Tone. From Pedal Board to the amplifier, it not only buffers the signal, ensuring optimum impedance loading and performance, but also allows for increased signal levels for extra long cable runs via the built-in Line Driver (Footswitchable Boost) feature. As with the Stowaway, all buffer circuitry is 100% discrete Class-A. The HIGH-WIRE also incorporates a fixed +3dB BOOST on a top mounted mini-toggle. The Footswitch is Dual Function and allows both the variable BOOST when hit once and a MUTE when held for a second. The HIGH-WIRE is the ultimate all-in-one Pedal Board signal loss remedy and will remove your tightrope Tone walk once and for all.

Mesa Boogie Amps

Stowaway™ Input Buffer

The Stowaway™ is our compact 100% discrete Class-A Input Buffer solution designed to remedy a whole array of Input challenges caused by a variety of issues. From impedance loading and mismatching, to changes in a pickup’s character and response as a result of varying effect pedals’ input impedance and interconnecting cables’ capacitance, the Stowaway provides the stable, consistent load your instrument needs to sound as intended. While the Stowaway's footprint is small, allowing it to be mounted on the most crowded of pedal boards, its Feature Set is professional and comprehensive. If your signal does any significant traveling, bring along a Stowaway to guard your Tone.

Mooer Pedals

Micro Buffer

Accurate copy of the input signal frequency and removal of unconventional signal frequency, which perfectly output the original signal to the next pedal, thus obtaining the original musical sound Equipped with a High-cut & Low-cut switch and a Boost knob, making the Micro Buffer feature richer and more convenient to use Low Cut Frequency: 140Hz High Cut Frequency: 4. 5kHz Specifications Input : 1/ 4”monaural jack (impedance: 1M Ohms) Output : 1/ 4”monaural jack (impedance: 120 Ohms) Power Requirements: AC adapter 9V DC (center minus plug) , Current Draw:20 mA Dimensions: 93. 5mm (D) × 42mm (W) × 52mm (H) Weight : 145g recommended to use Mooer Micro Power

Jackson Audio

Prism – Special Edition Blue!

The PRISM – SPECIAL EDITION have been anodized Blue and feature laser engraved text! Give your board some color and update today with the PRISM SPECIAL EDITION! Designed as the ultimate tone shaping tool for a player’s pedalboard, the PRISM is a buffer, boost, preamp, EQ and overdrive all in one beautiful and compact stainless steel enclosure!

Empress Effects

Buffer+Stereo

The Empress Buffer+ Stereo was designed to be the complete I/O interface for your pedalboard, all while maintaining the highest fidelity of your guitars' signal. Signal loss due to long. un-buffered cable runs is an issue that has plagued guitar players for decades. The primary goal of the Buffer+ Stereo is to eliminate this signal loss, ensuring that your tone is unchanged by your cables. We've incorporated all the features of our Buffer+ such as the foot-switchable boost, input padding, noise filters, and variable input loading, as well as a ton of additional features such as input metering and clip level indicators, AB/AY switching, external switch control, and of course full stereo in/out connectivity.

Empress Effects

Buffer+

The Empress buffer+ was designed to be the complete I/O interface for the pedal board, while maintaining the highest fidelity to your guitar's signal. Signal loss due to long, un-buffered cable runs is an issue that has plagued guitar players for decades. The primary goal of the buffer+ is to eliminate this signal loss, ensuring that your tone is unchanged by your cables. Additionally, all the connectivity of your pedal board is consolidated to make set up quick and easy. The buffer+ also has a very handy set of features that make life just a little better. Noise filters, input pads, switchable clean boost and input loading are all powerful tools available on the buffer+

Empress Effects

Buffer

The Empress buffer was designed to be the complete I/O interface for the pedal board, while maintaining the highest fidelity to your guitar's signal. Signal loss due to long, un-buffered cable runs is an issue that has plagued guitar players for decades. The primary goal of the buffer is to eliminate this signal loss, ensuring that your tone is unchanged by your cables. Additionally, all the connectivity of your pedal board is consolidated to make set up quick and easy.

Old Blood Noise Endeavors

OBNE EQ + Buffer

OBNE Utility 3 is an always on Buffer and switchable 3 Band EQ. The buffer is helpful for long cable setups or when using an overabundance of pedals. The EQ is helpful in tailoring frequencies to specific parts, guitar switches or using it as an always on EQ.