Buffer Box Project

Yesterday, I finished up my little buffer box for my guitar rig. I had a specific need for this unit. I normally have a few buffers inline (mainly my Boss TU-2) at the end. Since I created my true bypass strip and split out loops for pedals, I’ve been playing around with some configurations. I have a Heavy Electronics Grind Fuzz, and I was really liking the sound of the pedal when there was a buffer in front of it. Made it more.. aggressive.. and nasty. But since I had my bypass set up the way it was, I wanted to get a dedicated buffer in loop with that pedal.

For those that don’t know what a buffer is/does. When you have a series of large cables or many pedals in line, you begin to create cable capacitance. This basically eats at your high end, and dulls your tone. By adding a buffer you can drive a hotter signal down the line and retain that high end and sparkle. If you have a chance, please read this post – Visual Sound (buffered bypass) and Route 808 -  (and watch the video). You really can see the buffer in action.

I picked up a small enclosure, and designed the circuit board for the buffer circuit. I wired it up and it’s working like a champ. No footswitch, basically the buffer is always on.

Here is a shot of the finished enclosure. Super bright blue LED indicator. No battery and powered by 9v adapter

I’ll be making a few more for some of guitar-nerd friends. If you’re interested in one of these, shoot me a email.

UPDATE. I’ve been getting a ton of requests about building these for you. I took this circuit design and made a couple of improvements with the PCB layout and input/output location, as well as adding a true bypass toggle switch for testing the buffer while finding a place for it on your board. I’m offering these for sale on my other venture – Rattlesnake Cable Company. To learn more about these buffers, check out the buffer page.