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Carl Martin Octa-Switch buffer/true bypass question
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Old 28th January 2013   #1
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Carl Martin Octa-Switch buffer/true bypass question
I just recently learned that the Boss TU-2 tuner can cause a significant loss in tonal quality, particularly on the highs, due it not being true bypass.

I use an Octa-Switch as my pedal board, and I've always had the tuner before the chain even goes into the Octa-Switch.

So I moved the tuner into its own switch on the board so as to keep it isolated from the rest of the chain. However this board has an On-Off Buffer button, as can be seen in the link above.

Could somebody explain to me what exactly this will do in regards to my fx chain, pedals, etc? Can I simply have the tuner in any switch, and if I toggle the buffer to On it will eliminate that problem?

Thanks.
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Old 28th January 2013   #2
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I have a TU-2 and have never had a problem with any loss of audio quality. Just because it's buffered doesn't mean that it's bad. It all depends on how it's designed and how the input of the next device is designed. There's a great article on the Tech 21 website about buffered vs true bypass.
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Old 29th January 2013   #3
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When I use the Boss tuner inline on my guitar cord feeding my old Mesa Dual Rect solo head (playing loud) the tuner can become microphonic when I'm on the high gain distortion channel. If I touch the pedal it's very sensitive to mechanical noise when used with that Boogie. With lower gain amplifiers I never have noticed degradation from going through the Boss tuner.

I use a Voodoo lab pedal switcher and it works fine with the tuner across one of it's IO switching port sets.

I also started using a Line6 guitar wireless system, the output of my wireless receiver feeds a wye connector which drives my boss tuner with one side and the input to my pedal switcher with the other side. I don't use the buffered input on the pedal switcher. I don't notice any problems driving the tuner like this from the wireless, no micro-phonics and no tone loss problems.

Good luck and good music to you.
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Old 29th January 2013   #4
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Awesome, thanks a lot guys.
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Old 4th February 2013   #5
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I used a Voodoo Labs pedal switcher for a while, ran my Boss tuner through
it as you describe. I've moved on with better pedals now, so my Boss tuner
is plugged into the tuner jack of my Ernie Ball Volume pedal.

That said, I don't think the Boss Pedal sucks that much tone. If it did it wouldn't be the worlds most popular tuner stomp-box. :>)

DaveT
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Old 4th February 2013   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Riku View Post
I have a TU-2 and have never had a problem with any loss of audio quality. Just because it's buffered doesn't mean that it's bad. It all depends on how it's designed and how the input of the next device is designed. There's a great article on the Tech 21 website about buffered vs true bypass.
Likewise - the buffer retains the highs nicely - and you can use it as a splitter.
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