SIlver Sky output too high on a pedal and causes distort?

[Revelation]

When I plug into a Boss Blues Driver pedal it seems the input going into the pedal is too hot which causes some distortion. I do use a Mesa Boogie buffer first, not sure of that is helping cause the issue but I have not had an issue with any other guitar.
Anyone else have this issue?

 

[Lewguitar]

When I plug into a Boss Blues Driver pedal it seems the input going into the pedal is too hot which causes some distortion. I do use a Mesa Boogie buffer first, not sure of that is helping cause the issue but I have not had an issue with any other guitar.
Anyone else have this issue?

No.

But I've noticed that when I plug my Silver Sky into my FuzzFace it gets all fuzzy sounding.

 

[shinksma]

You get a distorted sound when using a distortion pedal?

I don't understand the question.

Do you mean it sounds distorted even when the pedal is off? Boss pedals are buffered, so maybe your buffers are arguing?

And I have not had that issue with any PRS going into a Blues Driver (or any other pedal).

 

[Daniel Elam]

Isn’t that the point of the Blues Driver?

 

[Revelation]

Its not about the pedal providing distortion but like the signal going into it is too hot and the chips getting too much signal. But I don't have that issue all the time or on any other pedal. Never mind

 

[IRG]

I think the issue was raised above - you have a dedicated buffer going into a Boss pedal that also has a buffer. Especially if they are in the signal chain adjacent to each other. Remove the dedicated buffer. Then see if it’s better. The Boss’s buffer is always on I believe, and the two together aren’t necessary and likely are causing your overloaded signal. Report back.

 

[ViperDoc]

When I plug into a Boss Blues Driver pedal it seems the input going into the pedal is too hot which causes some distortion. I do use a Mesa Boogie buffer first, not sure of that is helping cause the issue but I have not had an issue with any other guitar.
Anyone else have this issue?

If what you're hearing only happens with the Silver Sky, you could be hearing a unique impedance mismatch effect relative to your other guitars. The BD2 uses a JFET buffer circuit (not true bypass), so by definition it is adding gain even in bypass mode. If you need the other buffer for your signal chain, you could use a MIDI switcher to control which patches add or delete the standalone buffer. Otherwise, stacking the buffers will add two stages of gain together. Play around with your chain and see what sounds good to you with the SS/BD2 with or without the standalone buffer, and then devise a way to control your rig. I find the GigRig to be excellent. Others are out there as well.

Personally, I think the BD2 is one of the best overdrive pedals ever made. It's super tasty. Nice choice.

 

[shinksma]

Its not about the pedal providing distortion but like the signal going into it is too hot and the chips getting too much signal. But I don't have that issue all the time or on any other pedal. Never mind

Well, as suggested, remove your other buffer.

I've never heard of this issue before with the BD-2 (or any pedal, now that I think about it), but that seems to be the only difference between your situation and the normal use (which is signal straight into the pedal).

If the problem goes away when you remove the extra buffer, you know the cause.

If it doesn't, you have a broken pedal (or something else is wrong further back up the chain towards the guitar).

 

[Revelation]

Before going to the Blues Driver i also have a Boss Waza tuner. I turned off the buffer on this pedal and it seemed to help remove the issue

 

[shinksma]

Before going to the Blues Driver i also have a Boss Waza tuner. I turned off the buffer on this pedal and it seemed to help remove the issue

I'd still try it without your Mesa Boogie buffer to see if that is ultimately the main source of incompatibility.

And since you didn't mention the Boss Waza Tuner until now: is there anything else between the guitar and the BD-2 other than the Tuner and the MB buffer?

 

[Revelation]

I need to keep my Boogie buffer as it keeps the high end in my signal. No there is nothing else in the chain before the Blues driver.

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

Before going to the Blues Driver i also have a Boss Waza tuner. I turned off the buffer on this pedal and it seemed to help remove the issue

Yeah, the Silver Sky has lower output single coils. They'd never overdrive the input of an OD pedal. Compare that to a hot humbucker, or ANY pickup that had another OD in front of the blues driver. So the guitar itself overdriving the input of the BD would never be the case with the Silver Sky.

So, hopefully you learned an important troubleshooting tip when you encounter problems. Isolate. Remove one item at a time. If you've never had the problem before, what was the last item you added. And, learning the steps are important. Just ask the 1000 guys who came here complaining about the effects loop on the Archon and bashing PRS for it... while many here use them and don't have any issue at all, and KNOW that effects loop issues are almost always traced to noisy power or the wild west of impedance variances introduced the the pedals in the loop or ground loop issues. The hardest part to understand is that "but it never did this with my other amps" still doesn't mean the amp is at fault, it just means it is less tolerable of those mismatches. The less transparent an amp is, the less clearly it will show any change. I swear, I saw a live band Friday night and the guitar player switched from his strat to an SG for 3 songs. I watched. He didn't touch his amp or pedals. I was 30 feet in front of his amp, straight shot. There was almost no difference in tone at all. I was SHOCKED. When he kicked his solo OD on, you could hear a little more mids and grind but only a little, with the SG. Those guitars would be night and day difference tonally, plugged into a good amp.

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

I need to keep my Boogie buffer as it keeps the high end in my signal. No there is nothing else in the chain before the Blues driver.

Before going to the Blues Driver i also have a Boss Waza tuner. I turned off the buffer on this pedal and it seemed to help remove the issue

I found the Boss pedals "always on" buffers to be very audible with some amps, and not in a good way. I had a couple that were Keeley modded and sounded really good, but the metallic quality the added to the signal when bypassed, was reason to move them along for other true bypass pedals. Stacking them made it even more evident and with some amps, intolerable. I put them on a looper and when I cut them out of the signal path the tone was CLEARLY better. As with anything, the cables everywhere from guitar to amp will make a difference in how much of this there is and how audible it is. The better cables I got, the more clear the "buffer sound" was.

 

[László]

I use a good buffer at the beginning of my signal chain, and have other buffered pedals. All a buffer does is affect the impedance, it shouldn't add output level (unless there's a gain control for the output of the Mesa buffer).

The idea that you can't stack buffers as others have suggested, is mistaken. If that was the case, you couldn't line up a bunch of Boss pedals and have them work.

Keep the Mesa buffer on your board. It's undoubtedly a better sounding circuit than the ten cent buffers that come on Boss pedals. Maybe your Blues Driver is screwed up, or something else is going on. I highly doubt it's the Mesa buffer - unless, of course, the output level is variable, or it has a +4 dBu/-10 dBv or a +4/'instrument level' switch.

If it has a switch for the db level (pro vs consumer), try the -10 setting. The +4 dBu setting is designed for interfacing with pro studio gear, like recording consoles, etc.

 

[IRG]

I use a good buffer at the beginning of my signal chain, and have other buffered pedals. All a buffer does is affect the impedance, it shouldn't add output level (unless there's a gain control for the output of the Mesa buffer).

The idea that you can't stack buffers as others have suggested, is mistaken. If that was the case, you couldn't line up a bunch of Boss pedals and have them work.

Keep the Mesa buffer on your board. It's undoubtedly a better sounding circuit than the ten cent buffers that come on Boss pedals. Maybe your Blues Driver is screwed up, or something else is going on. I highly doubt it's the Mesa buffer - unless, of course, the output level is variable, or it has a +4 dBu/-10 dBv or a +4/'instrument level' switch.

If it has a switch for the db level (pro vs consumer), try the -10 setting. The +4 dBu setting is designed for interfacing with pro studio gear, like recording consoles, etc.

Disagree. Sometimes multiple buffers can be the issue, but not always. It’s unpredictable. and in his most recent post the OP said he turned off the Boss Waza tuner buffer and his issue went away - so it seems like this exactly what was causing the problem, two buffers in a row. i have several boss pedals on my board, and they are fine. Most aren’t in a row though. But newer Boss buffers got significantly better, not sure when exactly but older boss pedals sometimes had a bad reputation and newer Boss pedals seldom have this complaint.

The other thing to try is the Mesa buffer last in the chain. What I find surprising, unless maybe you’re running several really long cables is that you need a buffer with not A lot of pedals To restore your high end. That seems unusual to me.

 

[Jazzedout]

When I plug into a Boss Blues Driver pedal it seems the input going into the pedal is too hot which causes some distortion. I do use a Mesa Boogie buffer first, not sure of that is helping cause the issue but I have not had an issue with any other guitar.
Anyone else have this issue?

What pickups are in the other guitars? Single coils with lower output? If you have a humbucker guitar my guess is it would distort more...

 

[deepender]

When I plug into a Boss Blues Driver pedal it seems the input going into the pedal is too hot which causes some distortion. I do use a Mesa Boogie buffer first, not sure of that is helping cause the issue but I have not had an issue with any other guitar.
Anyone else have this issue?

My overdrives sounded harsh (custom 24, not a sky) and some research revealed that I should keep any buffering after the overdrives. After switching stuff around, it’s much better.

 

[László]

Disagree. Sometimes multiple buffers can be the issue, but not always. It’s unpredictable. and in his most recent post the OP said he turned off the Boss Waza tuner buffer and his issue went away - so it seems like this exactly what was causing the problem, two buffers in a row. i have several boss pedals on my board, and they are fine. Most aren’t in a row though. But newer Boss buffers got significantly better, not sure when exactly but older boss pedals sometimes had a bad reputation and newer Boss pedals seldom have this complaint.

The other thing to try is the Mesa buffer last in the chain. What I find surprising, unless maybe you’re running several really long cables is that you need a buffer with not A lot of pedals To restore your high end. That seems unusual to me.

A buffer doesn't affect the level. The OP stated that it seems the input level going into the Boss is too hot. Buffers don't do that. I've yet to see a Boss pedal affected by a buffer that precedes the pedal.

Maybe if something's not working on the Boss pedal...possible.

I had a BD-2 on a pedalboard following a high quality buffer many years ago, and it did fine (in fact, that buffer was built by the very person Mesa hired to design their buffers).

It's true that certain vintage style pedals don't work well after a buffer. The Boss pedal isn't one of them.

Some pedalboards don't need a buffer, some do. It's going to depend on a lot of factors. But in my 32 years of studio work, and setting up recording gear in a variety of settings, I've yet to see two buffers in a row cause a problem (vintage style pedals like some fuzzes and wahs excepted).

In my studio, I run a 15 foot, very low capacitance cable (16pF/foot) to my pedalboard. But I have ten pedals on the board, each with its own cabling (and let's not forget that plugs also add capacitance). After going through all the pedals, I run a 20 foot cable to a KHE amp and cabinet switcher, and from there, 10-20 foot cables go from the switcher to each amp's input.

So I run a buffer at the beginning of my pedalboard chain, and another at the end of my pedalboard chain. The sound quality is stellar.

I've never, ever had a buffer cause a problem, except with vintage fuzzes or wahs. I'd need to see that demonstrated. Not that I feel I shouldn't believe you - I simply haven't observed it.

 

[shinksma]

A buffer doesn't affect the level.

It shouldn't. Yet it appears something in the OP's chain prior to the BD-2 is awry (and supposedly that is just the Boss tuner and the Mesa buffer, and the guitar), or the BD-2 itself is awry.

Since the OP doesn't seem interested in experimenting with what it sounds like straight into the BD-2 (which eliminates all the other variables), we'll probably never know.

 

[IRG]

I know I shouldn't care anymore at this point, as the OP seems to have lost interest, lol. But one thing does seem odd. Only the SS is having this issue, correct? Lower output single coil pickups. Somehow, it's the interaction with this guitar, and the BD-2. So it may not be anything related to either/both buffers at all. One would think, if a humbucker guitar plugged in is fine, then it's not the BD-2. So maybe it is the SS then? Tis a mystery.