Straight in, that is.
Guitar >> cable >> amp.
Fact is, I, your mad friend Lesteban, usually deploy a pedalboard between my guitar and my amplifiers. And upon said pedalboard are wah, buffer box, tuner, clean boost, overdrive, distortion, modulation, a true bypass box, and delay effects. I engage the previously-referenced effects on a regular basis, too.
But sometimes something happens in life that forces even old Lesteban to change his evil ways (baby). And for the preceding two days that something has been a very sore knee and back. I haven't wanted to hook up the pedalboard because it would entail some pain. I've tuned up the guitar, and then gone straight into the amp with a ten foot cable.
You probably expect me to say that it sounded better straight in than going through a tone-sucking pedalboard and extra cable lengths, etc. You're no doubt waiting for me to decry the bad new days and go on passionately about how much better things sounded in the days when a player had only a guitar, a curly cord, and an amp. You probably think I'm going to insist that the tone is more pure with only a cable.
Well, you might be waiting a long time.
Today I got back to the pedalboard and found that times have changed. I might have said otherwise in days of future passed, but today's high quality buffers have obsoleted that notion in a big hurry.
The truth is, that with my buffer box on the pedalboard, the sound is exactly the same as going into the amp with only a cable between guitar and amp. There's no difference that I can detect. Sounds great either way (assuming equally high quality cables).
Confession time: I'm actually very surprised by this. Going straight into my amps after not doing that for quite a while, my expectation was that I'd say, "Man, why don't I always do this, it sounds so much better."
But it doesn't. So for players who like pedalboards and pedals, my advice is to get a good buffer and rock on. It sounds the same (again, as long as the associated equipment and cables are also good). Good tone for everyone!
Note: crappy buffers still sound crappy. I'm talking good buffers.
Guitar >> cable >> amp.
Fact is, I, your mad friend Lesteban, usually deploy a pedalboard between my guitar and my amplifiers. And upon said pedalboard are wah, buffer box, tuner, clean boost, overdrive, distortion, modulation, a true bypass box, and delay effects. I engage the previously-referenced effects on a regular basis, too.
But sometimes something happens in life that forces even old Lesteban to change his evil ways (baby). And for the preceding two days that something has been a very sore knee and back. I haven't wanted to hook up the pedalboard because it would entail some pain. I've tuned up the guitar, and then gone straight into the amp with a ten foot cable.
You probably expect me to say that it sounded better straight in than going through a tone-sucking pedalboard and extra cable lengths, etc. You're no doubt waiting for me to decry the bad new days and go on passionately about how much better things sounded in the days when a player had only a guitar, a curly cord, and an amp. You probably think I'm going to insist that the tone is more pure with only a cable.
Well, you might be waiting a long time.
Today I got back to the pedalboard and found that times have changed. I might have said otherwise in days of future passed, but today's high quality buffers have obsoleted that notion in a big hurry.
The truth is, that with my buffer box on the pedalboard, the sound is exactly the same as going into the amp with only a cable between guitar and amp. There's no difference that I can detect. Sounds great either way (assuming equally high quality cables).
Confession time: I'm actually very surprised by this. Going straight into my amps after not doing that for quite a while, my expectation was that I'd say, "Man, why don't I always do this, it sounds so much better."
But it doesn't. So for players who like pedalboards and pedals, my advice is to get a good buffer and rock on. It sounds the same (again, as long as the associated equipment and cables are also good). Good tone for everyone!
Note: crappy buffers still sound crappy. I'm talking good buffers.
Last edited: