Truetone Pure Tone Buffer

I think every guitarist have some up and downs with its pedalboard. You will be NEVER done with it trust me hehehe

After putting my favorite pedals on a Pedaltrain I was really satisfied but the meters of patch cables have stolen some highs - and even my fiancee realized a change in my sound. It wasn't really lifeless but you noticed it. So...what to do? Buy an expensive Lehle Cable Driver? No. I searched a bit and found the Visual Sounds Pure Tone Buffer. Ordered the same day and after work the other day I had a little package right in front of my door - thank you Thomann!

This little "pedal" is really small. And I mean REALLY SMALL. I mounted it on my pedalboard (as the first box in my chain) and let my amp warm up. Standby off and play the intro to "Aerials" by System Of A Down. Wow. How bright! The difference was immense, this little box made everything so much better in my sound.

If you use a bunch of pedals in front of your amp spend the money on the Pure Tone Buffer from Visual Sound. You won't regret it.

I just made my new pedalboard, and there are 13 pedals on it.
So, as you could expect, there is some signal loss, and so I decided to buy myself one of these tone buffers.
As I said already, there is some signal loss, but not a huge one when just going through the pedals, but enough to make some audible difference. When I put the buffer in front of my pedal chain, there was some improvement, but I'm not impressed that much. I watched some reviews on u-tube, and there was huge difference between going through the pedals, or longer cables, and going through the buffer in the front.
I recorded some audio clips with my SURE SM58 in front of the amp, and I played both my Fender strat, and Gibson LP, clean, and overdrive channel, in every combination (staight in the amp, throgh pedals, through the buffer) so I'm sure about what I said before. It's an improvement, but is it worth the money???
Since I bought it, I'm going to keep it, but I'm not sure if I'd do it again. Maybe there would be bigger improvement if there was bigger signal loss to start with.

This is not a particularly exciting piece of equipment, but it is one of those things you sort of need to have anyway. Like belts or shoe laces.

This buffer does exactly as advertised. It lowers signal impedance from the guitar, and gives it a slight boost to help drive the signal through pedals and cables. I have 14 pedals on my board - and with this one first in the chain, there is no audible degradation of the signal compared to plugging straight in.

Meant to be plugged in and forgotten about, I would have liked it if there was a status led though - just to let you know that it was powered on and ready for the gig.

It is tiny, simple, performs the way it's supposed to, and then some.

Placed at the beginning of the signal chain, it boosts it up, giving the signal clarity, brightness and volume. (It doesn't in fact alter the volume, just creates the illusion of loudness and makes your signal more immune to those tone suckers further down the chain.)

It looks discreet and unobtrusive. Plug it in and leave it alone. In fact, as this is a unit that doesn't even have an on/off switch, perhaps it is better to stick it underneath the pedalboard, to get it out of the way.

Although it is so tiny - only marginally bigger than a matchbox - that you are not likely to save any real estate.

Perhaps there are bigger and better booster pedals out there. I can't imagine the "better" bit and as for the "bigger", no thanks. I like my Pure Tone just the way it is. Would I recommend it? Hell yeah.

After plenty of research, I decided I'd need a buffer for my pedalboard. With that much cabling and so many effects some of your signal is lost, and not all of the clarity of your playing comes through. This relatively inexpensive and small (I mean really tiny) box at the start or end of your effects chain solves those problems. As a bass player, this is just fantastic, especially in a live situation, where you want to hold down the groove but still hear all your notes clearly. I can't recommend this enough, and it takes up very little real estate on your board.
Only downside is that it takes a DC 9V, but you can't tell if it's working. An LED would help, but it's all about the tone so it's not essential I guess :)

Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Instructions, for use are clearly outlined.
It looks rather unremarkable, there is no led to indicate power (which would be useful).
You just set it as the first input from your guitar/bass in the effects chain and it powers your line signal though all the your other pedals, there is a noticible difference in output to the amp. I use an old ElectroHarmonix Big Muff which has always caused a few crackles and buzzes and weakened the line signal slightly even when the effect is not in use. When using the Pure Tone Buffer, it eliminated that straight away.
Very pleased!