Empress Effects Buffer+ Analog I/O Interface Guitar Pedal With Switchable Boost

I'm very happy with this pedal because it does so much for my pedal board. I was using a JHS buffer/splitter at the input, but that is a single buffer. With this 1 pedal I was able to add 2 buffers - one at the guitar input and the other to amp output. I was also using one the JHS's output to a tuner, and this one does too. I was also using a patch bay on my board for easy connections for guitar and amp. I used this as a direct replacement for the patch bay eliminating the old patch bay and 2 cables which I considered as a convenience, not a necessity. I'm currently running a TCE Sentry noise gate and I've always been pleased with it so I wanted to keep it on my board. To my surprise, the noise filter on the Buffer+ actually improved the way my noise gate works. The Buffer+ seems to remove some noise before going into the Sentry making the Sentry work even better. There was zero noise while idle, no hiss or buzz and the gate seemed to work more effectively. The boost I don't really use since I've got boost on my Boogie Mark V. I would have much preferred a volume knob since that works better for my situation, but I understand others will find the boost very useful.

If you have a pedalboard this is a MUST HAVE! It greatly improves tone. I was surprised by the difference in how flat my tone output had become with the collection of pedals ( 8 ) I use. Now my tone output to the amp is brighter and well rounded while retaining the warmness. I use it in front of my pedal chain.

Oh man... This pedal is a must, at least if you've got more than a couple pedals. I run a 24" Pedaltrain board with 10 to 12 pedals and didn't think I needed one of these because 4 of the pedals had built-in buffers. I heard somewhere that built-in buffers weren't of the same "caliber" as a dedicated pedal, so I ordered this Buffer+ to see if it'd make a difference. OH BOY, what a difference. It was quickly apparent to me that I've been missing out; like before the Empress I had a pedal in my signal chain that was merely a jar of peanut butter! Ha! Anyway, it's nice to move my tuner out of my signal chain as well with the tuner out jack, and the +3/-3 switch makes it easy to back and forth between my single-coils and Filtertrons. I haven't had the need to use the boost function yet (I'm the only guitar in a 3-piece band), but I do use the mute function, especially now that I've taken the Boss TU2 out of the path. Also, the little black knob on the side is very useful for turning down the buffer effect a little. The signal was a little strong at first, but I remembered that little black knob, pulled it back a couple degrees, and I was good to go. I highly recommend this pedal--it makes every other pedal on your board better. Also, do like I did and just get a new one--the price difference between new and used (if you can even find one) is so small, and besides, you'll have this pedal forever (trust me) and forever pedals are always worth starting from new.

Good product for the money