On the Drawing Board - The Buffer

Got a couple of projects in the works I'd like to talk about a bit.

First, is the new buffer. This is actually a triple buffer designed to go onto a pedal board and fill all the buffer / driver / splitter needs anyone might normally have. The basic idea is, guitar goes in, there's a separate, isolated output for the tuner. This keeps the tuner off the signal path, some tuners are tone suck disasters, even when used in a branch off the signal path. This fixes that problem. There's a buffered output to the pedals, and a return. Then another buffer to drive the line to the amp.

Here's the jacks:
Guitar input
Tuner Out
Buffered Out to pedalboard.
Return from pedalboard.
Buffered Out to amp.
The stomp switch can be internally selected to either mute for tuning or bypass the pedalboard.

Technologically, this thing is a monster. It runs well on 9VDC, and even better at 18, and is safe anywhere up to 24 Volts. It uses some very serious modern IC technology instead of the usual buffers and antique opamps you see in other pedals. The dedicated Tuner Out uses a typical FET buffer stage since we don't really care what the tuner sounds like, we just want to isolate it from the rest of the signal path. Truth be told, you could run the Tuner Out into an amp or pedal and it wouldn't sound any worse than the other buffers on the market.

The design challenge now is developing this pedal to the point that we retain all the features in a compact format. Yes, this all fits in a standard "MXR" type box. And, I'm trying to keep the price under $100! as low as possible, right now we're looking at $129. There are other pedals with similar features, they are larger and vastly more expensive. Oh, except none of them give you the option of having a mute or bypass switch.