Buffer+ FAQ
Why do you need an input buffer?
Why do you also need an output buffer?
Balanced Guitar Audio: Axess' History and EVH
JENSEN™ Transformers: Axess' History and Ramblings
Why choose a buffer from us?
Mario at/and Axess Electronics was one of the first companies to provide a standalone buffer back in the late 1990s.
Many of our artists such as; Eddie Van Halen, Alex Lifeson, Peter Frampton, Jeff Schroeder, Prince, Brad Paisley, etc. ... either used our BS2™ Buffer/Splitter or a product with a similar circuit in it.
Buffers have been the heart of our products since 1998 and 25+ years later they are still some of the most important product(s) we offer for improving your tone.
Why do you need an input buffer?
To prevent signal loss (i.e. tone suck) due to capacitance loading and impedance mismatches, and changes to a pickup’s resonant frequency and peak. These issues are all caused by varying effect pedals, their patch cables and the long cable run to a back-line amplifier, which are common to every pedalboard.
Why do you also need an output buffer?
Without a doubt, the most important buffer in any guitar rig is the input buffer that the guitar is plugged into. Adding a second buffer, this one as an output line-driver after the last pedal on a pedalboard, to drive the long cable run to a back-line amp, is the icing on the cake for consistently great tone.
Every guitar rig has at least two constants; a guitar and an amplifier. With the guitar plugged into an input buffer and the last pedal on the pedalboard feeding an output line-driver — the two constants are always provided with a resolute load and source, respectively.
The input buffer and the output line-driver create an effects loop that segregates the guitar and amp from all of the variables connected between them. As a result, the only variation in feel and tone will be from the actual effect of the pedals on the pedalboard, and not from a guitar and/or amp related capacitance loading or impedance mismatch issue.
Even with true-bypass pedals or loop switchers, the key to consistent FEEL and TONE demands that BOTH the guitar and amplifier are buffered. This is far from a new concept, in fact, it's been used by at least one of the worlds best pro rig builders since the 1970s.
Balanced Guitar Audio: Axess' History and EVH
2001: After several years of building many custom buffers, I decided to offer a standard off-the-shelf buffer — the BS2™ Buffer/Splitter. Since it already had a transformer isolated output, I thought;
"Why not also wire it to be balanced?"
For some reason I decided not to mention it in the BS2 user manual... Perhaps at the time I didn’t think many guys would make use of it...?
2004: Eddie Van Halen uses the BS2 on his '04 Dave Friedman (Rack Systems Ltd.) built pedalboard for the reunion tour with Sammy Hagar. The long 1/4" TRS balanced cable from the BS2's Isolated Output ran to a balanced receiver and converter (similar to our new IsoPlus™) and fed his backline Peavey 5150II amp.
2006: Another Canadian company (that I almost worked for before joining Mesa/Boogie) released their popular SGI balanced transmitter/receiver.
2014: I designed and developed the Clearlink Send and Receive for Mesa/Boogie.
2023: AXSGTR® Compatt/X™ Unity+™ and IsoPlus™.
2024: AXSGTR® IsoFormer™ with JENSEN™ Transformers Inc.
JENSEN™ Transformers: Axess' History and Ramblings
In 2014, while working on the Clearlink Send and Clearlink Receive, I had my hands full of high-end isolation transformers from Hammond, Jensen, Lundahl, OEP, and two custom OEM manufacturers. Most were purchased with my own money because it was just easier and certainly faster to do it that way... no red tape.
Two years later, the Clearlink Send and Receive were finally released to market. But with very little to no "marketing", my dream of a new industry standard "Mesa SGI", quickly became a pipe dream, lol.
All that work (more than half of which was after hours and on my own dime/time, a labor of love, if you will) wasn't for nothing though. I was able to catalog "My-Audio-Transformer-Findings-Decisions-Measurements" in a vast spreadsheet and matrix of audio files, computer files, folders, sketches and waveforms.
I knew that eventually the situation would present itself for me to be able to use the best of the best, and the best of everything I learned. And that time is now ... early 2024 ... No counting beans, just the absolute best damn audio isolation transformers, spec'd for the most demanding applications, from JENSEN™ Transformers Inc.