Cornish Buffer

Octafish

Gadget said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Are they really 200 quid? Some people are suckers, surely all it can do is prevent treble loss? If someone wanted something to add a bit more, a clean boost would act as a buffer and add a bit of presence if set a hair above unity and left on all the time... 

Suckers? Who are you calling suckers?

Carlos Santana, Bryan Adams, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Sting, Paul Simon,  Eric Clapton, Mutt Lange, Lou Reed, Jeff Beck, Stewart Copeland, Jimmy Page, Dave Murray, Noel Gallagher, Steve Hackett, Brian May, Matt Bellamy, Mike Rutherford, Tony Iommi, Hank Marvin, Joan Armatrading, Greg Lake, Mark Knopfler, John Wetton, Andy Summers, Rick Parfitt, Freddie Mercury, Roger Waters, Alan Holdsworth, Snowy White, Peter Banks, Cat Stevens…

… or just those Cornish owners on tFB?

Don't think anyone was suggesting that a Cornish Buffer doesn't work or is rubbish. More that it doesn't appear to offer any significant improvement over any other stand alone buffer or buffer in a pedal and £200 silly money to pay for such a buffer. I think aord43's explanation is probably quite likely plus many use Cornish pedals. Besides are all the names you list users of Cornish pedals (many if which have the Cornish buffers inside) or specifically the standalone buffer?

Gadget

Octafish said:

Gadget said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Are they really 200 quid? Some people are suckers, surely all it can do is prevent treble loss? If someone wanted something to add a bit more, a clean boost would act as a buffer and add a bit of presence if set a hair above unity and left on all the time... 

Suckers? Who are you calling suckers?

Carlos Santana, Bryan Adams, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Sting, Paul Simon,  Eric Clapton, Mutt Lange, Lou Reed, Jeff Beck, Stewart Copeland, Jimmy Page, Dave Murray, Noel Gallagher, Steve Hackett, Brian May, Matt Bellamy, Mike Rutherford, Tony Iommi, Hank Marvin, Joan Armatrading, Greg Lake, Mark Knopfler, John Wetton, Andy Summers, Rick Parfitt, Freddie Mercury, Roger Waters, Alan Holdsworth, Snowy White, Peter Banks, Cat Stevens…

… or just those Cornish owners on tFB?

Don't think anyone was suggesting that a Cornish Buffer doesn't work or is rubbish. More that it doesn't appear to offer any significant improvement over any other stand alone buffer or buffer in a pedal and £200 silly money to pay for such a buffer. I think aord43's explanation is probably quite likely plus many use Cornish pedals. Besides are all the names you list users of Cornish pedals (many if which have the Cornish buffers inside) or specifically the standalone buffer?

I didn't say anybody had, but I think the term "suckers" tends to imply that anyone who would pay any more for a Cornish buffer than they would for anyone else's is both gullible and paying more than the buffer is worth.

These big name players (amongst many others, famous and not so) have the choice of pretty much any gear they want, yet have chosen Cornish. He wasn't always a big name. People bought from him because his stuff is good, for a whole variety of reasons. Would they have used his gear just to go 'boutique', or if other manufacturers' gear instilled the same confidence in reliability or tone? I doubt it.

If you want to start discussing value and worth, relative to cost-of-parts, or how cheap a different manufacvturers' product can be bought for, we can go on for ever.... A buyer of a Mooer has overpaid relative to a guy with a soldering iron and a vero board, a Boss buyer has overpaid relative to the Mooer buyer, a Strymon buyer has overpaid relative to the Boss buyer, the Cornish buyer has overpaid relative... well you get the idea.

As for your last point... no, these aren't all necessarily standalone buffer users, but it's built-in to pretty much everything he makes.

english_bob

aord43 said:

I imagine it's a case of "I need a buffer, I can afford to splash out on a decent one so get the big name." 

More like "I need a buffer. I could buy the made-in-China-by-child-slaves-for-a-fiver one and it'll probably sound fine, but I'm going on tour for two straight years so I need one that never makes any noise, ever, and will never break. I'm super rich, so I could spend some of my millions on a buffer that's built to be run over by a truck, where the guy will fly to wherever I am and fix it if I do manage to kill it, and I don't even care what it costs." 

Cornish's reputation is built on *reliability* as much as it is on tone, and part of the cost of his pedals is in their over-engineering.

Octafish

Gadget said:

Octafish said:

Gadget said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Are they really 200 quid? Some people are suckers, surely all it can do is prevent treble loss? If someone wanted something to add a bit more, a clean boost would act as a buffer and add a bit of presence if set a hair above unity and left on all the time... 

Suckers? Who are you calling suckers?

Carlos Santana, Bryan Adams, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Sting, Paul Simon,  Eric Clapton, Mutt Lange, Lou Reed, Jeff Beck, Stewart Copeland, Jimmy Page, Dave Murray, Noel Gallagher, Steve Hackett, Brian May, Matt Bellamy, Mike Rutherford, Tony Iommi, Hank Marvin, Joan Armatrading, Greg Lake, Mark Knopfler, John Wetton, Andy Summers, Rick Parfitt, Freddie Mercury, Roger Waters, Alan Holdsworth, Snowy White, Peter Banks, Cat Stevens…

… or just those Cornish owners on tFB?

Don't think anyone was suggesting that a Cornish Buffer doesn't work or is rubbish. More that it doesn't appear to offer any significant improvement over any other stand alone buffer or buffer in a pedal and £200 silly money to pay for such a buffer. I think aord43's explanation is probably quite likely plus many use Cornish pedals. Besides are all the names you list users of Cornish pedals (many if which have the Cornish buffers inside) or specifically the standalone buffer?

I didn't say anybody had, but I think the term "suckers" tends to imply that anyone who would pay any more for a Cornish buffer than they would for anyone else's is both gullible and paying more than the buffer is worth.

These big name players (amongst many others, famous and not so) have the choice of pretty much any gear they want, yet have chosen Cornish. He wasn't always a big name. People bought from him because his stuff is good, for a whole variety of reasons. Would they have used his gear just to go 'boutique', or if other manufacturers' gear instilled the same confidence in reliability or tone? I doubt it.

If you want to start discussing value and worth, relative to cost-of-parts, or how cheap a different manufacvturers' product can be bought for, we can go on for ever.... A buyer of a Mooer has overpaid relative to a guy with a soldering iron and a vero board, a Boss buyer has overpaid relative to the Mooer buyer, a Strymon buyer has overpaid relative to the Boss buyer, the Cornish buyer has overpaid relative... well you get the idea.

As for your last point... no, these aren't all necessarily standalone buffer users, but it's built-in to pretty much everything he makes.

Errr ok! This discussion (and I assume the reference to paying £200 for a buffer) is specifically about the effectiveness of the Cornish buffer vs other buffers, not any other Cornish products that may or may not contain the buffer.

Gadget

Octafish said:

Errr ok! This discussion (and I assume the reference to paying £200 for a buffer) is specifically about the effectiveness of the Cornish buffer vs other buffers, not any other Cornish products that may or may not contain the buffer.

I am talking about the buffer. Sorry if you think I've strayed into 'off topic' territory by mentioning any other Cornish product that has the buffer in it, but if we're going to be picky, Cornish doesn't actually sell any product called a buffer. All  his 'buffers' are contained in other products, starting at £192.28 for the LD-1 Line Driver.

mal1971

I have ABd with and without a cornish buffer and it makes a big difference.  I briefly switched to the empress buffer but quickly moved back.  I now use my P1 as a buffer as it has an identical buffer to the line driver.

Wazmeister

mal1971 said:

I have ABd with and without a cornish buffer and it makes a big difference.  I briefly switched to the empress buffer but quickly moved back.  I now use my P1 as a buffer as it has an identical buffer to the line driver.

Bang on 

Danny1969

We live in a world where guitarist will happily pay £150 for a box containing an opamp and some clipping diodes, but as I recently got into effects building I'm quite happy about that

Years ago I designed a buffer which went into the guitar, basically built in a tiny box and sealed with resin, you simply connected the wire from the jack socket to the input and it's output to the jack socket, then ground to ground. It was adversized in the old guitarist mag at the back.  The downside is it meant installing a battery under the scratch plate. The up side was you could use as long a lead as you wished with no tone suck and it was much quieter than a normal passive guitar.  Ideally that's where you want your buffer - in the guitar 

english_bob

Danny1969 said:

Ideally that's where you want your buffer - in the guitar 

Doesn't it upset certain vintage fuzzes there?

Danny1969

english_bob said:

Danny1969 said:

Ideally that's where you want your buffer - in the guitar 

Doesn't it upset certain vintage fuzzes there?

Any buffer will as the original fuzzes used the guitars pickup impedance  as part of the circuit. Not an effect I'm fond of though. 
That's give me an idea though, build the buffer on a small PCB attached to a push \ pull tone control to act as true bypass if needed and sell it as a retro fit pot for Strats ... best of both worlds 

clarkefan

Danny1969 said:

english_bob said:

Danny1969 said:

Ideally that's where you want your buffer - in the guitar 

Doesn't it upset certain vintage fuzzes there?

Any buffer will as the original fuzzes used the guitars pickup impedance  as part of the circuit. Not an effect I'm fond of though. 
That's give me an idea though, build the buffer on a small PCB attached to a push \ pull tone control to act as true bypass if needed and sell it as a retro fit pot for Strats ... best of both worlds 

Better yet (cos who wants to mess around with a battery inside their guitar), make the unit in a tiny box that attaches to say the strap with like a 12" lead?

Danny1969

clarkefan said:

Danny1969 said:

english_bob said:

Danny1969 said:

Ideally that's where you want your buffer - in the guitar 

Doesn't it upset certain vintage fuzzes there?

Any buffer will as the original fuzzes used the guitars pickup impedance  as part of the circuit. Not an effect I'm fond of though. 
That's give me an idea though, build the buffer on a small PCB attached to a push \ pull tone control to act as true bypass if needed and sell it as a retro fit pot for Strats ... best of both worlds 

Better yet (cos who wants to mess around with a battery inside their guitar), make the unit in a tiny box that attaches to say the strap with like a 12" lead?

Yep that's a good idea, captive 12" jack and then small box containing buffer, battery and female socket for your normal guitar cable, expect a prototype next week 

timhulio

Buffer in a jack, with phantom power. Always thought this was an interesting idea:
http://www.till.com/articles/PreampCable

I sell lots of Klon buffers in tiny standalone enclosures. Next batch I'll add a switch to choose between C/K buffers if there's demand. The AMZ buffer is also good. As is the one in the Korg DT10 tuner. If you've one of those lying around, give it a try and you might be pleasantly surprised. 

Corvus

^ my Tillman with cap choices on rotary switch pot and bias replaceds by a pot, acts as level, sort of. Goes from a neutral setting through trebly, then mids & lower mids fattening -

http://alleykat.co.uk/images/stuff/mods/spice_weasel_f2.jpg