Tone Loss with ANY effects??

if you are really experiencing this, a buffer could def help. on a hunch, I recently added an MXR microamp to the front (first position) of my pedal board to do exactly this. I usually set the gain to unity (= 0dB or 1). clicking the microamp in and out (on/off) definitely has a tonal effect. there is noticeable improvement to the high end and overall clarity with the microamp on. give it a shot.

Hi guys, I'm wondering if it's normal to have a noticeable loss in tone with you placing any one, single effect between your guitar and your amp.

I use a Gibson Les Paul Studio or a Fender Custom Shop strat into a Genz Benz Black Pearl. I use Fulltone cables. I LOVE the "direct" sound into the amp. As soon as I put anything in front though, I can tell a treble loss. Now maybe it's just "in my head," but this is after numerous before/after tests, sitting and standing at various places in and around my amp in the studio. I've tried running Fulltone cables of 15' lengths and 10' lengths - same result every single time.

Here are my pedals: Fulltone Clyde, Korg Pitchblack tuner, Way Huge Aqua-Puss, Fulltone OCD. All are true-bypass, so this is weirdness. Also, the loss occurs if I plug in any ONE pedal; it's actually not noticeably worse the more pedals I patch in, but upon patching in just ONE pedal I'm hearing a drop in either the high or mid range.

Chris

It's because your pedals are true bypass :) If you even use a 10 foot cord on each side of your effect, you have a 20 foot cable run, which is long enough to cause some treble bleed. Here's an excerpt from an article ( http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/Gibson%20Tone%20Tips_%20True%20Bypass/ ) that explains what's happening:
Any guitar cord of 20 feet or more imposes a load on your signal that depletes the high end in particular, but is generally heard to be dulling down the overall tone slightly. Two of those can really sap your highs, then run that signal through 20 or more input and output jacks, 20 switch terminals and the contacts between them, and several inches of wiring within each unit to make the true bypass connections, and that's a lot of tone sucking. If you own even a handful of true bypass pedals yourself, try it out: connect together as many as you can find (switched off), use a long guitar cord on either side, and check your tone. Now unplug at the amp, plug straight in with just one cord, and listen again. Hear the difference? In this scenario, the wonderful true bypass itself is depleting your tone.

yep, the whole "true bypass" story is finally getting a critical examination.

Never assume that expensive cable = best sounding or most "transparent." there are many trade-offs that go into designing a cable -- shielding, capacitance, mechanical flexibility, durability are some of those parameters. these are often balanced against each other to achieve that so-called "best" cable (in someone's opinion). no one "piece-o-wire" has it all. if your guitar has active or low impedance (v. usual high Z) pups, then the electrical characteristics of the cable (and some effects) will affect the guitar signal less than they would for the high Z pickup system. by adding a preamp (buffer) close to your guitar, you are essentially changing it from passive to active.