Buffering your Strat’s pickups with an onboard circuit provides several sonic dividends.
Photo 1
A client recently asked me to install an onboard buffer in his Fender Strat, which he affectionately calls “the Zombie Caster” because of its remarkably hideous finish (Photo 1). By the way, this resulted from a relic job gone awry. My friends, please don’t try to relic your guitar with a blowtorch!
Despite its looks, the guitar actually sounds pretty good. However, its owner wanted to be able to drive long cable runs in the studio without signal degradation, and perhaps more importantly, he wanted to retain all the Strat’s highs and clarity as he backed down its volume control. As we’ll see in a moment, an onboard buffer circuit lets him accomplish both goals.
Photo 2. Photo courtesy of Creation Audio Labs.
Several companies—including CAE Sound, Bartolini, and Wald Electronics—make onboard buffer kits. Here in Nashville, a buffer called the Redeemer (Photo 2) is popular with studio and touring guitarists. After producer Michael Wagener at WireWorld Studios introduced me to the device, I was impressed enough to recommend it to my customers who want the benefits of a buffered circuit.
While it’s not the only game in town, the Redeemer offers superb specs and costs less than $50 direct from Creation Audio Labs, who manufacture the system. It even has a “dead battery” mode that lets you finish the set even if the circuit’s 9V battery is on the ropes.
Why an onboard buffer? Passive magnetic pickups generate a high-impedance signal. This signal quickly degrades as it travels out from your guitar through a cable—even expensive, high-end cables. Stompboxes can further load the signal and degrade the sound, and a high-impedance signal is susceptible to unwanted noise from lights and other electronic gear as it makes its way to the amp. Even if you plug directly into an amp with a single cable, a guitar’s high-impedance output is still subject to a significant loss of sonic detail. A buffered signal effectively eliminates these problems.
A unity-gain buffer circuit simply converts the high-impedance signal into a low-impedance signal—like that of a typical microphone. With a low-impedance signal, you can play through a 100-foot cable without losing highs, turn your volume knob down without the sound getting muddy, and even plug directly into a mixing console. Perhaps most importantly, you get to hear a sparkle from your pickups that had been previously masked. Because we’re used to the sound of a high-impedance signal, we accept it as normal, but once you buffer your pickups, you’ll be amazed at the presence and detail they’re capable of producing.
Many manufacturers sell buffer pedals, but to reach such a pedal, the signal has to travel through a cable and thus suffer the negative effects of cable capacitance before it’s buffered. Here’s the advantage of an onboard system: The pickups’ output is converted to a low-impedance signal before it leaves the guitar.
Photo 3
Jerry Garcia had an onboard preamp buffer in “Tiger”—his iconic custom Doug Irwin guitar. Fingerstyle wizard Tuck Andress is another player known to favor an onboard buffer, and Warren Haynes’ signature Gibson Les Paul comes with a factory-installed CAE Sound CB2 onboard buffer circuit.
Not all guitarists like the extended clarity provided by a buffered low-impedance signal, but having at least one guitar in your arsenal with an onboard unity-gain buffer gives you sonic options you wouldn’t otherwise have.
Although I’m using the Redeemer in this project, the instillation process will be similar for the onboard buffer systems I mentioned earlier. Incidentally, if you Google “onboard guitar buffer,” you’ll also find several DIY kits and schematics—another option if you’re so inclined.
Tools and materials. To install an onboard buffer, you’ll need a few basic tools and supplies: a 30-40 watt soldering iron with a small tip, a roll of .032" diameter 60/40 rosin core solder, 5" locking hemostats (preferably with rubber-coated handles), a 9V battery, a medium tip Phillips screwdriver, and a 1/2" nut driver.
I prefer a 40-watt soldering iron because it’s hot enough that you don’t have to hold the tip against the wire or lug very long. Anything lower than 30 watts just takes too long to heat up the components.
Wiring overview. In terms of wiring, the Redeemer is typical of most onboard buffers. There’s the circuit itself, housed in a tiny protective case, and there are seven wires sprouting from the case. Two wires (red and black) are pre-attached to a snap-on battery connector. Three wires (orange, green, and yellow) are already soldered to the included stereo jack. The remaining two wires replace the guitar’s original output and ground wires.
Installation is simple for most solidbodies, although there’s an extra step involved with a Strat, simply because of where its jack is physically located. Let’s take a closer look.
Strat installation. After removing the strings, the first step is to unscrew the jack plate (Photo 3) and pickguard. Once you can access the output jack, remove it from the jack plate using the 1/2" nut driver, and put the jack plate aside for a moment.
Photo 4 (left) and Photo 5 (right)
Next, unsolder two wires—output and ground—from the guitar’s volume pot. These two wires connect the original output jack to the volume pot, so they’re easy to identify. The primary lead (output) should be attached to the center (output) lug on the volume pot (Photo 4), and the ground is typically soldered to the back of the volume pot (Photo 5).
Once you’ve unsoldered these wires from the volume pot, stash the stock mono output jack with its wires in your spare parts bin—you won’t be using it anymore on this guitar.
Photo 6
The Redeemer has two unsoldered wires: brown and blue. Solder the brown wire to the volume pot’s center lug, and the blue wire to the back of the volume pot, as in Photo 6.
Like most onboard buffers, the Redeemer uses a stereo (tip, ring, sleeve) output jack. The buffered signal is mono and you still use a mono guitar cable, but a stereo jack turns off the battery when you unplug the cable. Three wires (orange, green, and yellow) connect the Redeemer circuit to the stereo output jack. The orange wire is the output, which connects to the tip. The yellow wire (ring) turns the battery on and off. The green wire (sleeve) is the ground.
Photo 7
Because a Strat has separate cavities for the electronics and output jack, you have to unsolder the Redeemer’s stereo jack, feed the three wires through the electronics cavity into the jack cavity, and resolder those wires to the jack. But before you unsolder anything, mark the output jack with corresponding colors so you’ll know where to reconnect the wires (Photo 7). Once you’ve reconnected these wires, install the jack into the jack plate and mount it on the body.
Photo 8
The techs at Creation Audio Labs recommend you wrap the battery in foam—there’s some inside the packaging—to prevent the battery from banging around inside the control cavity (Photo 8).
And that’s it! Carefully put everything into the control cavity, re-install the pickguard, restring, and you’ll be good to go.
It’s even easier to install a Redeemer system in a Tele- or Les Paul-style guitar because you don’t need to unsolder and resolder the buffer’s stereo jack. On a Tele, unscrew the stock jack and then unsolder the output and ground wires, replacing them with the brown (output) and blue (ground) Redeemer wires. Mount the Redeemer’s jack, carefully place everything inside the cavity, and close up the control plate.
Here’s an easy way to install a Redeemer in a Les Paul, SG, or similar solidbody: Simply snip the stock output and ground wires an inch or so from the original output jack, and then remove it. After sliding some heat-shrink tubing on the Redeemer’s brown and blue wires, solder them to the guitar’s original output and ground wires, respectively. Slide the tubing over your solder joints, apply enough heat to shrink the tubing around each splice, install the new output jack on your guitar, tuck the buffer and wiring into the control cavity, button everything up, and get ready to rock.
The ultimate hand-wired Tube Screamer from Ibanez is up for grabs! Enter the I Love Pedals giveaway today, and come back daily for extra entries!
Ibanez TS808HWv2 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro Pedal
Ibanez has taken the iconic Tube Screamer and pushed it further by re-envisioning their flagship, hand-wired model. The company evaluated every component while aiming to stay true to the pedal’s transparent and mid-range-focused tone. After numerous prototypes, it was concluded the JRC NJM4558 op-amp was essential to achieve the Tube Screamer’s legendary sound. At the same time, this new design is capable of a wider range of sounds thanks to the addition of high-end components such as MOGAMI OFC cables, which further enhance the benefits of a hand-wired pedal. Additionally, a boost has been added to the final stage of the circuit, increasing the maximum output level by +6dB. Its look has also been revamped, giving it a high-end appearance while retaining the traditional shape.
Building upon the foundation of the beloved Core Collection H-535, this versatile instrument is designed to serve as a masterpiece in tone.
The new model features striking aesthetic updates and refined tonal enhancements. Crafted at the iconic 225 Parsons Street factory, home to other world-famous models like the H-150, H-157, and H-575 - the H-555 continues to exemplify the very best of American craftsmanship.
The Core Collection H-555 features a set of Custom Shop 225 Hot Classic Humbuckers, meticulously wound in-house with carefully selected components, and voiced to deliver added punch and richness while preserving exceptional dynamics and touch sensitivity. Seamlessly complementing the H-555’s semi-hollow construction, they blend warmth and woodiness with refined, articulate clarity.
The Core Collection H-555’s aesthetic has been elevated with multi-ply binding on the body, headstock, and pickguard. Its neck, sculpted in a classic ’50s profile, delivers effortless comfort and is adorned with elegant block inlays, seamlessly blending style with playability. Gold hardware complements the aesthetic, exuding elegance while presenting the H-555 as a truly premium and versatile instrument for the discerning player.
Available in Ebony and Trans Cherry, each Core Collection H-555 is beautifully finished with a nitrocellulose vintage gloss that features a subtle shine and gracefully ages over time. An Artisan Aged option is also available for those seeking an authentically well-loved look and feel, achieved through a meticulous, entirely hand-finished aging process. The new Core Collection continues Heritage’s tradition of world-class craftsmanship, offering a true masterpiece in tone and design for discerning players. Each guitar is shipped in a premium Heritage Custom Shop hard case.
Key Features
- Finest Tonewoods: Laminated highly figured Curly Maple (Top & Back) with solid Curly Maple sides
- Heritage Custom Shop 225 Hot Classic Humbuckers: Designed and wound in-house
- Headstock: Multi-ply bound headstock, featuring a Kite inlay, 3×3 tuners laser-etched with Heritage graphics
- Neck Profile: Comfortable ’50s C-shape for a vintage feel
- Bridge: Tune-O-Matic with aluminum stopbar tailpiece for enhanced sustain
- Made in the USA: Crafted at 225 Parsons Street
For more information, please visit heritageguitars.com.
Ariel Posen and the Heritage Custom Shop Core Collection H-555 - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.The high priest of prog-metal guitar, John Petrucci, is still finding new territory on his instrument.
The legendary progressive-metal guitarist details the darkness—and the renewed camaraderie—that led to his band Dream Theater’s 16th full-length record, Parasomnia.
Some very important events happened in John Petrucci’s life in 2024. He celebrated an enormous milestone with his bandmates in prog-metal behemoth Dream Theater: They’ve been a band for 40 years. Many bands aren’t destined to last a single decade, let alone four. It’s a titanic personal and artistic achievement. And yet, that anniversary paled in significance next to another major development: The band wrote and created a new full-length record with founding drummer Mike Portnoy, who had been absent from Dream Theater since 2010.
The news of Portnoy’s reunion with Dream Theater rocked the metal world. Over the years, whiffs of acrimony and hurt feelings suggested Portnoy’s return to the band might be a pipe dream. But in October 2023, the band revealed that they had all independently reconciled with Portnoy, a process that culminated backstage at New York’s Beacon Theater in 2022. Portnoy attended Dream Theater’s show at the venue and met up with the band afterward. It was the first time he’d seen vocalist James Labrie in 10 years. Within seconds, 13 years melted away in the warmth of camaraderie.
“The gear was all set up and we sat there and started playing. It was magic. It was like we never missed a beat.”
A few months after the announcement of Portnoy’s return, he and bandmates Labrie, Petrucci, bassist John Myung, and keyboardist Jordan Rudess convened at the recently renovated Dream Theater HQ, their longtime creative hideout and recording studio in Long Island, to begin to create new music. Petrucci, speaking over the phone from Brazil during Dream Theater’s December 2024 tour, remembers that period fondly. “From the moment that we all stepped in the studio in February, the gear was all set up and we sat there and started playing,” he says. “It was magic. It was like we never missed a beat.”
After shaking off the cobwebs, the first song they wrote together was “Night Terror”—“if that gives you any indication of the energy and vibe and mood that we were in,” quips Petrucci. It’s heavy, riffy, aggressive, and progressive, a capsule of 13 years in just shy of 10 minutes. “We let that all out in the first couple of weeks of just being together,” Petrucci continues. “It was wonderful and the creative juices just flowed the way they always did. There was great brotherly chemistry between all of us.”
Last year, Dream Theater celebrated their ruby anniversary as a band. Four decades on, they’re still exploring the dark corners of what happens when we sleep.
The band continued to create together as they’d always done. They had some concrete ideas: They wanted to make a concept album, and it had to be heavy and riff-centric. Petrucci, who produced the record, was intrigued by parasomnia, a medical concept which refers broadly to any unusual sleep pattern, like sleepwalking, nightmares, insomnia, sleep paralysis, and more. He hadn’t experienced those nocturnal issues (the worst he deals with is snoring), but he began deep research into them. A path had opened up. “That creative part of me just wakes up, and then that turns into it also being musically creative, lyrically creative, visually creative,” says Petrucci.
This is how Parasomnia, Dream Theater’s 16th studio record, came to exist. Engineered and mixed by Andy Sneap, the concept album comprises a collection of suites and vignettes that center on various sleep disturbances, opening with “In the Arms of Morpheus,” a slowly building soundscape that sets the scene for all that follows. It soundtracks someone getting ready for bed and falling asleep, and just as they’re drifting into a dreamstate, a musical theme starts to creep in. It heightens and gets weird before exploding into the full chaos that gives way to “Night Terror,” the nine-minute-plus epic. Petrucci’s playing on this song alone is staggering: There’s the classic, open-string beginner riff, then vintage, hyper, ’80s-metal single-note melody work, then a truly brain-melting, lightning-fast solo that leaves your jaw open.
True to Dream Theater lineage, there are pieces of the record that feel ready to soundtrack alien drag races on Mars next to swanky sections of jazzy, hard-rocking funk-blues, like on “A Broken Man.” Petrucci slips in and out of modes and scales like a chameleon changing its colors, each sounding as lived-in and natural as the last. His fingers just seem to know where to go. His only reprieve is the funereal interlude “Are We Dreaming?” which prepares us for the power ballad “Bend the Clock” and the devastating, scorched earth closer: “The Shadow Man Incident.”
Parasomnia is Dream Theater’s 16th studio record, and their first since reuniting with founding drummer Mike Portnoy.
“It’s wacky,” says Petrucci about the phenomena behind that song’s title. If you’re not familiar, “the shadow man” is a colloquial name given to a figure that appears during some episodes of sleep paralysis. People around the world have reported a similar apparition visiting them while they’re experiencing sleep paralysis—but there’s no scientific consensus for what causes the similar visions.
“There’s something in the human brain that is unaccounted for or whatever that must be producing that, that repeated experience,” continues Petrucci. “You start doing all this research and going down rabbit holes online. You’re like, ‘Wow, for centuries, in every culture and civilization, the same thing has been happening. What is this?’ It definitely explores the depths of the human mind, but it reminds me of any sort of topic that holds your interest in a weird way, like UFOs. A song like ‘The Shadow Man Incident’ is a long, epic piece of music that gives you the backdrop and license to go into storytelling more.”
The goal was to take that storytelling beyond the normal confines of an LP—or, at least, what we think of as an LP in the streaming age. “What we decided to do was to make the album kind of like a Dark Side of the Moon listening experience,” explains Petrucci. “Our hope is that people will get this record, turn down the lights, get together with some friends for a drink or whatever you do, and just listen to the whole thing like you’re watching a movie. It’s supposed to be an experience.”Petrucci even studied the music of composers like John Williams to get a bead on how to create epic, cinematic feelings in music. He displayed his research to his bandmates in the form of creative direction for certain songs, likening the process to scoring a film. “The album or song topic presents certain imagery, and you want the music to match that imagery, so you have those tools in your toolbox, like, ‘Okay, I know what kind of chord movement or chordal sounds or modal things I can do that are going to make that,’ and it’s going to create that flavor as opposed to just going in and writing in the typical way that you would if you didn’t have that knowledge ahead of time.”
“With Mike rejoining the band, I wanted to lean into the nostalgic aspect in some of the recording process.”
A part of that soundscaping is what Petrucci describes as “ear candy”: spoken-word passages, or sound effects like clocks ticking and alarms ringing. These elements help build a more profound, immersive listen, but they only work if the songs are good, says Petrucci. “You can have all these sound connections and overdubs and voices, but if the songs suck, it’s not going to mean anything. No one’s going to want to listen to it.”
Knowing that the record would deal with all things eerie and creepy, Petrucci wanted to explore what types of tonalities could unsettle the listening experience. “For ‘Night Terror,’ I use the super Phrygian mode, which is like a mode of the Hungarian minor which has a very unresolved sound that creates a lot of tension,” he says. He also experimented with constructs like the Prometheus and Tristan chords. “That gives you that dreamy weird thing you hear in ‘In the Arms of Morpheus.’ That first 8-string chord is this crazy chord of all tritones that just makes it sound like you’re in a nightmare right away.”
Petrucci, pictured here shredding in November 1994, broke out plenty of classic gear for the recording of Parasomnia to mark the reunion with Portnoy.
Photo by Frank White
Petrucci called on a range of tools old and new to bring Parasomnia to life. “With Mike rejoining the band, I wanted to lean into the nostalgic aspect in some of the recording process,” he explains. He used his 6-, 7-, and 8-string Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty guitars, in a spread of different tunings. He used his Mesa/Boogie JP-2C on everything except the record’s solos. For those, he busted out his old Mesas—a Mark III, IV, and IIC+ among them—for a shootout and wound up choosing the IIC+ that he used on old Dream Theater records (plus his own solo release, Suspended Animation). A Roland Jazz Chorus even clocked in for some cleans—a page Petrucci took from James Hetfield’s book.
The nostalgia didn’t end there. The band reached out to recording engineer Doug Oberkircher, who engineered all of the band’s records from 1992’s Images and Words through 2003’s Train of Thought, to purchase the Neve preamp used on those albums. All the guitars on Parasomnia were recorded through that preamp.
In many ways, a production this grand and intricate is familiar territory for the band. Petrucci and Dream Theater obviously have a penchant for art that is narrative, theatrical, and grand. But Parasomnia is specially weighted with circumstance and time.John Petrucci's Gear
Petrucci and Dream Theater have managed an incredible feat: They’re just as excited about their music now as they were when they were teenagers.
Photo by Ekaterina Gorbacheva
Guitars
- Various Ernie Ball Music Man The Majesty 6-, 7-, and 8-string guitars with DiMarzio Dreamcatcher and Rainmaker pickups
Amps
- Mesa/Boogie JP-2C (rhythm parts)
- Vintage Mesa/Boogie Mark II C+ Simul-Class (lead parts)
- Roland JC-120 (clean parts)
- Mesa/Boogie 4x12 Rectifier Traditional Straight cabinet
Effects
- MXR Bass Compressor
- Boss CE-2W
- Boss DC-2W
- TC Electronic Dreamscape
- TC Electronic TC 2290
- TC Electronic Corona Chorus+
- MXR Stereo Chorus
- Keeley Blues Disorder
- Dunlop JP95 John Petrucci Signature Cry Baby Wah
- MXR Custom Audio Electronics MC403 Power System
Recording
- Neve 1093 Pre/EQ
- API 3124MV
- Solid State Logic PURE DRIVE OCTO
- sE Electronics VR2 + Mojave Audio MA-D (rhythm parts)
- sE Electronics SE4400a + Royer Labs R-121 (lead parts)
- Royer Labs R-121 in stereo (clean parts)
- sE Electronics RNR1 (mid room)
- sE Electronics RNT in OMNI (far room)
- Waves H-Delay Analog Delay Plugin
- Soundtoys EchoBoy
- Soundtoys MicroShift
- Soundtoys Crystallizer
- D16 Group Audio Software Repeater
- Valhalla DSP VintageVerb Plugin
- Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom Reverb Plugin
- Radial ProRMP
- Radial J48
- EBow
Strings & Picks
- John Petrucci signature Dunlops
- Ernie Ball .10 gauge electric sets
“John Myung and I met when we were in middle school, so we were like 12, and I remember everything about us playing together, going over to each other’s houses after school and playing every Iron Maiden song there ever was, going to Berklee and meeting Mike when we were 18, forming the band,” says Petrucci. “Here we are, it’s 40 years later. How the hell does that happen? But the great thing is to still be playing with my brothers and my buddies, and still making music together that we’re just as excited about as we were when we were 18. It’s all we ever wanted to do.”
All of this history isn’t just window dressing. It comes out in Petrucci’s playing, too: It’s all one, long story. “By the time I was 16 or 17, I had a handle on the kind of style of player I wanted to be, and those original elements are still there and will always be there,” says Petrucci. “But now, 40 years later, there’s still new things coming in. Even on the new album, there’s things I never did before. We’re playing these shows and I’m trying to master this stuff live in front of an audience and see if I can pull it off under pressure. The challenge of it is just as much as it was when I was a teenager. I love it.
“It’s a continuing experiment,” Petrucci continues. “As you develop new techniques and go down new roads of playing, all of a sudden you realize you abandoned some older techniques, then you go back and rediscover those things, and through the process of rediscovering the old things you used to do, all of a sudden you could do some stuff that you never were able to do before. It’s like something that’s living. It’s a living experiment of guitar playing. It’s just forever inspiring.”
YouTube It
Last year marked Dream Theater’s 40th anniversary as a band, and the official Dream Theater fan club caught up with the group before their gig in Oslo to see how they brought the milestone tour to life.
Watch the official video documenting the sold-out event at House of Blues in Anaheim. Join Paul Reed Smith and special guests as they toast to quality and excellence in guitar craftsmanship.
PRS Guitars today released the official video documenting the full night of performances at their 40th Anniversary celebration, held January 24th in conjunction with the 2025 NAMM (The National Association of Music Merchants) Show. The sold-out, private event took place at House of Blues in Anaheim, California and featured performances by PRS artists Randy Bowland, Curt Chambers, David Grissom, Jon Jourdan, Howard Leese, Mark Lettieri Group, Herman Li, John Mayer, Orianthi, Tim Pierce, Noah Robertson, Shantaia, Philip Sayce, and Dany Villarreal, along with Paul Reed Smith and his Eightlock band.
“What a night! Big thanks to everyone who came out to support us: retailers, distributors, vendors, content creators, industry friends, and especially the artists. I loved every second. We are so pleased to share the whole night now on this video,” said Paul Reed Smith, Founder & Managing General Partner of PRS Guitars. “I couldn’t be more proud to still be here 40 years later.”
With nearly 1,400 of the who’s who in the musical instrument industry in attendance, the night ended with a thoughtful toast from PRS Signature Artist John Mayer, who reflected on 40 years of PRS Guitars and the quality that sets the brand apart. “The guitars are great. You can’t last 40 years if the guitars aren’t great,” said Mayer. “Many of you started hearing about PRS the same way I did, which is you would talk about PRS and someone would say ‘They’re too nice.’ What’s too nice for a guitar? What, you want that special vibe that only tuning every song can give you on stage? You want that grit just like your heroes … bad intonation? The product is incredible.”