Is this buffering?

[DaveTV]

I've just finished building a Tremulus Lune--fantastic pedal by the way--and I've been testing out all the different controls.

When I turn down the depth knob so that the tremolo effect is completely off, I've discovered that the pedal seems to improve the tone of my guitar. What I mean by this is that the tone seems more balanced and the pickups more responsive.

I understand that with this setting my guitar's signal is passing straight through the TL072, with the LFO stage bypassed.

What's happening here? Is this how buffering works? Is this related to the TL072's high input impedence? Would it be beneficial to build a simple TL072 circuit like this to improve my guitar's tone? And if so, how would this effect the input at the guitar amp?

All/any info is much appreciated.

[Andreas]

I don't know the Tremulus Lune, so I can't really comment. But in general, the effect you describe might well be caused by a buffer. If you're using the Tremulus as the only stomp box before your amp, it's a bit strange, though, at least as long as the cable to the Tremulus isn't significantly shorter (or better) than the one you'd use without the stomp box. It's strange because one should suppose your amp has a very high input impedance as well, so there should be no difference. If either your amp as a very poor input with low impedance or you run some other effect with low input impedance between the Tremulus and your amp, the Tremulus can indeed be a big improvement. In that case, building a simple buffer-only box would IMHO make a lot of sense.

[jrc4558]

What I have found out with time is that the Lune actually cuts quite a lot of high frequencies. You may sinply "like" the way your guitar sounds with no effect on, but there's no buffering in this pedal. At least there's no that kind of buffering that would protect your guitar signal from the inner capacitance of the long patchcord and such.