Does a 10k transformer "undo" signal buffer?

[charmonder]

I've noticed my fuzz face type pedal doesn't work the same if I have another pedal before it. Namely the difference is the guitar tone knob used to change the fuzziness but now it decreases highs(as you'd expect any op amp distortion pedal to do I guess).  I was looking through Tim escobedo's circuit snippets, on the Bronx cheer it says the transformer is optional if not preceded by any signal buffers...



Would this also work for my fuzz face?

[wavley]

It doesn't undo the buffer, it presents a load that looks more like a guitar pickup.  I'm very fond of the one I put in my fuzz face because I didn't want it to be first in my chain.

I'm not going to bother explaining why it works because this article does it so very well. http://www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm

[R.G.]

The transformer is not being used as a transformer. It's being used as an inductor. Guitar pickups have a high inductance, between 1/2 and 4 *henries*. This is part of what gives them their unique tone. After a buffer, the inductive nature of the pickup is hidden, for good reasons.

There are some pedals which only play as expected with the inductive nature of pickups; these are primarily the fuzz face or its many clones and adaptations. The use of a big inductor to reinsert some of character of a pickup is a way of faking it.

The transformer-used-as-inductor doesn't undo the buffer as much as inserting some fake pickup-ness after the buffer.

[charmonder]

ah ok, so it sortof restores that kind of sound again, but I really shouldnt think of it as some magical ghost item that can see through buffers