Mythos Pedals Mythos Buffer

The Mythos Buffer is a compact buffer pedal from Mythos Pedals. A buffer sits in your signal chain and converts the guitar's high-impedance output into a low-impedance signal that can travel through long cables and many true-bypass pedals without the treble loss and dulling that otherwise creeps in¹. The Mythos Buffer does this with a 1M ohm input impedance and a 1k ohm output impedance, in a mini enclosure sized to fit anywhere on a pedalboard².

The circuit itself has a specific lineage: Mythos Pedals took the buffer straight out of their Mjolnir overdrive and put it in its own box².

What the Mythos Buffer does

As a signal chain grows, with more stompboxes and patch cables, players often notice a loss of treble and overall tone; a buffer is the standard fix, pushing the signal along the chain and preventing that loss¹³. Mythos Pedals describes the result in terms of clarity: at 9 volts the buffer gives "a nice amount of clarity and sparkle for large boards/cable runs," and at 18 volts it "increases the clarity and brightness without being thin or brittle"².

The maker's own framing of the two voltage settings:

Because it is a small box with no controls to speak of, the practical decisions are where to place it and how to power it, not how to dial it in².

A buffer taken from the Mjolnir

The circuit's family tree matters to some players. Mythos Pedals calls it a "mini k-style op amp buffer"², which places it in the lineage of the buffer circuit associated with the Klon Centaur. Other makers have built buffers on the same idea: Jed's Pedds' K Buffer kit "compares to the buffer part of a Klon"⁴, and the FruitFX Blueberry Buffer is modeled after the input buffer circuit of the Klon Centaur⁵. The Mythos Buffer's distinction is that its version of that circuit comes from the Mjolnir, Mythos Pedals' own overdrive, rather than being a standalone clone².

Impedance and power

The two impedance figures are the working specification of any buffer. The 1M ohm input impedance is a common target: the Suhr Buffer is also specified at 1M ohm input impedance⁶⁷⁸, as are the Xotic Super Clean Buffer⁸ and Saturnworks' standard IC buffer⁶⁷⁸. The 1k ohm output impedance is what lets the Mythos Buffer drive the rest of the chain; Saturnworks quotes under 100 ohms for its IC buffer and Suhr quotes 150 ohms for theirs, so the Mythos sits a little higher than those two, though all are far below the impedance of a passive guitar output⁹¹⁰.

Power is flexible. The buffer runs on 9 to 18 volts with a current draw of approximately 10 mA². That 9 to 18V range is shared by other buffers such as the Suhr Buffer, whose manual specifies a 9 to 18V DC center negative supply⁶, and the Revival Engineering Glory Buffer, which operates from 9 to 18V for additional clean headroom¹¹. The higher voltage is what buys the extra clarity and brightness Mythos Pedals describes at 18V².

Where it fits on a board

The use case is the same one most buffer makers describe: long cable runs and big pedalboards. JHS notes that signal loss from a long cable run or from too many true-bypass pedals is exactly what a buffer placed early in the chain addresses³, and the Glory Buffer is aimed at runs over 20 feet from a board or guitar to an amp¹¹. The Mythos Buffer's mini enclosure is the maker's answer to placement: small enough to tuck in wherever the chain needs it, first in line or at the far end².

Questions