effects loop MV boxes - a few questions

[drew_half_empty]

Today I hooked up my friend's EB volume pedal through the effects loop of my Deville to act as a master volume and it sounded great, way better than the dirty channel--the last round of mods made the dirty channel pretty alright, but this is just... better, way more organic, makes me wanna run out and buy handfulls of tubes to try out.

Anyhoosier, I'm thinking I'm gonna have my tech build me a little MV box like what pops up on Ebay for this thing, but I had a couple questions

First - do people usually do the 50's mod like for guitars on these things? I assume it would be a good idea since the point of it is to be run less than wide open and you wanna retain high end yadda yadda yadda, but I'm not sure if it has the same effect at this point?

Also, there's another guitarist in my band, so having some sort of lead boost is really important. I have an array of pedals I can use for a boost, but it's been so long since I've had a MV amp I can't remember if it's possible to get a volume boost if your preamp knob is already wound up and the MV is cutting it down. So I guess the question is does having a MV pretty much set your volume where it's at and boosts only provide more gain, or can you still get a volume boost assuming you're not using EMG's or something?

I suppose as an alternative I could just run a volume pedal in the loop, but I don't like the idea of that many cords everywhere--something that sits on top of my amp and runs off patch cables would be highly preferred

thanks

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: effects loop MV boxes - a few questions

The 50s mod won't make any difference . . . you're dealing with different levels of signal (much higher, so less effected by noise) between the pre and power amp than you are between the guitar and preamp. The capacitance that you're so worried about with low impedance pickups isn't really an issue at the pre->power amp level.

If you want a volume boost in the gig you would need to turn the knob of the MV box up. A saturated preamp can't produce much more volume no matter how hard you hit it with boost pedals . . . it will just sound more saturated. If you play mostly clean (no preamp distortion) then you will be able to get a small amount of volume boost by pushing the front of your amp with a boost pedal.

All in all, for what you want I would use a volume pedal. That way you can get a volume boost with your foot whenever you need to do some leads (and you can play around with volume swells and the like which can be pretty cool in their own right). Running an MV box doesn't really have any benefit over a volume pedal.

 

[ErikH]

Re: effects loop MV boxes - a few questions

The volume boxes are for those amps that have a touchy master volume to begin with. That is how they came to be. Fender amps have VERY touchy masters, 0 being off and 1 or 2 being to loud. Put one of those boxes in the loop, get the master on the amp up past that weird point, and then choke it back with the box to an acceptable volume. I use one with my Marshall sometimes.

Doing the 50's mod on them will make zero difference. In fact, the output is on the center lug already (which it should be).

As for a boost, you could just use the volume pedal and adjust your volume as necessary. With the preamp gain maxed, the only way to get a boost over the top is through the effects loop with a clean boost pedal or a volume pedal.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: effects loop MV boxes - a few questions

+1 to what has already been said. An MV box in the effects loop works great, but so much more versatile is a volume pedal so you can adjust your volume on the fly with your foot (not your already busy fingers).

I also run a booster pedal (MXR Micro Amp) in the effects loop which I use for leads, or whenever I need a little boost. I pre-set it for the amount of boost that I generally need for leads. Works extremely well and can be set to any amount of boost that you want.

 

[ErikH]

Re: effects loop MV boxes - a few questions

Another option is a volume box but WITH a footswitch in the effects loop. You set the amp volume to be what you want for the lead level then engage the volume box to choke the volume back for rhythm.

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: effects loop MV boxes - a few questions

Another option is a volume box but WITH a footswitch in the effects loop. You set the amp volume to be what you want for the lead level then engage the volume box to choke the volume back for rhythm.

Well the problem is playin around town you never know if you'll be able to crank your stuff or not, a cranked deville with a 15" JBL clone is most definitely gonna be too loud sometimes, even for a lead tone.

I came up with something similar though--a volume box with a footswitch to go between 2 MV's and just set one for lead.

I'm gonna try just boosting it with a TS9 first at practice though, the sweet spot I found is around noon on the clean channel volume so there might be a little more volume to be had

 

[ErikH]

Re: effects loop MV boxes - a few questions

Well the problem is playin around town you never know if you'll be able to crank your stuff or not, a cranked deville with a 15" JBL clone is most definitely gonna be too loud sometimes, even for a lead tone.

I came up with something similar though--a volume box with a footswitch to go between 2 MV's and just set one for lead.

I'm gonna try just boosting it with a TS9 first at practice though, the sweet spot I found is around noon on the clean channel volume so there might be a little more volume to be had

Yeah, I bet that is freakin loud....LOL.

The dual volume box with switch is a GREAT! idea. Just like inserting 2 master volumes in to the amp. Perfect solution if you ask me.