PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

[jackson111]

Ok got my amp looked at and thers nothing wrong the tech thinks i got a bad pedal or cable, so i have tried my pedals one by one seem to work fine checked all my cables and nothings wrong. I started doing research and frmo what i understand if im running multiple effects in a chain they are supposed to be buffered bypass. I dont think my pedals will do that with the exception of the corona chorus. plus i have people telling me i should never put a boost in the effects loop. right now i only have one effect infront of my amp and thats my wah. the rest go through the effects loop. my signal goes guitar-wah-amp-(SEND EL)MXR carbon copy-tc corona chorus-electro harmonics LPB-1(RETURN EL). like i said everythign i have is true bypass. The tc electronics can be switched to buffered bypass, should that be put at the begining of the loop? at the end? I have tried my LPB-1 infornt of the amp and it just seems to make the amp muddy when i turn it on no volume difference. In the effects loop i set it very low just to give me a small bump in volume and sustain to cut through the mix.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

What exactly is the problem you're having? Noise? Tone? Hum?

 

[jackson111]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

well when i was using my effects the amp losses alot of its highens sparkle, it gets muddy and bass sounding. it will also occasionally make a loud pop sound it keeps playing and there is no burnt smell or anything just a real loud pop and it scares the crap out of me. took my amp in for repair the tech worked on it for about 2 hours checked the bias and used an osciliscope to go through the circuits and could not find one thing wrong with it. he asked if i used effects i said yes and thats when he told me to play it dry and see if i liked the tone. he also explained that the effects loop is between the preamp and power section so if i have a pedal issue then it degrade the signal from the preamps to the power section, i played a show last friday and used nothing but my wah and i thought the amp sounded thick full and was outstanding no issues, no popping, nothing. i have practice tonight and was curious if i should try my pedals infront of the amp, and in which order

 

[Ascension]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

I have that same issue with the loop on my Zinky Velvet.
Try something here in plugging into the shortest cable that you can to and from the amp to your board and running the pedals through the loop. Bet money your highs come back.
If so the buffer will help in a big way and should go as close to the amp on the effects send as you can get it if not right at the amp at the least first up on the effects board.
What I suspect is without a buffered pedal on your board you are getting into a capacitance issue with the long cable run to and from your amp to the pedals. The long cable is likely acting just like the cap on a tone control and rolling off the highs in your signal.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

Play with no pedals and test. Add a pedal and test again. Repeat until all your effects are hooked up. This should very quickly tell you which effect is causing the problem.

I am willing to bet it's the effects loop itself, depending on your amp.

 

[jackson111]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

the amp i am using is the blackstar ht stage 60, the other question i am not clear on is there is a button on the effects loop. i know it changes the level of the loop, which shoudl i have it set at or does it not really matter

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

the amp i am using is the blackstar ht stage 60, the other question i am not clear on is there is a button on the effects loop. i know it changes the level of the loop, which shoudl i have it set at or does it not really matter

RTFM. It probably switches between line (e.g. rack) level and instrument (e.g. pedal) level but I'm only guessing.

 

[Ascension]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

the amp i am using is the blackstar ht stage 60, the other question i am not clear on is there is a button on the effects loop. i know it changes the level of the loop, which should i have it set at or does it not really matter

Yes it does matter and for pedals needs to NOT be in the line level position.
How long a cable are you using between the amp and your pedal board?

 

[Ascension]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

i played a show last friday and used nothing but my wah and i thought the amp sounded thick full and was outstanding no issues, no popping, nothing. i have practice tonight and was curious if i should try my pedals infront of the amp, and in which order

Yes try running everything in the front end for now and on the order Wah- LPB1- Chorus-Delay. Bet your highs come back running like this and if so let me know.
You are describing to the last detail so far the same issue I am having with he Zinky running a 15 foot run to and from my amp loop to my pedal board.

 

[jackson111]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

I am using a 20' cable from send to my firs t pedal then 3 pedals and another 20' cable back to return. I will tell you that I ran my pedals infront of my amp tonight and I think something may be wrong, my chain was wah-chorus-carbon copy delay-amp, I noticed that whether the pedals were on or off the signal going into the amp seemed boosted cause my sustain was ridiculus, and if I turned my volume pot on my guitar open to far the feed back would kick in. is this normal?

 

[astrozombie]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

I am using a 20' cable from send to my firs t pedal then 3 pedals and another 20' cable back to return. I will tell you that I ran my pedals infront of my amp tonight and I think something may be wrong, my chain was wah-chorus-carbon copy delay-amp, I noticed that whether the pedals were on or off the signal going into the amp seemed boosted cause my sustain was ridiculus, and if I turned my volume pot on my guitar open to far the feed back would kick in. is this normal?

I don't really understand the phenomenon you're describing here but I will say this...

For every 15 feet of cable you're losing about 3dB of high end and "tone". You need a buffer in there somewhere, you need two, one at the start and one at the end. Those cables are too long.

The LPB-1 isn't designed to be a volume boost... maybe you're interpreting a slight gain boost as the tone getting "muddy"? it's supposed to break up your sound. It was designed to go in front of the amp.

 

[MrTondo]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

I am using a 20' cable from send to my firs t pedal then 3 pedals and another 20' cable back to return. I will tell you that I ran my pedals infront of my amp tonight and I think something may be wrong, my chain was wah-chorus-carbon copy delay-amp, I noticed that whether the pedals were on or off the signal going into the amp seemed boosted cause my sustain was ridiculus, and if I turned my volume pot on my guitar open to far the feed back would kick in. is this normal?

Boosted compared to what? To using no pedals at all, or compared to using pedals in the chain. If using pedals in the chain you might lose some volume compared to using no pedals in the chain dependend on the amp and the pedals.

 

[jackson111]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

no the boosted I am speaking of was compared to no pedals at all. I had my gains and preamp volumes the same, and I can usually play me guitar wide open. last night with the pedals in front of the amp if I turned the volume pot about 3/4 of the way open the guitar would start to feed back and I could hold a note for what seemed like forever. im not complaining cause the tone stayed the same as the amp with no pedals, I was just wondering why the volume gain and sustain would get higher with pedals feeding into the amp, seems to me pedals and cables would add resistance and lower the volume gain and sustain. I may try one pedal at a time between the carbon copy and the corona chorus to see if one of them are cause the boost

 

[BrianS.]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

I may try one pedal at a time...

Yes. The essence of troubleshooting is isolating the problem. You cannot do that if you are not picking your rig apart 1 item at a time. There are no shortcuts, except luck. Your not going to get a magic answer that solves your problem without putting in some effort.

RTFM.

YES!

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

Yes. The essence of troubleshooting is isolating the problem. You cannot do that if you are not picking your rig apart 1 item at a time. There are no shortcuts, except luck. Your not going to get a magic answer that solves your problem without putting in some effort.

Basic troubleshooting seems to be a not-so-basic skill for some people.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: PEDAL CHAIN QUESTION AND BUFFERED BYPASS??

Careful, soon people on this forum will be telling you that basic troubleshooting is more than the average person can learn, and that you shouldn't get anyone's hope up that they may be able to solve problems on their own.