So, wordpress is awesome. I just found out that I can actually tell what people are searching on my blog. So I can get a feel for what to post next. Could I do this on my last domain? Blog.com? Ya, not so much.
Therefore (I really was trying not to use the word ’so’ again to open up a paragraph. I do that all the time. But I don’t think Shakespeare-sounding words are the best replacement word choices. And it’s not even really cool enough to be Shakespeare-sounding. It’s just awkward. Oh well), I am doing a post on the effects chain and the best placement for pedals, because I see a lot of searches for that. However, that post turned out to be like, 8 million years long, so I’m breaking it up. This first one is going to be the really boring one about buffers, true bypass, bypass loops, effects chains, and tone suckage. So, if you just read that and are already starting to feel all bored and like you want to vomit, I am also posting another post above this one with much more fun musical content. This one here is for the tone people that eat this stuff up. (I know; we’re really, really odd.)
But that being said, tone suckage due to pedalboards is probably the biggest culprit in bad or sub-par tone. It’s the main reason for the thought, ‘I have all the right gear, I’m a fairly decent guitarist…..why don’t things sound right?’ One of the best things that ever happened to me tone-wise, was a friend of mine taking a single bypass looper and plugging my entire pedalboard into it. Hence (oooh, another word from Hamlet or something), I could hear my tone when it went straight into the amp when the switch was off. And then when the switch was on, I could hear my tone through my pedalboard. And the difference seriously blew me away! Someone who had never picked up an instrument in their life could have easily heard the difference. My tone sucked through my board. I would recommend all of doing this every so often, just to see where we’re standing tone wise with our pedalboards, and how much tone we’re losing.
So, I’ll start by showing my signal chain:
Guitar–>
Bypass looper–>
Bypass looper
–>Delay pedal (Diamond Memory Lane…..true bypass)
–>Delay pedal (Damage Control Timeline…..always on at very low, ambient setting)
–>
Amp
Now, if you look at my board, you’ll see a ton of pedals. If I were to run through all of them, even with the high end cables I use and the fact that most of them are true bypass, my tone would suffer greatly. So I use bypass loopers that hardwire your pedals in and out of your chain with switches. I really, really like the idea of my signal running through the least amount of pedals as possible. As a general rule, your tone will sound best when it’s the purest as possible…..meaning the least amount of cable and circuits is has to travel through. So the best possible tone is guitar straight into the amp. I’ve even heard stories of guys going so far as to take all the tone and volume pots out of their guitars and amps, and then run a six inch cable from their guitar to the amp, so they have to literally hunch over the amp to play. And they record this way to get the purest tone possible. I’m just going to tell you right now that I am not that crazy……although, I once told myself that boutique pedals and expensive cables were a waste of time and money…….hehe. Things have changed a bit. So in five years, let’s hope I’m not leading worship hunched over my amp with my six inch guitar cable.
But, even though guitar to amp is the best possible clean sound, in modern music (and worship music), effects play a big part. So, you can just run a big board in front of your amp and not worry about tone loss (it usually ends up being high end, definition and sparkle loss), you can run bypass looper boxes that switch your effects in and out of your signal chain, you can run a buffer in front of or behind your effects, or you can use the amp’s effects loop.
Now, and this is just me personally, I want my tone to be as pure as possible, and I want to use effects. So I don’t use the effects loop because they usually mess a bit with the amp’s tone. Granted, some builder’s have done a great job with their amp’s effects loops, but I have yet to hear one I really liked. Also, I think the effects sound better out front, if you have an amp that takes effects well. I also prefer not to use buffers…..I understand the concept, but to me, it’s adding pedals to take away problems caused by pedals. Basically, you put a buffer either before all your pedals or after all your pedals, to ‘push’ the signal through all the circuits and cables, to regain your high end and definition. Again, some people get great sounds with these, and I have been itching to try out the VHT Valvulator or the Siegmund Missing Link; but I have yet to hear one that works properly in my rig without sounding just a tad bit fake. And it will definitely depend on the rig…..I have some guitar friends who use buffers (most specifically the HBE Uno Mos) and their tone sounds fantastic.
So, as far as my thinking goes, I would use either buffers, bypass loopers, or a combination. I choose to use bypass loopers. If you’re unfamiliar with them, they use hardwire switching to literally take your pedals out of your effects chain when they are not in use……..so there is no tone suck when you want the effect off. For me, I use those and pedals with no noticeable signal loss, and you can maintain almost all of your original tone while still using effects. (Notice I did say ‘almost all’…….no matter how good you use your effects loop, or buffers, or bypass loopers, there is still something really special about plugging straight into the amp.)
You will also notice that I do have two delay pedals on in my chain at all times. They are both in one of the bypass loops of my second looper box. I leave that loop on most of the time, because I keep that second delay on most of the time as just an ambient, reverby type sound. Just fills up and meshes things together nicely. The first delay is there because I am out of bypass loops. hehe I need to order a bigger one from Loop-Master. Ah, nothing’s ever perfect.
(Loop-Master is making some great bypass switchers right now.)
So, after you’ve got some bypass loopers or good buffers, it’s time to look at cables. This is where you lose people. Buffers are cool because you get to buy another cool looking pedal. Bypass loopers are cool because not only do they help with tone loss, but they actually clean up your board and create a nice control board at the front of your pedals (I don’t even touch the switches on most of my pedals. It’s all done from the control of my loopers.) But cables? I admit, it’s the absolute most boring thing to buy. But! The difference it makes in your tone is huge. Most run-fo-the-mill cables take away some serious tone. Now again, my thinking is that I want my gear to be as transparent as possible. (Yikes, I seriously use that word all the time!) Meaning, I don’t want a cable that puts tone or highs back in my signal, I want a cable that just lets my tone shine through. Currently, I’m using Lava ELC’s. I would highly recommend them. I also order them directly from Mark at Lavacable, and have him solder them. I really, really like the idea of all my connections being soldered. You can buy the build-it-yourself kits from Lava, George L, Bill lawrence, Planet Waves, etc. These are cool, but I would highly suggest sticking some solder in there. I used to use the George L solderless cables, and I was constantly getting fizziness in my tone because the ground connections would just come ever so slightly loose. If you move your rig around a lot to a lot of gigs, I would highly suggest solder. Lava’s are great, EA are great, and I even like the sound of Bill Lawrence’s. Planet Waves are okay, and George L’s add their own highs, which I’m not too keen on. I’m still in the process of replacing all my george L cables with Lava’s.
And lastly……get that tuner out of the volume pedal out. This is the easiest one to test. Play an open E, then pull the cable from your tuner to your volume pedal, in and out of the volume pedal. You can literally hear the sparkle come and go. I even go a step further and put my volume pedal in a bypass loop because it sucks tone as well. That’s a little extreme, but it definitely helps. But as far as the tuner goes, get one with a good buffer, or get a bypass looper with a tuner out. Hanging it off the volume pedal sucks a lot of tone.
And of course, note that this is all crazy, tone-head, gear-freak stuff. I see guitarists every day with a pedalboard with 15 tone sucking pedals, cheap tone sucking cables, and tuners hanging out of their volume pedals, and their tone sounds great. In fact, if you have a really bright sound, sometimes a good tone-sucking pedalboard will tame that. hehe But……a good exercise is to plug straight into your amp, especially if you haven’t done it in a while. If the tone is appreciably better, it may be time to start getting that pedalboard re-arranged to let your pure tone come through. Buffers, bypass loopers, good cables, switchers and effects loops–whatever works for you. This can actually be a fun time to experiment and get back to your best base clean tone.
And someday maybe we’ll get to this point. That’s Edge’s rig from U2. He has a custom made switching system from Skrydstrup to avoid tone sucking. Imagine being able to run through all that and still get pure tone. Impossible? Probably. But Edge’s tone does sound killer good. Sorry, I love U2 more than is even arguably healthy.
Splendid……and very long……and a little boring…..but hopefully helpful…sorry…….go read the post above!…….it’s way more fun!
Karl.
I found a buffer made a huge difference. I need one because I have about 50 feet of cable. I’m in the middle of building a board with a Musicom EFX switcher that’s an 8 channel effects loop that can save presets of different loop combinations. I’ll never have an inch more of cable than I absolutely need for a song. And I can finally stop tap dancing
True bypass is generally good, but it can also cause problems as well. Check out this page by Pete Cornish and decide for yourself: http://www.petecornish.co.uk/case_against_true_bypass.html
Pete Cornish has done work for Queen, Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, The Police and many other well known British bands since the early 70s.
Hey Paul, thanks for the link! I’ve read that before, and of course Pete Cornish is highly respected in his field, so I do put a decent amount of stock into what he says. I especially appreciate what he says about adding together all the signal length you have. Because if you have 13 true bypass pedals, sure, you’re not losing signal through their circuits; but you are losing a ton of signal just through the cable length for 13 pedals and switches. Which is why I like to use bypass boxes, which allow you to take the pedal, the switch, and the cable length out of your chain when not in use. It seems to really work for me, and I’ve been quite pleased with the results.
Again, thanks for the link! Cheers!
Ah… the loooper. Its on my list. I know my rig gives me some tone suckage- but like I stated previous posts- i look at my end product sound. My clean sound may not be 100% perfect, but with my change in compressors and playing in the modded ts9 with my guitars volume about 5, I get the end “almost clean” sparkly sound that is perfect. Sounds like the Hillsong United guys’ clean sounds.
Ask Zepplin, Jimmy Page, Angus Young what they used 
We know how bad analog effects kill tone! The end product matters most!
The greats didn’t have loops
As for non TB pedals- i found my cheap patch cables sucked more tone than most sock boss pedals. For me, the first step is good cabling then checking about modding, or TBing other pedals. Thats the first steps!
That said, as soon as I get out of med school I’m getting my own loop system. Tap dancing does get old~!
heh
Of course, my buddy at church figured he beat the system and bought a digitech multi effect processor. We KNOW that has GREAT tone!!!
That was an awesomely helpful post – thanks! I definitely need to get a looper for my rig but it’s going to be a serious dollar hit when you add in all the new cables I’ll need..
What about something like a Keeley Compressor – would you put that in a loop or just as the last thing in your signal chain?
And what about boutique pedals that ARE true bypass (e.g. Keeley stuff) – do they still need to go in a loop?
I’m also drawn to the simplicity of use that a looper rig offers – no more Riverdance!
Thanks again.
Traditionally the compressor is FIRST in the chain, or 2nd (to tame the wah’s volume spikes). I use it in front of my main OD when my role is more solo-ing riffing to get a constant, smooth sound (think Santana smoothness, or Satriani/Petrucci smoothness– i’m not that good!) where all the notes are equal and the “edge” is taken off a bit. In a role of more rhythm I place the OD before the compressor- that way even distortions are smoother and the transition isn’t sudden. This way, you can role off the volume on the guitar, tame your OD some- light OD, but the compressor keeps the sound constant. Then you can roll your volume up for lots of OD, and its still constant. Downside to this is if you have a wild drummer then you do not get the volume boost by clicking on the OD that you need when he starts banging louder.
I found the OD before the compressor is best in a smaller setting, or a LARGE setting where you have stage space to place the drummer away from your amp. Most mid size churches, I do not use it unless I’m the only guitarist- to keep my sound consistent. I promise, do it OD before compressor and your sound guy will love you!
I would not place it in the looper- I would think, until you get used to WHEN you want to use it- that you want it right there- mine is on 80% of the time. If you set it to a smooth, non “compressed- twangy” compression, it really fills out your sound and you actually don’t know its one, until its off! I would always leave it out of the looper if you are serious about using it as traditionally people who use compressors never turn them off. Unless you are using it as a volume boost for leads to also smooth out your note patterns (i do this acoustically), then I would put it in the looper like any other effect.
For TB pedals, I would say NO, unless you have like 5 or more in a row- then the connections and cabling can cause some fuzz, loss of highs etc.. and you might need a boost , buffer etc… and thats more interference! But my opinion is always “do you like the sound out of your amp?” If you do, don’t worry about it. I have a few pedals that affect my tone, but I always have my ts9 on (for light od sparkle) and that end result is what I need. I use a Ross compressor (what Keeley’s is a clone of) for straight clean sounds, and it changes my tone to what I want clean. So…. I want loops, but its easier to concentrate on you end product
My 2 cents: heh, but all the guitar snobs would die when they see my signal chain!
Mike–are you gonna do a post on that Musicom? I’d love to see how that works out for you! And ya, a buffer can be a great thing.
Les Paul–absolutely. A lot of the greats didn’t care about the stuff we seem to care about. I do find that the better your guitar and amp are, the less this stuff matters. But I bet if Jimmy Page had a board as big as most of ours nowadays, he’s have a buffer or bypass loop or something.
And I also agree that cabling is a hugely important part. Still looking forward to that compression post!
Blogsology–ya…..after getting new cables, loopers can get very expensive. That part does suck. As far as compressors, it just depends on how you’re going to use it. Usually, it’s first in the chain, and if it’s always on, there’s no reason for it to be in a loop. But for me personally, I like to have control over everything, so I put all my pedals in loops, even the ones that are on 95% of the time…..and I’m not a big compressor guy, anyway, so if I had one, I’d probably use it sparingly for an effected sound rather than part of my clean tone. But that’s just me.
And for true bypass pedals, it all depends on how much you like your tone. If you can plug straight into your amp, then in through your pedalboard and be happy with both, you’re probably fine. But even though true bypass pedals take un-needed circuitry out of the chain, they are still a pedal with subsequent cable that your signal has to run through. So with 2 or 3 true bypass pedals, you probably won’t hear a difference. But any over that and you probably will…..if nothing else, just due to cable length.
And seriously, having my looper be my control board, just simplifies things for me so much! It’s invaluable.
Thanks for the feedback, guys. I actually spoke to a ton of serious experts on the compressor thing, and they all told me the same thing – conventional wisdom is wrong and the compressor sounds best at the END of the signal chain, as it affects the whole signal. It actually makes perfect sense, as you’re not really getting a compressed signal out of your chain when it’s at the beginning. The only way to do that is to have it at the end. I tried both and stuck with the end of the chain.
The same guys also made a great case for sticking your volume pedal at the end of your chain, as having at the beginning affects the actually gain of your signal. You’re not not sending your guitar’s full tone to your signal chain when you use a volume pedal up front. If you want your tone but softer, stick the volume pedal at the end.
But, as always, it’s whatever floats your boat!
Thanks for the info…
Hey, that’s interesting! Thanks for the info! Personally, I ended up not liing compression first or last, so I currently don’t have on one my board. You’re making me curious, though! Maybe I would like it last now. How are you using it? As an effect, or always on?
Yeah, I heard of people doing that– placing it at the end to level everything out— it works! The only exception I would make to that (compressor, and volume pedal) is put the delay/reverb After. It sounds too sterile the other way. But it will level off your effects- tremolo/phaser/chorus- and is fine. I just dont play that way
I too am a fan of the volume pedal at the end of the chain. Its great for when you go for a solo and realize “thats too loud!” and can cut it back some.
Its good to talk to guys as gear obsessed as i am
there’s a lot of different parameters that can contribute to “tone suckage” and you are all have very valid points and recommendations. let’s not forget that tone is very subjective, though.
i like to place my volume pedal after the dist/od pedals before the effects/amp input. that is just the way i prefer it to be. whenever i put something in the chain that somehow affects the overall sound, i always try to compensate with my amp settings.
re: compressor. it really matters how you want your compressor to function before you can decide where to put it. like karl mentioned, is it as an effects or always on (or just to make the amplitude consistent). my rule is, there is no rule for pedal placement!
I’ve got a Keeley Compressor and I’m honestly not using it a lot yet. We’ve been in a portable situation for 12 years where using an amp wasn’t really possible, so I’ve been using a (gasp!) amp simulator pedal for a while now. I’ve found that my compressor doesn’t really play nicely with the amp simulator pedal. We’ve just moved into a building and I’m about to finally set up my full rig (AC30 & DB13 JRT 9/15).
I think when my full rig is set up, I’ll have my Keeley Comp on most of the time. I sing lead while playing, so I really like the way it levels out my signal between finger picking in a slow song or playing full rhythm). If I get it set right, I don’t have to change drives as the comp will boost my quiet picking and squash my rhythm to level things out.
Thanks for the GREAT advice on putting the ‘verb/delay AFTER the compressor. I hadn’t thought of that but it also makes total sense, as you’d want the most expansive ‘verb/delay possible. I’m going to have to check that out!
gentlemen: if it helps the compressor comments, my compressor post is now up. Let me know what you think!
thanks blogsology. Let us know how you like the Keeley
Good luck with the new rig!
Rhoy–good call on the volume pedal placement! Even though mine’s in a loop, when it is on, it’s after my od’s and before my effects. And ya, the only right way for this kind of stuff is what your ears like!
Blogsology–again, seriously, killer rig!! You running stereo, wet/dry, or clean/od?
Les Paul–great compressor post!!
oh man – Karl has been unleashed! There’s no stopping you now!
Hey Karl – I’m in the process of assembling it as one monster rig for the first time! I’m planning on running it as a stereo setup.
I’m still waiting for someone to write the definitive, detailed post on how to build an amp or cab isolation box, complete with mics and a fan. There’s an unbelievable lack of info on the Internet about his – even on TGP! Anybody up for the challenge?
Alex–Ha! Because I’m posting so much now? Ya….it’s a lot easier to post on a blog host that actually has no lag in the typing. You were right….wordpress is awesome!
Blogsology–well, Alex and I (mostly Alex) actually built somewhat of an isolation box for our drummers. It’s like a house they go into to play the drums. We used one inch plywood, doubled it, and insulation. I suppose the same could be done for guitar cabs, but it would be a lot of work. I am thinking about throwing up a post on keeping the stage volume down in small venues, though. That might go up in a couple days if that helps at all.
Mmm….D13 9/15.
DUDE!!! WordPress rocks! Your deal with the cabling, most definitely solder. Most of my cables are vibrated, moved, jerked, beat, heated, cooled, stretched, stepped on, rolled over, dragged, and coiled in a very unprofessional manner. Solder-less cables just don’t cut it and work so cheap.
Chris, I’m totally with you on the solder thing. I learned the hard way!!
Hi!
You mentioned that you were a huge U2 fan. I am too and in particular an Edge fan. I love that bell tone he gets on his guitar parts – saturated but clean and trebly chimey etc. How does he do it? I try to replicate it but can’t seem to get enough clean saturated tone to chime like he does. Any ideas? What effects chain and amps do you use to get that Edge thing going on?
Thanks,
Alex
Hey Alex,
Great to have you here! And yes, I do like U2…probably too much. As far as Edge’s chimey tone, that’s due a lot to his ’60’s Vox AC30’s. The EL84 power amp section is known for its chimey-ness while still maintaining warmth. The fact that the circuit is clean and handwired helps as well, as does the tube rectifier. So, basically what I’m saying is to get a good, hand-wired amp with an EL84 power section and a tube rectifier.
It also helps if the amp has a really good master volume control, or if you play in a venue to crank the gain loud enough to put it right at that sweet spot between clean and breakup.
Having really good guitars with good pickups and old tonewood helps keep the warmth and saturation, too, which of course, Edge has.
I hope that helps a bit! That was a real rough overview; if you want, send me an e-mail and I’ll try to go more in depth.
And again, welcome!
Cheers,
Karl
Karl, I wanted to get some feedback on my somewhat unconventional pedal board. This is all mounted on an skb ps45 board. It works fairly well, which may be surprising given what’s in front of the mfx. I used to run one channel into a Carvin 15 watt tube amp ( vintage 16 ) and mike it, now I just use the pa and wedge monitor. I could probably get spousal approval to upgrade the OD3 but I don’t know with what at this point. My rhythm tones are ok to my ears, but I’m not sure about the OD3.
I use a Carvin AE185 when leading, and a 74 strat with Gold Lace Sensors when supporting. The Carvin is a slightly hollow bodied guitar that looks somewhat like a tele.
Carvin AE185 guitar ( blend of acoustic bridge pickup with humbuckers )>Boss CS-2 Compressor>RC Booster>ABY switch (tuner out )>Boss OD-3 overdrive>Boss DD7 delay> KorgAX1500G mfx ( acoustic simulator amp model + various cab models + modulated delay or chorus + various reverb types)> two direct boxes>two PA channels ( not panned for stereo because our board isn’t wired for that )
This is a photo when I had the old Ibanez AD9 delay on it http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r232/2020indianrock/IMG_1234.jpg
I just went analog recently, getting rid of all my digital stuff… I love the tone I’m getting, but it’s probably my new guitar and amp.
LesPaul VOS 58 -> Zaolla cable (100% silver) -> Budda Wah -> Keeley 4 knob compressor -> MI Audio tube zone -> Xotic AC -> Analogman minichorus -> fulltone Supatrem -> Volume Pedal -> Line 6 Echo Park -> Elixir cable (flat signal no boost of high or low) -> /13 CJ11. I really wanted a SJ37, but couldn’t find one… and it was a bit too big.
The Keeley works well there. I tried it at the end, but it didn’t make sense to me there. I leave it on almost always, but change the sustain setting a bit for certain parts. I don’t think you can put it at the end, because, how can you bring your volume up for a solo or strong lines? I just set up my clean sound volume, then my med gain stuff for rhythm (AC boost – love this thing through my amp), and then the Tubezone for heavier stuff or soloing. I ran the Tubezone into the AC boost just for fun and I love the sound. Still experimenting there. The keeley manual says to try putting it after your first overdrive pedal before your distortion… I don’t know what that means because I really have two overdrive pedals and they both have clipping stages. Either way, it is a cool sounding pedal. I’m gonna incorporate it in my acoustic set up. I’ve run pure for so long, but am going to use the compressor with the chorus. Reverb is unnecessary for a lively church (except for ambience effects but you have a delay for that as well).
I run the amp in a closet with a SM57 instrument mic. Sounds pretty nice. We use an Aviom in-ear system (works wonders with stage volume and getting everyone to hear everyone else and themselves).
Occasionally, I’ve run the amp on stage behind a big podium and/or use a plexiglass shield or a shield with a bunch of sound absorbing insulation and fabric to suck up as much sound as possible so it doesn’t overpower the rest of the band. I don’t think isolation boxes are practical. It can’t be moved. Our drums are in an isolation booth, so perhaps something like that but on a smaller scale would work for an onstage guitar isolation booth (though you might not be able to easily turn any knobs on your amp).
I’m not happy with my Echo Park (volume suckage and tone suckage) and will likely change it for either a T-Rex, Timeline, or the VOX delay pedal… Any recommendations there?
I use George Ls. I have about a total of 4 feet of cable between all my pedals, and an 8 foot cable to the amp. I have a longer 20 foot cable from the guitar, but that’s why it’s 100% silver. And I’m looking at getting a pedal board so I don’t have to set-up over and over and over. Right now I’m using a Trader Joe canvas shopping bag to bring all my pedals in… Really primitive, but it only takes me 10 minutes to set-up.
Randy–I’ll give my honest feedback, and then you can take it or leave it. lol
My disclaimer (if you haven’t realized already, hehe), is that I’m pretty opinionated when it comes to tone.
Love the semi-hollow for worship stuff! Great choice! If I were you, I’d keep the Carvin amp, and try to sell the compressor and the OD3, and use the money for a Timmy. That’ll give you, hopefully, a smooth overdrive. RC Booster is a beautiful sounding pedal! Props! And then I’d sell the DD7 and the Korg, and get a Boss DD20 for delays and modulation. And then mic the amp. If that’s not working, might want to try the Ibanez Artcore semi-hollow; but I tend to like Carvins better. And if money is totally no object, check out Collings hollowbodies. But the hollow into the Timmy, and then the Carvin amp should give you some nice, sweet and soothing overdrive tones.
Again, just my opinions! I could be totally wrong! Overall, looks like a great setup!! Love the guitars and the RC Booster!!
Skonger–again, I’ll give my honest feedback, and you can take it or leave it. hehe
Great amp choice! And great pedals, too. AC Booster, AM chorus, and SupaTrem are all fabulous. Only thing I’d change would be the George L’s. Some people dig ‘em, I’ve just had much better results with solder. And I’m loving that you went to all the analog stuff.
As for delay, of course, my choice would be the Timeline. But the DD20 is a fine pedal, and very underrated.
And you set all that up each time? Wow!! That’s like, award-worthy!
Overall, great rig brother!
Thanks for the honest feedback Karl. I’d like to check out the Timmy. Honestly though, the more I reflect on it, sound isn’t my major limitation. Once I manage to do a better job of picking songs that work for our congregation ( not too many new ones etc ) I’ll get back to the tone-quest.
I think this blog and the interaction I’ve been getting at the worshiptogether.com forums and threads like this one http://gpawf4christ.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4685 are doing wonders for my attitude and spiritual maturity.
The feedback I’m getting is surprising because most of it is not “why can’t we rock out with big marshalls at my church.” Folks who love to talk about pedals consistently display mature, humble attitudes about why they serve in this capacity.
Randy
Randy–well, it’s great to have you here, and I’m glad you’re able to learn some stuff, too. Honestly, I’m learning from you as well. And I’ll have to check out those forums, especially if there’re humble people on there…because I’m sure you’re not getting much humility from me on this blog. lol You just have to ask me about the best guitar pickups or something, and I tend to go off…without a lot of grace. lol
But anyway, your rig looks great, and props on picking songs for your congregation, as opposed to picking them for what is cool right now.
HEY GUYS CHECK OUT THIS BAND FROM LA California, there called Stereofix .Amazing guitar tone. This guy Kamren Alexander is the next edge….
http://www.Myspace.com/StereofixMusic
Question on the true bypass loopers like Loop Masters.
This only helps on the tone suck when the pedal isn’t engaged right? Say I have 5 pedals (OD, OD, Delay, Delay, Reverb), when these are all on does it matter that I have it hooked up through the Loop Masters?
Yes, they only cut the pedals out of the chain when in bypass mode. Now, with overdrives, this doesn’t matter because the nature of an overdrive is pushing the signal anyway. But it does matter with delays and reverbs, especially as most of them change your dry signal. That’s why it’s important (at least to me) to get delays and reverbs that leave your dry signal unaffected.
[...] Effects Chain Part 1: Tone Suckage [...]
I’ve got the Loopmasters bypass strip. Really love that thing. Really helps my tone. I even run my true bypass stuff through it because it is easier to use.
The ts-808 has probably the worst designed switch I have ever used. It is basically the biggest blunder of a switch in the history of pedals. Plus the LED is almost impossible to see if you are not at the right angle. So with the looper I don’t ever have to push that pedals ever again, and the LEDs on the looper are much easier to see.
BUT my one problem with it – And, Karl, maybe you can help me out with this – is the switches POP really loudly, especially my EQ pedal loop. Does this have something to do with my power source or something?
Right on! I really love the bypass strips, too. I’ve also got a couple pedals with junky switches, and it does help!
As for the popping, try running the ones that pop on batteries, and see if the popping goes away. If it does, then it’s your power supply. If not, it can also be cables. I used to have huge popping problems with bypass strips until I switched to Lava and EA cables. Actually, I didn’t like their sound very much, but George L cables also reduced the popping, as did Bill Lawrence ones.
And then lastly, what brand of bypass strip are you using? I had a couple homemade ones at one point that would just pop no matter what I did. And unfortunately, there are some name brand ones out there that aren’t built much better. But with a good power supply like the PP2, good cables, and loopers like Loop-Master or Loooper, there shouldn’t be any popping.
Hope that helps!
I’m using a strip by Loopmasters, and I’m powering it through my SKB pedal board. I’m also using George L’s cables that I soldered to neutrik plugs. Maybe it’s the plugs.
I was actually surprised about the popping. But I’ll try hooking them up to batteries. .. I’m not entirely sure my MXR eq (which is the biggest pop I think) has a battery option. It probably does. I’ll check.
That’s very weird. The components seem great, and if I’m not mistaken, the power supplies from those SKB boards are isolated. But if the batteries take care of the popping, then I’m probably wrong and they’re not isolated; in which case you’ll need the PP2.
Another thing…are your amp and pedalboard plugged into the same power strip? If not, that can cause ground loops as well, which could be the source of the popping.
Sorry, I’m just kind of shooting from the hip here! Cheers, my friend!
Oh really? it can? Well I don’t plug into the same power because my pedalboard is about 15 feet from my amp. The popping isn’t horrible. And it’s not driving me crazy or anything, but it would be nice to get rid of.
It usually doesn’t matter, but sometimes it does. It can create a ground loop that the bypass loopers don’t like. I always run my power conditioner out of one outlet, and then my amp and my board out of it. (I gig with a lot of extension chords. hehe) That might be it, but it might not. Just a thought that works for me.