This is a MUSIC forum. Irrelevant or disrespectful posts/topics will be removed by Admin. Please report any forum spam or inappropriate posts HERE.

Chat about the latest toys and innovations.

Moderators: bandmixmod1, jimmy990, spikedace

#10567 by phboo
Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:05 pm
Totally agree with the "check your batteries" thing. Eliminating them via an ac adapter is better.

ANY effects pedal without a hardware bypass (which is pretty much all of them) will suck your tone out, so get rid of any you don't absolutely need. I wanted the effects but was tired of the tone suckage, so I went the (expensive) route of rackmounting everything, and running my preamp into a rackmount mixer so that I could use the effect sends and other channels to drive and mix effects. That's the only way I've ever been able to get effects AND preserve my tone.

#10755 by Melody Maker
Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:29 pm
I know opinions are like a-holes...but I was never one for alot of pedals until I got a Digiteech RP-50. Maybe I'm not the most deserning ear, but it seems to have all the effects/modles I could ever dream of using, and true by-pass! The olny draw-back I see is having to know excactly where they all are and maybe having to scroll through them...but that's just me.
#10855 by stratman_el84
Mon Jul 30, 2007 7:06 am
Hey guys!

Long time amp and electronics tech here.
Here's an excellent guide to effect placement and a ton of other tone-tips.

http://www.amptone.com/


As far as the signal-loss problem goes, I'd first try removing the Arion pedal(s) then the Dan-O pedal(s). They're the cheapest pedals, and the ones I would suspect first for any noise/signal problems.

After that, try isolating the culprit by removing each one in turn from the effects chain. Also make sure if you're using an effects loop, that the pedals you're using have enough output to drive an effects loop, as most effects loops use/need line-level inputs and outputs on the effects used in the loop.

#19728 by AJ6stringsting
Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:13 pm
[quote="Melody Maker"]I know opinions are like a-holes...but I was never one for alot of pedals until I got a Digiteech RP-50. Maybe I'm not the most deserning ear, but it seems to have all the effects/modles I could ever dream of using, and true by-pass! The olny draw-back I see is having to know excactly where they all are and maybe having to scroll through them...but that's just me.[/quote



Sounds like you need a manal and learn the M,I.D.I. pre set bank routine.

#19890 by Sean Wilson
Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:24 am
Most definitely the noise gate should come first. You only want noise and hum and hiss cut from your sound. The way you have it running, you're suppressing the entire signal with all of your effects.

Run your guitar into the noise gate, then add your other effects after the gate. By doing this, you will set your gate at much lower settings and you're getting rid of noise that distortion and overdrives and other pedals will amplify.

If you run the gate last, every little finger slide on the strings is running through your distortion and getting boosted, to explain it simply. Cut excess noise first, then run into a compressor and into a preamp or reverse that and run gate > pre > comp > other pedals.

You can get two distinct sounds by placing the wah in front of your distortion and after it in the effect chain. I'd put my overdrive or a boost pedal in front of the wah since almost all wahs drop volume levels when activated. That way you can boost the signal hitting your wah if you need.

Almost assuredly, your noise gate is suppressing waaaaaay too much if it is last in the chain. Even if it focuses only on a narrow bandwith to eliminate hiss, it is eliminating everything at that frequency much more than if it is the first item in your chain because instead of just suppressing his, it has to suppress hiss that has distortion, and if your octave pedal is engaged, that his is not present at two or more octaves!

Hope that helps.

#20309 by phboo
Tue Jan 29, 2008 2:23 pm
dmazanec wrote:You guys didn't answer his question. To get the best results put the Octave pedal and wah pedal first. Follow that with the EQ and drive pedals. I've never used a noise gate but it would seem logical to use it after the drive pedals.

True bypass pedals are great and very expensive. If you can afford them go for it but other wise putting you stomp boxes in the right order will help give you better results. Cheers.


You want the gate BEFORE the distortion, where the signal/noise ratio is higher. Then the signal will be cut off when you stop playing, and the gate will take out the hiss in the line that generates so much noise when it's compressed through the distortion pedal.

If you're going crazy with distortion, you can have a gate before AND after the distortion (some rack units can be slaved so that the gate after the pedal opens with the one before)--the first gate takes out the line hiss, and the second takes out the hiss generated internally by the distortion unit.

You do need a true bypass--if you can't afford a good one an A/B switch is your best bet. Not so expensive, but they do a hard-wire switch at least.

THE BYPASS SWITCH OF ANY EFFECTS UNIT WILL DESTORY YOUR TONE! They're evil and should be skipped at all costs.

I went the crazy end, and use a rack-mount mixer to split to effects and mix the results. It sounds very clean and my dry tone doesn't go through a single effects box (they're all in parallel), but that's a pricey way to go. I went so far as having separate signal paths (and separate preamps) for clean vs crunch, and build my own switching box (all done old-school with relays) to switch . . . UNBELIEVABLE tone now.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests