ADA Depot - A Forum To Support Users of ADA Amplification Gear
Non ADA Gear => Effects => Topic started by: McLeanAB on January 22, 2014, 05:04:41 PM
-
Hey all!
I have been a rack user all my life except for when I was 12 running an Ibanez chorus pedal into the front end of a Gorilla 25 watt amp. That was 30 years ago...
I just grabbed up a banged up Carl Martin XII Chorus pedal... only one half is functional due to the left button being gone, but I just need a replacement part and all should be well...
My question is this: in front on the amp (ISP Theta Combo) it sounds great. I don't like Chorus effects going before distortions, but whatever... Direct from guitar to mixer, it sounds great... awesome clean tones. If I run the XLR out (cab sim) to my Hum Eliminator and go out of the 1/4" jack to the pedal, to the mixer, it sounds great. The moment I try to "simply" run the Carl Martin pedal in either the effect loop of the mixer or the effect loop of the amp, I get weird drops in volume, some distortion if the effect knob on the amp is too high, and just not a good sound... all my rack stuff sounds great in the loop of either the amp or the mixer...
I am missing something about pedals? Are they specifically designed for the front of an amp and there's some sort of impedance thing or line level vs. guitar input that I am missing?
Any and all information would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks! I owe you one...
-
Typically pedals are instrument level/impedance devices while rack gear is line level/impedance. Some effect loops have the ability to gain match (eg MP1, MP2) with either a button to select one or other, or sometimes send/receive level pots. Also some pedals have input and output level controls. By and large pedals were/are designed to go between the guitar and the pre-amp while rack effects in an effects loop or from an Aux (effect) send of a mixer. Some rack gear can be run at instrument level or line (selectable) although internally they would run at line level. One thing to avoid is having an instrument level device(s) in line (eg in effects loop) with line level devices.
-
I suspected as much...
I can understand the not so pretty sounds when I try to run it in the effect loop of the mixer, but even the effect loop of my amp?
Poo...
-
It could be,depends a bit on how the loop works.
-
IMHO the Carl Martin should be great but through a clean amp but will have issues in the loop. Especially since both the chorus and the amp effect loop do not have output/input level controls.
Then again there was this from an earlier thread:
"Generally preamps like the ADA MP series and Rockman Sustainors work best with the guitar plugged in directly. This is not to say you can't use pedals, it just isn't ideal. The effects loop is a good place to insert pedals. If your pedal doesn't have line level in/out capability, you should use a level shifter, like the Ebtech"
which refers to the Ebtech line-level shifter. This could solve your issue but my preference would be to keep it out front of the amp.
-
IMHO the Carl Martin should be great but through a clean amp but will have issues in the loop. Especially since both the chorus and the amp effect loop do not have output/input level controls.
Then again there was this from an earlier thread:
"Generally preamps like the ADA MP series and Rockman Sustainors work best with the guitar plugged in directly. This is not to say you can't use pedals, it just isn't ideal. The effects loop is a good place to insert pedals. If your pedal doesn't have line level in/out capability, you should use a level shifter, like the Ebtech"
which refers to the Ebtech line-level shifter. This could solve your issue but my preference would be to keep it out front of the amp.
I will research the line-level shifter... I didn't know such things existed! Thanks!