Is this an issue or is it normal?

A

Alain

Member
Hello everyone,

I just got (finally) my PBC, and I´ve made some connections in order make an stereo rig work. I´ve tried to replicate the suggested connections described in the manual, but I´m not sure if this is working properly.

My problem is that the amp 2´s volume goes down whenever I use the connections suggested by the manual to use FX loop, so I have to turn up amp´s 1 volume in order to compensate amp 2´s loss of volume. Is this normal? in any case can anyone help to fix this please?

My connections are

Guitar-PBC

L1: Rat
L2: Boiling Point
L3: Klon clone (savage)
L4: zen drive
L5: MXR fuzz
L6: Bognes ecstasy blue



Out 5-6: Budda SD18 (input)

In 7-10 Budda SD18 Fx Send
L7: Okko comp
L8:Strymon Mobius (mono)
L9:Eventide H9 (mono)
L10: Vox Time Machine (mono)
Output A: (Budda SD18 Fx Return)
Output B: (Top Hat Super Deluxe MKii)

Thanks in advance
 
It sounds like your amp's effects loop runs at a different level than your second amp is expecting. Can you just turn up the volume on the second amp?
 
rjmmusic said:
It sounds like your amp's effects loop runs at a different level than your second amp is expecting. Can you just turn up the volume on the second amp?
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Thank you for your reply.


Yes, I can turn the volume up of the other amp, but it has to be turned up nearly at it's maximum to be audible (this when I don't turn up amp 1 volume).

Any idea how can be fixed?
 
Some amps pad down the effects send so that the loop may be used with pedals without overloading them but then do not make up for the lost gain in the return (Bogner Shiva comes to mind and why using the loop makes it lose some punch). If this is in fact your problem, a possible solution could be to add a clean boost pedal as your last effect before coming into the loop return. You would need to test how hot to set the boost pedal by patching it in and out and comparing the volumes with and without the loop engaged until you get the same level.

To test if this is your problem just use a short patch cable to jumper the send and return and see if you lose volume. If you do, the problem is the loop itself and you might want to try the boost pedal that I mentioned to see if it fits your situation.
 
lureb said:
Some amps pad down the effects send so that the loop may be used with pedals without overloading them but then do not make up for the lost gain in the return (Bogner Shiva comes to mind and why using the loop makes it lose some punch). If this is in fact your problem, a possible solution could be to add a clean boost pedal as your last effect before coming into the loop return. You would need to test how hot to set the boost pedal by patching it in and out and comparing the volumes with and without the loop engaged until you get the same level.

To test if this is your problem just use a short patch cable to jumper the send and return and see if you lose volume. If you do, the problem is the loop itself and you might want to try the boost pedal that I mentioned to see if it fits your situation.
Click to expand...

Hi Lureb,


Thank you very much for your hep.

At first, when I read your reply last night I was like, "This is not my problem", but this morning, I was like "You know what, this guy is absolutely right", I´ll check that as soon as I get home, and I´ll what happens if I try a different amp (a Fender Hot Rod DeVille).


And what you suggested here stresses what I first thought, that is -Is amp 2 runing through the Fx loop of Amp 1?

Is that the case? anybody?

Thanks in advance to everyone for your support.
 
Yes, the way you have it wired, amp 2 is getting its signal from the effect loop send of amp 1. That's not necessarily a problem, but if your loop's level isn't what the other amp needs, then there will be a problem.
 
rjmmusic said:
Yes, the way you have it wired, amp 2 is getting its signal from the effect loop send of amp 1. That's not necessarily a problem, but if your loop's level isn't what the other amp needs, then there will be a problem.
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Thanks Ron (is that you?)

That´s what I thought. I feel relieved because that means my PBC is working just fine.on the other hand I have to buy an ABY midi box to do the job.

I was thinking on buying Split Personality from DB11. Any suggestions?
 
I will of course recommend our Y-Not as an option for the MIDI controlled A/B/Y switch you're looking for, but of course I may be a bit biased. I don't know anything about the other A/B/Y - I didn't know it existed until now.
 
rjmmusic said:
I will of course recommend our Y-Not as an option for the MIDI controlled A/B/Y switch you're looking for, but of course I may be a bit biased. I don't know anything about the other A/B/Y - I didn't know it existed until now.
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Hello everyone and sorry for the delay in this reply.

I´ve checked what Lureb suggested above, and I didn´t really hear any noticeable drop in volume, but I did realized I missed to mention something that might be relevant for this.That is that I´ve been using bedroom volumes at this time, so I think that might explain at least in part this issue. Plus, I´ve noticed a couple of additional things by doing some experimenting.

One, is that when I interchanged Output A for Output B, I couldn´t tell any difference at all!!! Being said that, I still have some questions, such as:
Would this damage my amp in anyway if I use it like this?
I tried in vane to keep amp 2 from going through Amp 1 Fx Loop by changing the configuration of the back pannel buttons. Was this a dumb idea? (hahaha!)

Additionally, I´ve noticed that when I interchanged Outputs A & B, and turned on channel 2 of the Budda amp (amp1), but programming to have amp 2 as the only output (by chosing B output in the PBC), I´ve got a distorted sound! Which I found interesting, because I think this was as an useful sound, the other question is, would it damage amp 1 and 2 if I use it like this?

Most of all, I would like someone to explain to me please, why the signal of amp 2 has to go through Fx Loop of amp 1?

I just want this to make sense to me, so I´ll can sleep well at night hahaha!

Once again thank you all, for all the support.
 
Anyway, thank you very much for your suggestion regarding YNot as MIDI ABY box, I´ll check that out!
 
Nothing you're doing should damage anything, but the way you've wired everything will guarantee that amp 1's effect loop send will go to the second amp. Amp 1 send is plugged in to input 7, so everything after that - loops 7-10 and both outputs - will receive the signal from amp 1 send. If you want only the loop 1-6 signal to go to the input of amp 2, then you'll need to split the signal coming out of Out 6 and have it go to the input of amp and and the input of amp 2.
 
rjmmusic said:
Nothing you're doing should damage anything, but the way you've wired everything will guarantee that amp 1's effect loop send will go to the second amp. Amp 1 send is plugged in to input 7, so everything after that - loops 7-10 and both outputs - will receive the signal from amp 1 send. If you want only the loop 1-6 signal to go to the input of amp 2, then you'll need to split the signal coming out of Out 6 and have it go to the input of amp and and the input of amp 2.
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Thanks Ron for all the suggestions but most of all for taking the time to explain this to me.
 
Alain, maybe I'm missing something, but I see two "issues" with your stereo setup the way you have everything wired up.
1. You're doing a dual mono setup, not a stereo setup (all of your loop effects are in mono).
2. I think you could accomplish the same thing a lot more simply by running Output A to one amp and Output B to the other one, and forget about using the effects loop.
 
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