King of Tone and RAT losing 10dB through PBC/6x

[AustinB]

Has anyone ever had this issue?:

Using the RJM Mastermind PBC/6x, I have a King of Tone and a RAT that, through any loop, with any cables or power supply, lose 10dB of volume when the pedal is engaged. If I leave the loop on and bypass the pedal manually, all the volume returns. It’s only when the pedals are engaged that the volume drop happens.

It’s not the cables, because when the loop is on and the pedal bypassed, the volume is normal. I tried different power supplies, different cables, and tried them on every other loop, even the loops that are working fine with other pedals.

When I use the exact same cables and power supply directly from guitar to pedal to amp, all the volume is back and the pedal works fine. It’s only when the pedal is in a PBC/6x loop. The only thing I can think of is something in the PBC. The loops are not in stereo, and I have tried turning the buffer off.

Can’t find any forum topics on this.

 

[rjmmusic]

Just to make sure I understand: If you swap pedals, keeping the same loop and the same cables in that loop, is it the case that the KoT and Rat don't work and others do?

Can you send me your PBC settings file also?

 

[rjmmusic]

Also, have you tested your cables for partial shorts? Cables with that problem will sound completely fine in some cases and dull and muddy in others. Details here:

A Note About Making Cables

We get a lot of tech support calls from our customers asking why their signal sounds dull and muted when turning on certain loops on their RG-16 or Effect Gizmo. So far, every time it's been traced to cables that have not been made properly. Most guitar cable (or most good guitar cable) is made...

www.rjmmusic.com

The second post talks about testing, the first post is a good thing to read if you make your own cables.

I'm leaning towards this as being part of the problem - I looked at the schematics for those two pedals, and they do not have buffered outputs, which would make them susceptible to cable issues, more so as their volume is turned down.

 

[AustinB]

Correct, all other pedals work fine in the loop. I have tried them with multiple other cables and power supplies with the same result. I’ll look at this article and send my PBC file. Thanks.