RG-16 Diagram with 2amps, two rack FX, and five pedals.

Wow, after weeks of tweeking, I am all set with my new RG-16.. Since it took me so much going over I wanted to share it.
My rig consists of five pedals; (one, before the amps input, four in the loop) two rack FX (one is just a 2-channel midi programable HUSH)
.. I also needed to switch to a solid state combo for clean sounds because I am pushing too much on my amps pre-amp to get a decent clean tone. Plus this will allow me to earn an extra channel on my triple rec (The clean sound on the push setting is ultra classic rock sounding and great for creamy leads)
The RG-16 has saved me from having any stompboxes on the floor. All the pedals are racked (including the Fulltone FDII) The second amp needed to be separate from the first, but I needed to share the TC Electronics G-force effects with my clean amp. The two mono "Y" splitters worked out fine for that.
My source for the art here was for personal use and blotted out the art for the sake of respecting copyright laws.
-Dave
http://www.submissionred.com
 

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Thanks.
I hope it helps out anyone who is like me, needs a solution with an o/d pedal b4 the amps input, yet needs to have several stomp boxes in the amps fx loop. That's what stumped me for the longest:)
 
Geesh, i dont understand the logic behind the diagram. Why isnt it wired the way its shown on the manual? The crisscrossing of the cables confused me...do explain :). What is the NO and NC on the 2nd half of the loops? What do they do? Thx guys.
 
ARelicMind said:
Geesh, i dont understand the logic behind the diagram. Why isnt it wired the way its shown on the manual? The crisscrossing of the cables confused me...do explain :). What is the NO and NC on the 2nd half of the loops? What do they do? Thx guys.
Ignore the NO and NC markings unless you're using the loops as switching jacks (like footswitches) - they stand for Normally Opened and Normally Closed. This is just to do with the polarity of the footswitch, as some products use different types of switch than others.

The reason it's wired this way from what I can tell is that the 4 series loops (loops 1-4) are in the effects loop of one of the amps. Only loop 5 is before the input of the amplifier. So the signal goes from the front input, via the buffer, into loop 5 (the Rocktron Hush and Fulltone overdrive). From there it goes to loop 6, which is used as an amp selector. When loop 6 is turned on, the signal goes to the Mesa Triple Rectifier; when loop 6 is turned off, the signal goes to the clean amp.

The effect send of the Triple Rectifier is connected to the Input jack, which feeds loops 1-4 (the Dod phaser, Boss Octave, Boss Harmonist and Boss Delay pedals). From there (the "Output" jack) the signal goes to the input of loop 7, which has the TC Electronic G-Force in it, and then the output of loop 7 goes back to the effect return on the Triple Rectifier. These loops are only relevant when loop 6 is turned on.

If loop 6 is turned off, the signal goes from the front input, via the buffer and loop 5 (the Hush and the Fulltone) as before, and then into loop 8, which is also connected to the TC G-Force. Because only one of loop 7 or loop 8 is ever active at once, it doesn't matter that Y cables are used for the input and output of the G-Force. The output of loop 8 then goes to the clean amp.

I think that's everything covered from reading the diagram, but I'm sure Dave will put me right if I've misread anything. It's perhaps not how I would wire things up (then again, I probably wouldn't choose that collection of gear) but it seems quite an effective way of doing things.
 
Oh wow, thx Martin for that explanation, appreciate it mate. Its a lot clearer to me now the possibilities of the RG-16. Although im still not sure why the 1st half of the loop has no In+Out, just send and return while the 2nd half has INs and OUTs as well. Whats the purpose of this???
Im really new to the switching concept, im just glad i got it setup in 2 days and doing what i need it to do. Id still love to understand it fully though. Sorry for hijacking the topic, i now its Dave's gear show not '20 questions with Alex' forum :)
 
ARelicMind said:
Oh wow, thx Martin for that explanation, appreciate it mate. Its a lot clearer to me now the possibilities of the RG-16. Although im still not sure why the 1st half of the loop has no In+Out, just send and return while the 2nd half has INs and OUTs as well. Whats the purpose of this???
Saves cables and thus less potential points of failure. Having 4 loops wired together internally with just 1 input before them and one output after them makes a lot of sense (so much so, they did it twice on the Effect Gizmo!). But having some individually wired loops makes it more flexible (plus you can use the individual loops as control switches instead).

Im really new to the switching concept, im just glad i got it setup in 2 days and doing what i need it to do. Id still love to understand it fully though. Sorry for hijacking the topic, i now its Dave's gear show not '20 questions with Alex' forum :)
Hehe, yeah you can take it as far as you want in terms of complexity or otherwise. The great stuff about this gear is that basic use is really straightforward, but it has the potential to do quite crazy switching systems. Particularly if you use an RG-16 and an Effect Gizmo together like I do. I used to have it wired so I could switch between parallel and series effects processors (which I'm considering doing again) but figuring out that was a bit of brain-ache!
 
Again, thx for the delightful insight...i think i get it better now. Basically the 1st half is a straightforward looper that turns on or bypasses and the second half has the routing options for multiple configurations depending where u want to 'tap' the inputs and outputs to...sounds bout right??
I swear the last thing i remembered last night in my head semi-conscious drifting off to sleep was the back panel of the RG16...the 1st 6 hour sleep i had since monday :) ...
 
Wow, after a while now it turns out I'm still in the discovery process. Now I am facing two, maybe three issues; #1.Whether I am using the RG16's buffer or not I'm getting a parallel 'clean' sound on my fulltone(loop5) #2. More importantly I'm getting lots of switching noises when changing to an from presets. I realize a lot of things come into play when considering this like midi delayed program changes, footswitch assignable midi delayed program changes, time- based effects,ect.. But the thing that gets me about this is that individualy all my midi gear has responded flawlessly, with a virtual 0ms patch change delay until all this. I have worked my way through all my old manuals hoping to find an offset to midi program changes in milliseconds thinking I can live with the G-force on a slightly higher program chng delay (or something). Anything to kill the spilled- over 'pop!' that carries into my new preset reverb! Any thoughts? Help me please!
Currently using the ART x-15 ultrafoot. It does allow for an up-to 15ms delay but only controls on one midi ch at a time, making it useless for say, telling the G-force to wait a while before changing. Arrrgh!
 
If you're getting a pop, the first thing I'd do is check each effect (at least, each one that pops). Measure the output of each effect with a voltmeter (on DC volts setting). With no input signal, the output should be 0 volts. If there's any voltage at all, even a tenth of a volt or two, it will pop when in a switcher loop. There are ways to fix it, but it depends on the effect in question...
 
Thanks. I'll do this, I'm sure that it is the main factor. I also found out that TC Electronics has an update 2.04 for the G-Force that will help for program changing (block bypass mode updates). Can't wait to post my findings here, you all have been real helpful. Any thoughts on my issue with my question as it pertains to getting a paralel 'clean' tone when using the fulltone (loop5)?
Dave
 
Well I found that the noise was caused by the cheap power chain I was using for the pedal fx. Problem solved. Also I have to remove the front-end (fulltone fd2) pedal and really use it before the rg-16. There's a staggering loss of tone doing it in the way I showed in my diagram. I will try throwing an A/B box in before that to solve it though. The rig with the overdrive on sounds fine, but there's a big loss on the mesa's bottom-end and punch when go from the gtr to the rg-16's inputs both with, and without the use of the buffer cuircut. Like I said, I'll prob just throw an ab box selecting between the rg16 going into the front of the amp and the guitar straight onto the front of the amp. This is something that I can just leave on the floor near the drummer for switching between songs that I need the od on. I'll try that and post my findings first because I really need to get as much fx off the floor and controlled by the rg16 as possible.
-goat
 
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