Howdy Ho,
And no, I'm not calling anyone a ho. Allow me to describe my setup, if you will, and then, hopefully, some of you veterans will be able to help. "Help! Help! I'm being sonically repressed!"
My amp is a Marshall Vintage Modern 2266 50W suckeroonee. I have created an FX loop from this amp which includes the following, in their current order in the chain:
a) an Ernire Ball VP jr. volume pedal
b) a B.K. Butler Tube Driver
c) a Line 6 Constrictor compressor
d) an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man
e) an MXR SmartGate
In contemplating and experimenting, and in reading some of the posts on this site, I've come to realize I have some of these units in the wrong position in the chain. One chap wrote that the noise gate is best placed after the overdrive, I believe. Also, while placing the volume pedal in front of the loop was intended to let me mix the loop in with my main signal, not having a volume pedal or properly configured gate at the end of the loop, apparently, means that even if I kill volume using the pedal at the front of the loop in order to blend out any FX from my signal, all that horrendous noise from the chain of FX goes pouring back into the amp's FX Return and then, voila, out through the cab.
While some of this is no doubt as obvious as nachos with extra cheese to many of you, for me it's all new and I'm just learning, so any helpful advice would be most welcome.
M
Me myself, with your setup, I might try plugging the guitar directly into the Volume pedal and then into the overdrive pedal then into the amp.
I'd try (in this order) in the loop, your compresser then noise gate and then delay..
tobe honest if it were me, I would go guitar, volume, compressor, distortion and noise gate. The only thing I would run through the loop would be my delay.
At least give it a try and tell me what you think.
And for the record, my main live setup consits of a Strat plugged into a Wah plugged into a Tube Screamer plugged into a Seymour Duncan Twin Tube plugged into my amp (hot Rod Deville usualy these days) and then I run a delay in my FX loop.. but just enough that you don't know it is there UNLESS you remove it.. subtleness is the key with the delay.
Thank you for the tips and I shall try them, although in the past, when I plugged ANYTHING into the amp's input except the guitar itself, the noise was horrendous. That's one reason I decided to put all FX etc. in the loop. But I will try your suggestions.
Meanwhile, I realized I may have failed to fully illustrate my setup. In addition to the aforementioned Marshall amp/cab, I have a Vox amp. I am trying, you see, to create a two amp setup--the Vox for clean, the Marshall for distorted. So, at no time do I need a clean sound coming out of the Marshall, for that I will pan over to the Vox using my Ernie Ball Stereo Volume/Pan Pedal, whose multiple ins and outs allow me to use to pan back and forth between amps.
So, bearing that in mind, I will proceed with my experimentation...
M
"Thank you for the tips and I shall try them, although in the past, when I plugged ANYTHING into the amp's input except the guitar itself, the noise was horrendous."
It shouldn't be.. if you are getting noise from your volume pedal, turned off distortion, compression or your noisegate, something is amis.
All of those should run clean as a whistle into your primary input ..
Thank you for the tips and I shall try them, although in the past, when I plugged ANYTHING into the amp's input except the guitar itself, the noise was horrendous. That's one reason I decided to put all FX etc. in the loop. But I will try your suggestions.
M
Almost all of those pedals can add gain to a signal chain. Here's some good articles on amps and effects that will help you learn what's causing this.
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
