.50 Caliber + effects = poop

[lowendgenerator]

The subject title pretty much sums up my dilema. I am not asking for much, just a little chorus and vibe on top of my distortion. I love this amp, but I must have my effects. I suck without my effects. I tried running a GT-8 into the effects return, and that worked, but it pretty much made the .50 a power amp. Straight from the GT to the input on the head yielded poor results. I tried adjusting levels on both the amp and the GT8.

Is there a specific way I should hook everything up?

Thanks!

Adam

 

[scottcrud]

yep, dump the GT-8 and get pedal chorus and pedal vibe and plug into the front of the amp. I had my fx loop de-activated, it sucked, sounded like a blanket was on the speakers everytime I ever used mine.

 

[Russ]

Have you tried running it in the loop solely as an effects processor? Isn't it capable of running the GT-8 out to the input of the amp then in the loop also so that you can have effects both before and after the preamp?

 

[lowendgenerator]

Have you tried running it in the loop solely as an effects processor? Isn't it capable of running the GT-8 out to the input of the amp then in the loop also so that you can have effects both before and after the preamp?

I think this is called "The 4 cord method". I've seen it discussed, but I never thought about it in this instance. Doh! I'll try that.

Running a chorus and vibe pedal in front of the amp should yield the same result as running the GT-8. I can set the GT-8 just as a chorus or vibe or other individual effect, in essence making it a single pedal.

 

[scottcrud]

well, the impression I got was that you thought running fx in a .50 sounded bad, which has not been the case for me except in the fx loop. I've used a wah, a variety of chorus , flangers, and phaser pedals and they've all sounded good. Distortion pedals on the other hand pretty much don't work at all, but why would you need a distortion pedal with a Boogie?

 

[lowendgenerator]

well, the impression I got was that you thought running fx in a .50 sounded bad, which has not been the case for me except in the fx loop. I've used a wah, a variety of chorus , flangers, and phaser pedals and they've all sounded good. Distortion pedals on the other hand pretty much don't work at all, but why would you need a distortion pedal with a Boogie?

You can never have too much gain on a Boogie! Actually, I used a TS-808 patch with the GT-8 and the gain turned down to around 4 on the lead channel and it was great!

As for the other effects, they sound good on the rhythm channel, but terrible on the leads. Too much gain maybe? Perhaps a new set of tubes is in order. The power tubes have about 10 hours on them, but the pre-amp tubes are almost 9 months old. I've never messed with an effects loop before, so I wasn't sure I was correct in hooking it up.

I'll fool with it more tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for your input.

 

[visualrocker69]

Distortion pedals on the other hand pretty much don't work at all, but why would you need a distortion pedal with a Boogie?

I plan on using a BB Preamp to boost the lead on a Mark series amp, so... Not quite a distortion pedal, but still.

 

[scottcrud]

Od pedals and clean boost work well, but in my opinion distortion, fuzz type pedals do not, unless you're using the clean channel.

 

[Mrmot]

I'm sorry if you already knew this and did it this way, but it's not completelly clear from your posts what exactlly did you try, it seems to me that you plugged your guitar to gt-8 and then plugged the output from gt-8 to fx-return only? That way you'll be uisng the gt-8 as a preamp (using it's tone, actually) and using the boogie only as a poweramp.
If you want tone from the boogie and fx from the gt-8, do it this way:

1. disable EVERYTHING on the gt-8 except the fx. that includes all preamp modelling, "pedals" and cabinet simulations.
2. guitar to the boogie input, fx-send from boogie to gt-8 input, gt-8 output to fx-return on the boogie.

i'm sorry if i didn't understand you correctly and you already did it this way but to me it sounds like you left the amp sims on the gt-8 on, that would explain why it sounds good on clean but not so good on lead channel.

 

[lowendgenerator]

Hey Mrmot, thanks for the help. I connected them in 2 ways:

1. guitar>gt8>effects return

and

2. guitar>gt8>input

I made sure to disable all of the preamps and cab sims when going into the input, I knew that would cause poor sound. Going into the effects return wasn't bad, it was just like having a 6L6 power amp, but not what I was looking for.

Again, I am a total noob to effects loops, I'm used to cheap Crates and Line 6 modeling mish-mash. I'm off to the store today to get some extra cords, I'll lick this yet.

Thanks again to everyone for the help and input.

 

[Mrmot]

Hey Mrmot, thanks for the help. I connected them in 2 ways:

1. guitar>gt8>effects return

like you said yourself, this way you're using the boogie just as a poweramp

2. guitar>gt8>input

well, the unwritten rule is that time-based fx should always be used after the gain section(meaning, in fx loop), so if you want to use delay, reverb, chorus, tremolo etc, you should use them in your loop. There are still some fx that sound better (to most people) if they're in front of the gain section (e.g., wah)..

I have a studio.22+ which has (if i'm not mistaken) the same fx-loop (and preamp) as your .50 caliber and i think it works great. I always use a boss ge-7 in it's loop and no problems. A friend borrowed me his Zoom G2.1U (cool little unit) and i used it in loop of my amp for fx only, works like a charm!
good luck!

 

[lowendgenerator]

This 3 cord method works great for my .50, but when applied to my Nomad, nothing happens. lol. One down, one to go. FX loops for dummies continues.