Anybody ever mod the Mark III effects loop send level?

[Whoopysnorp]

I'm having trouble getting my new Mark III to play well with my pedalboard. I'm trying to run a Moogerfooger ring mod, DOD flanger, Ibanez chorus, Small Stone, and Boss reverb/delay in the loop. I would also like to be able to have a pushed clean sound on R1 by running the Volume at 10. However, since that controls the effects send level in the rhythm modes, that clips the crap out of my pedals. I remembered this passage from the Mark III manual: "However, it is possible to further lower the Boogie's Effect output strength but not without increasing the noise and sacrificing some tone. For those who wish to do this we recommend changing resistor R230 from 6.8K to 4.7K."

Has anybody every tried this? Is the loss of tone noticeable? Alternatively, I'm considering getting something like this. An additional reason this would be nice is that I have a Studio Preamp involved in this rig as well, and I would be able to take its output into the pedal input 1, the III's effects send into input 2, and then run the pedal's output through my effects and back into the III's effects return. In fact, I'm already doing this with another A/B switcher that doesn't have this attenuation function, and it works great save for the level issues.

 

[robredo_mattila]

Hmmm....... It'd be interesting to see if anybody has the know-how to make it parallel and add a MIX knob to control the wet signal aswell where the parallel loop could be defeated by turning it back to 0/serial) but without losing the tone and inscreasing the noise as stated in the manual.

A parallel loop would make my Mark. III almost perfect... I'm tempted to buy a Suhr Minimix to make it a parallel loop but I'm certain I'd still encounter clipping in the loop.

 

[camsna]

Hmmm....... It'd be interesting to see if anybody has the know-how to make it parallel and add a MIX knob to control the wet signal aswell where the parallel loop could be defeated by turning it back to 0/serial) but without losing the tone and inscreasing the noise as stated in the manual.

A parallel loop would make my Mark. III almost perfect... I'm tempted to buy a Suhr Minimix to make it a parallel loop but I'm certain I'd still encounter clipping in the loop.

Get the MiniMix. You'll still clip the crap out of your instrument level FX. But the MiniMix is a great solution to mixing FX in parallel!

 

[Restless Rocks]

A very simple and effective solution to controlling FX send level would be to place this: http://cgi.ebay.com/VOLUME-BOX-Attenuator-MESA-BOOGIE-Tube-Amps-VoodooMan_W0QQitemZ280266289084QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item280266289084&_trkparms=72%3A1163%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 between the FX send and the input of first pedal in your loop. Also keep in mind that mixing many different types and brands of pedals in a string can sometimes reveal impedance mismatch problems between the pedals themselves, not a fault of the amp.

 

[camsna]

A very simple and effective solution to controlling FX send level would be to place this: http://cgi.ebay.com/VOLUME-BOX-Attenuator-MESA-BOOGIE-Tube-Amps-VoodooMan_W0QQitemZ280266289084QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item280266289084&_trkparms=72%3A1163%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14 between the FX send and the input of first pedal in your loop. Also keep in mind that mixing many different types and brands of pedals in a string can sometimes reveal impedance mismatch problems between the pedals themselves, not a fault of the amp.

Good call. +1.

 

[MrMarkIII]

Uh, I quote from the MiniMix Page:
"Please note that the MiniMix is designed to be used with a professional low-impedance buffered effects loop and line level effects processors. It will not work properly with insert loops of certain amplifiers or instrument signal level effects."

Instrument level effects means stomp-boxes, which is what you have. Buyer beware.

It seems to me , for a lot less cash even, you could get a cheap, tiny, (Behringer) mixer and run your amp in 'n' out of it, with the FX in the mixer's loop, and with all kinds of level and EQ control to boot.

Transparent? No. If you want transparent, you need to mike your "dry" amp into a mixer, with the FX, then run that into a separate "wet" amp. This mimics the way it's done in the studio (FX added "post" amp).

 

[camsna]

Derp! I accidentally added my own ish into my MiniMix recommendation.

MrMk is right. It won't work with the Mk. III's loop and instrument level effects. I'm having my loop modded (replaced, really) so that it meets the line-level requirements of the MiniMix and my other gear and based on THAT, I recommended the MiniMix. Whoopsie!

Sorry for projecting