Drive pedal in effects loop of Road King

[MesaMonster]

Hello everyone,

I have been trying for awhile to dial in a good tone on my RK II. Someone had suggested putting a drive/dirt pedal in the effects loop. I would think that it would become mush or nasty in the loop. I also have learned recently that certain types of dirt pedals go with certain types of amps. I am open for suggestions as to what to put in the loop. What would be the difference between putting it in front or in the loop?

Thx.

 

[Dreamtheaterrules]

Drive pedals don't go in the loop, they go in front. Unless you plug the guitar into the pedal and use IT as the pre-amp, you don't put drive pedals in the loop.

In fact, if you're having trouble dialing in good tones on a Road King, the first thing I'd do is unplug EVERYTHING else from the amp. No effects, no crap in the way. Guitar>amp>speaker cab. Then, have you tried it with any other cabs? THat cab shouldn't be bad, but don't know what speakers and that could be a mis-match of sorts...

That said, a Road King should be about the most versatile amp on the planet. If you can't get good tones out of it, I'd either A) make sure the tubes are good, B) read the manual and try some of their suggested settings as starting points and if that doesn't work the C.

C= "what the heck are you looking for that you can't find in a Road King???" :shock:

 

[domct203]

When using a 'drive' pedal with a tube amp, it is used in front of the amp to push or drive the signal harder into the preamp to enhance the natural compression and sustain of the preamp tubes. Pedals like the TS-9 Tube Screamer also provide a bit of low-cut and mid-boost to further tighten and overdrive the signal. With a high gain amp like the RK, the typical setting would be gain/drive very low to off, volume/output up near max, & tone to taste.

Putting an OD pedal in the loop will overdrive the PI and output section to the point of over compression and will destroy the dynamics of the amp.

YMMV.

Dom

 

[peterdenny]

Hello everyone,

I have been trying for awhile to dial in a good tone on my RK II. Someone had suggested putting a drive/dirt pedal in the effects loop. I would think that it would become mush or nasty in the loop. I also have learned recently that certain types of dirt pedals go with certain types of amps. I am open for suggestions as to what to put in the loop. What would be the difference between putting it in front or in the loop?

Thx.

My suggestion is lay way off the gain on ch 3\4 to begin with. It seems like good idea to crank the gain all the way but I find it helps to roll it back around 5-6 especially if you are going to front load a OD pedal. I have a BB but I use it mainly on my clean channels and run just the rk gain for the latter channels. The right pickups and guitar setup will make a huge difference as well. If you are playing a tele, its not going to rock like a les paul.

One other thing that matters is your tubes. I switch out tubes on all my amps. There are a lot of things you can consider in your tone but this is the one place I think you can really make a big difference. Everyone wants mullards but you can find NOS GE preamp tubes for a lot less that are great and can really make your tone sparkle. I got 5 NIB NOS military grade ones for 80 bucks on ebay.

Here is some really good reading from Watford Valves. They do power tube testing and stuff with different amps etc.

https://www.watfordvalves.com/cgi-bin/documents/report_ECC83_12AX7.pdf

https://www.watfordvalves.com/cgi-bin/documents/testreport_2.pdf

https://www.watfordvalves.com/cgi-bin/documents/testreport_48.pdf