Effects chain questions

[XevKai]

Hails all,

I recently got back into using foot pedal effects and I'm kinda looking for ideas on how to go about setting them up.

Right now I have:
Fulltone OCD
Dunlop Crybaby
Ibanez SC10 Chorus
Arion SAD-1 Delay
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
EH Holy Grail Reverb
ISP Decimator

Right now Im using them mainly inline but I can't hep wondering if some of these effects would sound better in the loop, especially the delays. Whats your opinions? I've got no experience with the effects loop at all so im kinda lost.

 

[Stratocaster]

Hi Xev,


Guitar into...
CryBaby
Fulltone
(Decimator)

Then into the input on the front of the amp.
From the loop send into...

Chorus
(Decimator)
Reverb
Boss Delay
Arion Stereo Delay

Then into the effects return on the back of the amp.

Put the Decimator in one of the two places I indicated. Don't put it after the delay or reverb.
What amp do you have (parallel or series loop, depending on your answer)?


Strat

 

[Chris McKinley]

I'd make just one correction to Stratocaster's recommendations. Put the delay before the reverb in the loop. Reverb is always the last effect in the chain. You don't want your reverberations to get delayed so that you hear them repeatedly. You want your delays to sound like they're in the same acoustic space as the original guitar signal, just as would occur naturally, and for the reverberations to fade off realisticly, not start over again with each iteration of delay. Minor thing perhaps, but it makes a noticeable difference in the realism of the sound, especially in recording contexts.

 

[Stratocaster]

Nice catch, Chris.
I've seen it both ways, but knew intuitively something about the reverb before the delay just didn’t seem ‘natural’.


Strat

 

[XevKai]

I have a late 90's 2 channel Dual Rectifier. Guess that would have helped I tried the delay in the loop and man it's definitly what I was looking for. What would the Decimator do in the loop compaired to in line? Gonn mess with some of this at rehearsal as well.

How does the master volumes for individual channels work when the loop is active... also why would I want anything other then 100% on the send and return outs?

ty for the help so far!

 

[Chris McKinley]

XevKai,

RE: "What would the Decimator do in the loop compaired to in line?". Before the amp, the Decimator will kill the noise from your guitar. This is usually from single coil pickups, insufficient potting/grounding of humbuckers, or insufficient shielding of switches and pots. In the loop, it will also kill the noise generated by other effects pedals. This will give you a more silent operation, especially at loud volumes. It's a tradeoff though, because noise gate pedals can also sometimes cause artificial bloom at the beginning of a note and artificially cut off the natural decay of that note, especially when used with delay pedals.

Try it both ways and see which you like best. Also, the send/return can never be set higher than 90% wet/10% dry. It's a hard limitation of the controls.

 

[Commander Coo1]

i have my front end a bit different,
guitar
wah
decimator
boost

i have the decimator before the boost becasue when i put it afterwards i had to really turn the decimator up to quiet the boosted signal, which is fine until you turn off the boost and the decimator cuts out sound because now its set way to high for the normal signal. but if i always used the boost i would put the decimator after the boost

 

[Chris McKinley]

Commander,

That makes sense in your situation, though if you put the Decimator in the loop, you not only wouldn't have that problem, but you'd have noise reduction on both the overdrive and the non-overdrive modes.