FX Loop on a 2 Channel Rev G problems??

[jdiz]

Jumping from my solid state marshall, where I would only play through the clean channel and have all my pedals up front, to playing on my Dual Rectifier Rev G has come with a few surprises.

I bought a EHX Holy Grail Reverb pedal (already got rid of it) and had problems putting it in the loop. Feedback would slowly build up if I had the fx loop engaged and if I put any other effects pedals (like my hardwire delay) in front or behind it, they simply wouldn't work! Also tried throwing the EHX pedal in all positions in front of the amp - sounded like garbage! Sometimes I would turn on my delay pedal and the reverb pedal, in the loop, at the same time and I would get this terrible wavy deep bass type sound... like my amp was about to blow.

Both pedals worked well on their own, with the exception of the EHX's feedback issue. Is that my loop's problem or is the EHX pedal just an absolute signal hog. Or is this a Parallel vs Series issue? (this amp is wired in parallel). Anyone else experienced issues like this with their fx loop? should I get it wired to series? I don't use any vintage effects, so does this render send and return levels obsolete?

I'm almost afraid to purchase effects now. I want a good DELAY, REVERB, and CHORUS. I currently run a ns2, hardwire tuner, and a maxon od808 in front of the amp. Any recommendations for delay, reverb, or chorus pedals that will work well with my setup?

Cheers.

 

[hydro]

I had a hard time running an EHX Cathedral, which was a great sounding pedal, but I could not deal with the volume drop and it did not behave well in the FX loop either; I would always end up with a volume difference of some kind when I punched in the loop. I did not have feedback problems though, unless I had the send really high. The Holy Grail is supposed to be true bypass, so I would think that buffers would not be an issue. I assume you already went through the dead-chicken waving exercises that Mesa suggests for tuning the send & return on the FX loop to your pedals, running 100% wet, etc.? As I recall, they say "best results if you run your effect 100% wet and use the return mix to roll off the effect". But I bet that EHX pedal doesn't like being run at 100% wet and if you are running it all the way up it will make a lot of noise.

The EHX Memory Man, for example, has a gain control so you can avoid volume suck when you punch it in but I don't see that feature on any of their reverb pedals. I have had better luck with pedals in front of the amp and have discontinued using my Recto's FX loop completely; to be fair though, I probably wasn't using the loop correctly and I was running too long of cables and too many pedals through it.

The only thing I would put in it now would be delay or reverb but I'm not sure if I could find one that worked well. Maybe some type of rack mount unit, but I'm not sure if I want to mess around with setting all that up each time I play. I do have an old Alesis reverb which might be a cool thing to try sometime.