Mini Rec - EQ Out Front or in the Loop?

[KiwiJoe]

Hi all. Mini Rec, 1X12 set-up. I'm all amp, no OD or distortion pedal, and I don't use a lot of gain. I don't want to boost the gain, but I use a GE-7 to get a bit more mids in pushed or vintage. It would seem that putting it in the loop would be the better choice rather than out front shaping the signal to the pre-amp or adding gain.

Am I on the right track? How do you do it? Thoughts, comments?

 

[soundchaser59]

When I had an Express I ran my (Allums modded) GE7 in the loop always on. Loved it there, way better than pushing the signal hotter up front.

I don't have a GE7 right now, but when I get one I will mod it and stick it in the Mini Rec's loop for sure. Gotta be careful though because I believe the master on the Mini Rec also acts as a loop send level. I tried a chorus pedal in the loop but the pedal would feedback if the master volume went up too high. The input of the GE7 in the loop may clip easily if you run your amp loud a lot. One solution would be to turn the master down and up the gain on the GE7 to slam the power tubes harder. If the GE7 is modded it will be quiet enough to do this.

 

[KiwiJoe]

When I had an Express I ran my (Allums modded) GE7 in the loop always on. Loved it there, way better than pushing the signal hotter up front.

I don't have a GE7 right now, but when I get one I will mod it and stick it in the Mini Rec's loop for sure. Gotta be careful though because I believe the master on the Mini Rec also acts as a loop send level. I tried a chorus pedal in the loop but the pedal would feedback if the master volume went up too high. The input of the GE7 in the loop may clip easily if you run your amp loud a lot. One solution would be to turn the master down and up the gain on the GE7 to slam the power tubes harder. If the GE7 is modded it will be quiet enough to do this.

Thanks man, I'll keep that in mind. I only use the GE-7, really, to get a Mark I-ish tone for Santana type stuff, so it's flat gain on the pedal with only the 800 hz boosted; stays pretty quiet that way. I've got the Boss CE-5 chorus, and it has a level adjustment, so I haven't had any feedback issues with that. I run the Master at 12-1 o'clock, Gain around 10-11 on vintage for my dirt, and it's sweet as.

 

[elvis]

If you want to cut frequencies, go before. If you want to boost, put it in the loop.

The idea is to minimize the stuff getting clipped to keep it articulate.

 

[djw]

My experience has always been that if you want a volume boost on a fairly overdriven amp, put the booster in the loop. This can be an EQ, clean boost, or whatever.

However, if you're running pretty clean it probably doesn't matter that much, unless you really don't want to change the shape/gain signature of the signal. For solo boosts I don't mind a little more dirt on the signal if I have a decent low-gain thing going, so most of the time I can get what I want with my EP Booster in front: it gives a hair more mids and usually gives just the right amount of extra juice and a slight bump in loudness.

But if I'm already pretty dirty, boosting in front just makes a mess of things and it gets more distorted, but not really any louder. Definitely not more audible, which is usually the goal. So in that case, it makes way more sense to put a clean boost in the loop (like your EQ). EQs make great boosts, obviously.

I see in the manual that the recommended MV setting is between 9:00 - 2:00, and that any more can overdrive the fx loop. So there's that to consider.

 

[KiwiJoe]

I tried it out front and immediately went right back to in the loop. I'm not using the EQ for a boost; really using it as an EQ for just a 1.6 kHz bump and flat gain on "vintage" to get a Mark I-ish tone for certain applications. After our last gig I concluded that I need to back the amp gain from 10 to 9 o'clock and leave the master at about 1-2 when using the EQ like that; I was fighting a bit of feedback a few times during the night. I'm getting much better results using more mains and less preamp with my semi-hollowbody. I get massive sustain and retain a lot more clarity that way, and it takes care of the feedback, too. This amp is just awesome and continues to amaze me.

Thanks for all the recommendations and insight, guys.

 

[brich]

I have a Single Rec and a Mini and run a GE-7 in the effects loop. I bump the 800 and 1.6k just a notch to around 2.5 and lower the level a little to keep the volume the same with the pedal on or off (great mid boost). For me, it works better in the loop. I run a TS9 in front the amp for more sustain for leads and keep it off otherwise. I keep the drive all the way down, the tone at 9:00 and the level around 3:00 and it gives a nice boost as well.

Have you tried the ISP Decimator to help with noise/feedback? I run it last in my effects chain in front of the amp and put the dial at 9:00. It is perfect for keeping the feedback and noise down and not cutting off your signal too early. It would be hard for me to gig without it. I keep the gain around 11 - 12:00 on the amp and the master around 11:00 and it keeps it quiet when you mute the strings.

 

[KiwiJoe]

Have you tried the ISP Decimator to help with noise/feedback?

No, got that all sorted now. Like I said, it was only a problem when using the EQ, and backing the gain down on the amp takes care of the problem; although I might play around with your technique of backing a few dB of gain out of the EQ instead.

 

[brich]

Very cool man. Yeah, it helped a lot when I backed down on the EQ level a bit.