Triple rec loop issue!!!!!!!!!

[ChunkMonkey72]

Hey hey new to these forums here and hopefully my question has not been answered many times before, I have looked a fair bit on here and used the search feature to no avail.

My issue is the following, I have a 3 channel triple rec and the Parallel effects loop is causing me a world of grief. If I run my amp with nothing in the loop it runs 100% fine just using the channel masters as volume but if I put anything in the loop at all after a few seconds to a few minutes even hours at times, you can hear the signal drop out and get very quiet and thin sounding. It sometimes comes back on its own and other times you have to go to standby and back on but it will happen again every time.

I have tryed 100% mix with only a light send level as to not freek out the units in the loop. I have tryed the following things in the loop a boss digital delay and chorus ensemble, and a rocktron intellifex also I have tryed a cable only just to get signal through the loop. And no matter what the sound will cut out. I have tryed loop on and foot switchable, and have tryed on chan 1 only as I idealy only want my clean tone to be effected by the loop effects. As then I don't have to hit all the pedals on when I switch from dist to clean as they will already be on in the loop but only on the clean section. I am very happy with the gain more so on channel 2 as I find channel 3 a bit to brittle sounding. I will soon be swapping out the 6L6s in favor of EL34s in hopes of taming the brittle channel 3 and add some warmth to the cleans.

But this loops thing is baffling me, I have also tryed changing out the 12ax7 in the v4 position in hopes that it was a bad tube in for the loop send and return. Having a unusable loop is just killing me, as I also prefer the tone I get when I have loop active volume running as well.

You can usually tell when its about to happen as my tone starts to go a little flat and muddy then it just vansishes and sounds like its barely on and inside a tin can if you get what I mean.

Thanks in advance for any input or advice to try, great little forum you all have going on here.

 

[JohnP]

Hi,
My first thought was the V4 valve - but if you've changed this and are confident about hte new valve then I guess something else is at fault.

Next thing I would look at is the cables your connecting to the loop.

Aside from that I guess you'll have to take it to a tech for a once over.

Good luck with sorting it.

John

 

[ChunkMonkey72]

Hey thanks for the reply John, its really been driving me nuts having a useless loop, and was hoping to find a magic try this to avoid a tech bill. And yes I have tryed a pair of new 12ax7s in the v4 as it was the only thing I could think of, being that this issue only shows up with something in the loop. So to me that kind of ruled out a bad output tranny or power tube or rec tube even though I use the silicone diode setting. As this fade would would show up even with nothing in the loop I would think.

The only other thing I can think of is a slightly dirty pot or loose connection on the loop inputs, as I have tryed many different cables in the loop and they all fail, yet work in front of the amp etc. After getting home from work today I gave the send and return a light wiggle with a cable in them and the return does not feel as snug as the send (not real sloppy at all just not as tight as the send one), so I am hoping its just a loose connection. And that vibrations from the cab are making the connection hit and miss. I don't think it would be that though as I can't see why a switch in and out of standby would fix the drop. Granted once it drops which at times can be a hour into playing or right away, the standby flip only brings the volume back for a very short while and it drops again quite fast.