Pedalboard chain question

[AlexDelores]

Hi
so... I have recently gone from using just a distortion and tuner to experimenting with effects and boards etc so im new to the whole chain thing.

I've seen on here a lot of people talking about separate loops etc.

I was hoping someone could explain how and why the reason for running separate chains within a pedalboard.

Completely new to pedalboards and effects but im gonna be building on my board with tremelo and delay pedals soon and just wanted to understand the reasons for and how too run separate chains in order to get the best setup.



My current setup is:

Bass>envelope filter>ashdowndistortion>EHXdistortion>compressor>tuner>amp(Ashdown ABM 500)

I will be getting rid of the EHX Russian Muff soon and replacing it with a Tremelo and a Delay pedal.

My power supply is the supplied one that came with my old Boss pedalboard, when I changed boards I built a little steel box for it and it powers the whole board.

I tried uploading a picture but at the moment im having no joy.

Hope you can help
Alex

[pantherairsoft]

Hi Alex, if I understand correctly you want to know the differenence between a serial loop like yours (one pedal into the next to next etc then onto the amp) and using parallel loops?

If so then compared to how your chain is structured a parallel loop would allow you to hear two effects side by side through your amp, as if they were 2 separate instruments. Example...

If you run a fuzz into an envelope filter you get a nice wet synth sound.

If you use separate loops via something like a Boss LS-2 then you will hear the fuzz and the envelope side by side as of you were using them separately. The sounds will be completely unmixed.

The application is commonly used to run effect that suck bass in one loop and to run nothing (so you hear your full clean sound) or an octave down in the other, this allows you to hear a big fully untouched bass tone while still having your effects.

Shep

[xgsjx]

There's also having effects in their own loop within the chain.
A simple example could be having a chain going octaver>loop>chorus>amp. In the loop you have 2 or more fx, so say fuzz>filter.
So when the loop is bypassed & all pedals are on, you get octaver>chorus. Then you activate the loop & it puts the other 2 on in the chain.
This is useful for when you want to turn more than 1 effect on for a section of a song (it saves tap dancing).

My board has this (with 3 effects) & also a parallel loop as Pantherairsoft describes, which is only activated within the loop.

Edited January 13, 2013 by xgsjx

[AlexDelores]

Sweet thanks a lot gents, that's exactly what I wanted to know.

so If I used a Boss LS-2 mentioned by Shep to create a parallel chain, How would I go about running the individual loops aswell?
would I need a line selector for every individual loop?
also could I set up individual loops without running a parallel loop? (so, could I add individual loops into my current chain?

Thanks again
Alex

[Invisible]

If you think to have to manage many effects, with different loop combinations, and you have money to spend, buy a switcher like Carl Martin Combinator or similar

[tonyquipment]

Yes good question. I have a similar dilemma.

The ehx big muff pi has two outputs. Wet output and dry output.

The dry one useful for sticking an octave at the end if it and running it into EFX send. Obviously the wet straight into the amp...

How do I do this more efficiently? Or is that it? ??