Blender pedal: is the Boss LS-2 good enough?

[Lobster fingers]

I want to mix my dry signal and wet signal together into the same amp. My current effects include a Markbass supersynth, a Soundblox multiwave distortion, a Way Huge Green Rhino, Way Huge Swollen pickle, TC electronics corona and a TC electronics Flashback. I will probably use 2-4 of these in an effects loop and then user a blender pedal to combine with the dry signal before going into my amp.

I was thinking about a Boss LS-2, but after reading around I’m not sure now. Various people say you can suffer from signal loss due to phase problems or because of a long signal chain. Is the LS-2 adequate for what I want to do or is there a better (not too expensive) specialised blend pedal I should look at?

[ahpook]

the LS-2 doesn't have any way of inverting the phase of the signal in the signal chain, so if one (or an odd number) of you pedals inverts then you'll not be able to blend them with the clean very well (at all really).

some blenders do have phase switches (like the exotic effects x-blender).

long signal chain ? not sure if that's an issue - the sends and returns on the LS-s are presumably buffered so that shouldn't be a problem.

Edited March 20, 2013 by ahpook

[cheddatom]

I don't know any blenders with a phase control built in but I'm sure there are some specialist ones around. So, in that respect, the LS-2 will be on a par with all common blenders.

The LS-2 allows you to mix two chains of effects together (among other functions), which is sometimes a lot more useful than just a clean blend.

I have a barge concepts blender, and a SFX mixer thing, they all sound similar to me!

edit to say - I'm not sure a phase inverter switch would be that much use, you might as well just make a jack lead that flips the phase

Edited March 20, 2013 by cheddatom

[Ant]

boss ls2 is great, one reason i prefer it to a standard true bypass looper is that you can cut or boost the signal in each loop

[burno70]

The Boss LS-2 is the only pedal I've bought - twice. Sold it and regretted it and had to get another one. My preferred use is so that I can trigger multiple effect with one stomp but having the clean blend and volume options are excellent options to have. I've never had a problem using the pedal with a long signal chain - I think its looping about 10 other pedals at the moment - never had any issues.

I think the Xotic X-Blender has a phase switch on it. Pricey though.

[uncle psychosis]

There are better blenders out there than the LS-2 but they cost significantly more. Personally, I'd buy a second hand LS-2 and see if it does what you want. You'll easily sell it again if you need to.

[ahpook]

one cheap way to get out of phase problems with the LS-2 is to put a pedal in the loop that does invert the phase. i've used a ehx lpb-1 in the past. very slight bass suckage tho.

[Lobster fingers]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I will buy a LS-2 and see if it does what I need.

[Graham]

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1363909409' post='2019570']
one cheap way to get out of phase problems with the LS-2 is to put a pedal in the loop that does invert the phase. i've used a ehx lpb-1 in the past. very slight bass suckage tho.
[/quote]
Or re-solder a connector cable to invert the phase - cheaper still! :-)

[RandomProddy]

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1364124989' post='2022062']
Or re-solder a connector cable to invert the phase - cheaper still! :-)
[/quote]

Bear in mind the ground would be flipped and could play merry-hell with grounding...

[Max Normal]

Sorry I'm a bit late with this, but this seems like a very good deal at the moment:
http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Belcat-ABS-520-Dual-Input-A-B-Box-True-Bypass/FY4

Just bought one. Not sure how good it is (or if it's passive), but I'll let anyone who is interested know.

[fretmeister]

Passive blenders suck. Hum is a big problem. The LS2 is great. Been on my board for years.

[dincz]

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1364124989' post='2022062']
Or re-solder a connector cable to invert the phase - cheaper still! :-)
[/quote]

This would only work with a balanced connection. Flipping the connections on an unbalanced cable would connect earth to hot and hot to earth - result, dead silence.