Today I listened to you guys and tried the fx loop boost thing !!

riffpowers

ive borrowed a mates Marshall jubilee reissued , which has a loop. I put my boss eq in the loop with a couple of patch leads and tried it out. Worked great ! And you hardly need to turn the volume on the pedal up much to get a good audible boost in volume. 

I know a lot of you guys use this technique , I wondered if there is a better pedal than the boss eq for this , and I also wondered if using decent length leads (so I can get it on the floor ) makes it noisier or not as good or anything ??! 

Funkfingers

Any simple, one-knob level booster should suffice. True bypass would be desirable. 

Graphic and semi-parametric Equaliser pedals make sense if you require frequency-specific boosting. 

flying_pie

Any EQ or clean boost will do the trick. 

Another useful option is an EQ or volume attenuator to reduce the volume in the loop (or a permanently on boost that you turn off). This can be really useful if you're playing a high gain part when the rest of the band are playing quietly. That way you can have three preset volumes for any given tone.

TTBZ

I like an EQ so you can cut the bass/boost the mids and highs a bit but something as simple as an EHX LPB1 does the job as well.

John_A

Anything really, the Boss EQ is great, also allows you to tweak your lead sound as well as boost it.  Long leads are fine, won't add any noise worth worrying about 

if if you already have a GE7 no need to buy anything else 

i would also also say the buffer in the Boss is better than true bypass when you could be running 40 foot of cable in the loop

jdbwales

MXR Micro Amp.

uncledick

MXR Graphic is much quieter than the Boss unit.

Snags

I have a TC mini-spark as the last pedal in my loop, works a treat for just giving that little bit more without stuffing the drive. Very slightly fattens up the sound too.

Legionreturns

On the Karana you can just put a patch lead from send to return, and use the foot switch to turn the fx loop on and off. Then just set the level and eq of the fx loop to taste and you have a clean boost pedal for the price of a patch lead. 

mr-mac

How about rothwell F1???? Has enough volume range to be a solo boost or a rhythm cut... Tone control can boost trebble and cut bass or boost bass and cut trebble.  Then it has a mid button which will either give a scooped mid or a slight mid boost.

p90fool

The other thing you can do with the EQ pedal is set your lead tone with it off, then switch it on with a quieter, scooped mids tone for rhythm. 

octatonic

Try the Empress Para Eq.

pintspiller

I remember seeing a pub covers band years ago where the guitarist only had Boss EQ and Boss Chorus. I hadn't been playing long, so I guess it was 30 years ago, and I was blown away. Mind you, I've never been brave enough to use EQ on its own, relying on OD and distortion pedals separately or in combination

randella

I use the same trick on my Mini Rec, Boss EQ in the loop. I use long leads and don’t notice any extra noise either at home or at gigs. 

Use decent leads to avoid tone suck and you should be right. 

p90fool

Generally an FX loop signal is not as fragile as a guitar signal - lead length is not much of an issue. 

riffpowers

Thanks guys . I like the mxr eq too, but the 6 band one doesn’t have a volume control on .

flying_pie

riffpowers said:

Thanks guys . I like the mxr eq too, but the 6 band one doesn’t have a volume control on .

Doesn't matter. All you really need is a small mid boost for lead tone - only a few dB will suffice. You can do that with the sliders and there's no need for the volume control. 

randella

p90fool said:

Generally an FX loop signal is not as fragile as a guitar signal - lead length is not much of an issue. 

The only time I’ve had problems it’s not been the long leads, it’s when I’ve had to make do joining up boxes on my pedalboard with some old patch cables that I keep meaning to throw out. They’ve got old-fashioned pancake jacks on and will pick up every last bit of RF interference possible. I don’t know why they’re still in the spare bits “drawer of doom” to be honest. 

roberty

I want to try this cos I have delay and modulation on my lead sound, and for my base tone I want to blend my turbo rat with some preamp crunch. But I also use some character fuzz pedals for my lead sounds, stacked on top of the rat, I don't think they'll interact well with a hot signal from FX loop. Can always give it a go I guess. Tbf the turbo rat sounds formidable on its own

riffpowers

So I have a Wah with a volume control on , would I put that in the loop too?!

viz

Nope put that first in the chain (possibly after the compressor)