Multis with Loops - One Pedal Many Sounds

monquixote

I've just had a minor revelation. To anyone to whom this is blindingly obvious I apologise as I'm not all that bright so it wasn't immediately apparent.  

Most of the bigger multis have a loop that can be used for 4CM or if you aren't a 4CM kind of a guy you can use to add an analogue pedal. If you don't like digital distortions this is quite useful as you can add your favorite drive into the picture. 

This is kind of cool, but only nets you a single pedal however if the multi has a per patch assignable send and return level then you can adjust the gain of the pedal in the loop by slamming it with more level and then compensating at the return. 

You can even go further than that. As most multis have EQ blocks or "clean mid boost" OD blocks you can also control the EQ of the pedal by placing some EQ either pre or post the loop. It's quite interesting to have one fairly flexible "amp in a can" pedal like a Distortron and then be able to manipulate it it various ways to get a variety of sounds. It's like having a programable analogue OD, but with your choice of pedal. 

ThePrettyDamned

That's actually really awesome. Just set up a bunch of eq blocks with varying levels of boost and you have several gain levels and tones from 2 boxes.

Nice one, wisdom!

digitalscream

Or, for even more coolness, get an ADA MP-1, Marshall JMP-1 or Rocktron Pirhanha then MIDI it up to the effects unit and have a complete effects + preamp rig that can feed into anything. I seriously considered doing this back when I had the G9.2tt, but I got distracted by something shiny.

monquixote

I'd seriously consider something like that, but I don't think any of those are going to do especially good clean sounds. 

digitalscream

monquixote said:

I'd seriously consider something like that, but I don't think any of those are going to do especially good clean sounds. 

Actually, the MP-1 has some brilliant clean sounds in it - it's got two clean channels (one solid state, one valve), so it does everything from pure, bell-like cleans through to bluesy, slightly-driven cleans.

The problem nowadays is finding one which hasn't been modded for looney levels of gain, which usually affects the valve clean channel in a less-than-positive manner.

thecolourbox

The Jmp1 has two clean channels, oli thought Clean 2 was nice when i had it. It was quite jangley and nice, very clear and could hear every note (not ideal with me playing unfortunately). Clean 1 was smoother sounding, i didn't think it suited my single coils that well but I'm not brilliant at playing cleans

I'm going to have to read your OP a few times more to understand it however