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srieck
Copper Member
29 Posts |
 Posted - 09/03/2005 : 07:47:21
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How many are you able to get in a loop before the signal is noticably degraded with all the pedals off ?
A/Bing with a PSM-5 for example it seems to me anything more than six starts to go downhill fast.
I'd like to get my board set up with a few more but noot if it kills the tone. I'm using George L cables btw. |
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boss freak
Gold Member
USA
663 Posts |
Posted - 09/03/2005 : 08:39:25
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| It probably depends on your guitar and amp setup, but I've had anywhere from 5 to 12 pedals in my signal chain without any noticeable signal degradation. You can also run an EH2 (Enhancer) in your signal chain to allegedly defeat any signal loss. Although I do own one, I never found the need to use it with my setup. |
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bossarea
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
3652 Posts |
Posted - 09/03/2005 : 14:02:32
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| It also depends on which pedals are in your PSM-5 loop. The bypass loop should be pretty much identical on all Boss pedals but there are still differences. |
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srieck
Copper Member
29 Posts |
Posted - 09/03/2005 : 15:30:19
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I got PSM-5, TU-2, Vox Wah, AnalogMan Comp, OC-2, Keeley TS-9, CE-2, CE-5, EHX Small Stone, DD-3, DD-5, DM-2, GE-7.
Guess I'm dreaming to think I can get all that in the loop without noticable signal loss. Might have to trim it down to the 4 or 5 most used.
A few are running on batterys (and some are getting low). Could that make them less efficient in bypass and be causing the problem? |
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GOB
Bronze Member
Philippines
101 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2005 : 19:29:32
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Using batteries might be the culprit my friend.  |
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arcanon1313
Silver Member
USA
414 Posts |
Posted - 09/04/2005 : 21:18:44
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| I'd say you should get another power adaptor for the rest of your pedals. That should give your signal an added boost. |
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Goran
Double Platinum Member
Sweden
2203 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2005 : 07:37:36
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| More than 3-4 degrade the signal if you play with a crystal clear, dynamic clean tubeamp. I use EH-2 and by-pass pedals to overcome this. But if I have an overdrive on all the time, I can use 4-5 without too much degradiation. |
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OBSERVER
Copper Member
USA
13 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2005 : 08:56:11
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| Apparently a guitar equipped with active pickups degrades less than a guitar with passive pickups because actives are low impedance. A VHT Valvulator will turn your signal into low impedance. For pedal power, Voodoo Labs makes something great for that. |
Edited by - OBSERVER on 09/05/2005 08:58:03 |
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stinkfoot
Silver Member
Sweden
181 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2005 : 17:08:50
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quote:
Originally posted by OBSERVER
Apparently a guitar equipped with active pickups degrades less than a guitar with passive pickups because actives are low impedance. A VHT Valvulator will turn your signal into low impedance. For pedal power, Voodoo Labs makes something great for that.
This is true. However, it only goes so far as the first input stage in the first pedal - after that, the output stage in that pedal handles the signal. Until it hits the next input stage, when that stage takes over. And so on (repeat for each Boss-type pedal).
Any tone-sucking caused by mismatched impedances (guitar pickups vs input stage in first pedal) will be taken care of by a dedicated buffer like the Valvulator, Axess BS2 or similar. Then the connection to the guitar pickups will be handled by that input stage, instead of the one in the first pedal.
Generally, signal degradation in chains made up of Boss-type pedals (buffered with electronic bypass) are caused by having too many buffer stages in the chain. There's two in each pedal, each adding a bit of noise... This problem will not be solved by adding yet another buffer stage at the front. The only real cure is to take pedals out of the chain (via true bypass loops, for instance), to reduce the number of buffer stages.
But if it can be established that a single pedal is the one mostly responsible for the tone-sucking - a wah pedal first in the chain being a prime example here - placing a buffer stage in front of it (i.e. between it and the guitar) can help quite a bit. Of course, modifying the offending pedal for true bypass will probably be even better, but that's another story...
/Andreas |
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arcanon1313
Silver Member
USA
414 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2005 : 21:02:20
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All bow down to Stinkfoot! The god of all effects! |
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stinkfoot
Silver Member
Sweden
181 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2005 : 22:07:49
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Ah, yes - excellent...
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Edited by - stinkfoot on 09/06/2005 22:08:11 |
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Topic |
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Degraded signal - How many pedals ?
