Delay pedal in FX Loop (ohmage/levels wrong?)

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Steve Henningsgard

Steve Henningsgard

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I'm using a Boss DD-3 and a Rivera Knucklehead Reverb. When I put the DD-3 in the FX Loop on the distorted channel(s), I get a sort of overdriven/distorted sound on top of the actual wanted distortion (as though I'm overdriving the pedal or something). It's slightly difficult to explain, but essentially there's extra very audible, unpleasant noise on top of the smooth distorted sound I'm going for.

I believe it might be that the pedal isn't made to go in the FX Loop (unfortunately, I really don't have much electrical knowledge, despite numerous attempts at teaching myself through forums and articles online), but I very much dislike the sound of the pedal in front of the amp when distorted, as it lowers the input signal pre-distortion, and thus the delayed sound gets progressively less distorted, which is not the sound I'm going for.

Do I need a different delay pedal/rack? I can control the FX Loop input/output levels and mix, but the mix makes it impossible to keep the levels with the FX Loop on/off equal unless it's at 100%, and I'm lowering the levels going out to the pedal as much as I can.

Help!


*EDIT: related note - "get a better/different delay" would be considered an acceptable answer. I plan on touring the shit out of this rig, and if there's a rack-mountable FX unit that will blow my socks off at a non-insane price (under $400 I'd say), I'd be willing to have at it.
 
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I use a dd3 in the loop all the time, no issues. How are you powering it? If you're using a power supply, check voltage and polarity. I imagine you ARE using a power supply as delay eats batteries.
 
I've always used my Delay in the effects loop and never had any problems with extraneous noise. I use the DD-6 and in the past a cool old Digitech that's very tweekable with live gigs.
I would check and see if the current rating on the delay's voltage adapter is high enough to supply the current necessary for the pedal, and that it supplies at least 9 volts of well regulated DC.
 
Thanks for the replies: I'll try it with a good 9v battery first-off to be sure it is/isn't a power supply issue.
 
I've had the same problem with my Line6 DL-4 in my Mesa Rectifier.

Try adjusting the FX Send. Rectos areweird in that their channel volume also doubles as the FX send, at least on the Rectoverb, so for me the solution was just to keep the channel volume low (which wasn't an issue for me, as I seem to geet the best lead sounds that way anyway) and the mix at 100%. As long as it was fairly low, it didn't really color the sound any.
 
steve.h said:
I'm using a Boss DD-3 and a Rivera Knucklehead Reverb. When I put the DD-3 in the FX Loop on the distorted channel(s), I get a sort of overdriven/distorted sound on top of the actual wanted distortion (as though I'm overdriving the pedal or something). It's slightly difficult to explain, but essentially there's extra very audible, unpleasant noise on top of the smooth distorted sound I'm going for.

I believe it might be that the pedal isn't made to go in the FX Loop (unfortunately, I really don't have much electrical knowledge, despite numerous attempts at teaching myself through forums and articles online), but I very much dislike the sound of the pedal in front of the amp when distorted, as it lowers the input signal pre-distortion, and thus the delayed sound gets progressively less distorted, which is not the sound I'm going for.

Do I need a different delay pedal/rack? I can control the FX Loop input/output levels and mix, but the mix makes it impossible to keep the levels with the FX Loop on/off equal unless it's at 100%, and I'm lowering the levels going out to the pedal as much as I can.

Help!


*EDIT: related note - "get a better/different delay" would be considered an acceptable answer. I plan on touring the shit out of this rig, and if there's a rack-mountable FX unit that will blow my socks off at a non-insane price (under $400 I'd say), I'd be willing to have at it.
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Well, it may indeed be that the FX send is giving the pedal too hot a signal. Floor units are designed to get instrument level input, and you are feeding it a line level. Some pedals have the headroom to handle a hotter signal, some don't. If that's what's happening, a rackmount delay unit will solve your problem. In addition, rackmount units provide a lot more processing options than simple delay, and they give you more precise control of your delay times.
 
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I have the same troubles using pedals in the effects loop of my Traynor YCV80. Fortunately it has both input and output trim knobs for the effects loop. I'm not sure if your amp has such controls. I haven't spent enough time fiddling with it to find trim settings that don't add overdrive, distortion or volume.

I think its all in those FX send/return levels.
 
I'll mess with the levels a bit more, as well as trying a battery (haven't had much free time of late).

On a related note, would I need a separate midi controller board thingy in order to control a rack-mounted delay?
 
On a related note, would I need a separate midi controller board thingy in order to control a rack-mounted delay?
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Really depends on how much stuff you want to control. I used to use a TcElectronics M300 in my effects loop. I had a single dual button footswitch. One switch controlled bypass and the other was tap tempo. With a midi setup you can do a lot more like scrolling through patches etc. I never really had any need for that extra stuff though.
 
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