Re: Guitar Signal Question - A Bit OT

["Mike Biffle" <Mbiffle@svg.com>]

>>> stanitarium@earthlink.net 10/04/00 03:40PM >>>
> ... the *only* way to get a beefy guitar signal w/ effex is for the 
>guitar amplifier (pre)amp to see a signal right off the guitar's 
>pick-ups-after that anything you use(mostly, you know them impedances, 
>etc) to influence or alter that signal will work w/ some tweekin.so 
>hopefully you have an effects loop in your guitar amp because there is 
>only one rule-anything that you put between your guitar and your pre-amp 
>degrades that signal-the more the worser'.IMHO...stanner

I realize that there's a cult of "nothing but the cord" sort of thing 
going on here. I respect that for those of you who actually WANT pristine 
guitar-amp-like sound... yeah... maybe that IS a good rule of thumb. But 
I've gotta say that NO amp out there makes the requisite ugly sounds I 
need to realize my finest musical goals. *-)  I absolutely have to have a 
Fuzz Factory / Experience Fuzz / Big Cheese somewhere in my signal chain. 
The rest can be placed somewhere after the preamp, but damn! I just can't 
get enough of dem f***boxes!

I also achieve a pretty damn HOT input level coming out of these boxes. 
The Fuzz Factory and Experience are both capable of WAAAAYYYY hot levels, 
and the Big Cheese is at least slightly above unity. I'd say it's probably 
the a/b box where he splits to his two guitar preamp/effectors or the Digi 
boxes themselves... they may require serious tweaking to get levels in a 
new ballpark... especially if all your patches are based on your own 
tweaking which got you there in the first place. I do the opposite and get 
the signals too HOT in my Boss GT-5 and then have to go through them all 
trying to get them at a more useful volume.

>> Here's the set-up in the order of connections:
>> Guitar
>> A/B Box (2 Outs)
>> Digitech 2101
>> Digitech 2112
>> Stereo Volume Pedal
>> Direct Box For 2112 Out To Mixer To  (to boost gain = somewhat helpful)
>> Berringer Mixer
>> Oberheim Echoplex
>> Berringer Denoiser (Noise Gate)
>> Amp

There's a product which may be out of production called a Flo-Ho... anyone 
remember these? They were a pretty recent item... They split your signal 
to multiple amps and present the proper impedance to the guitar pickups. 
(Maybe Chris Muir will speak up here for the truly tech description!) 
Anyway... I'm thinking that you may need to carefully look at each stage 
of your rig and look at the level there individually. Make sure your 
Digitech units are able to get a fairly hot level +3 - +5 to your mixer. 
You might have to tweak several of the various modules to get them all 
functioning at the proper levels.

Good luck!
Miko