Pedalboard/Signal Chain Help

[eventhetrees]

Alright, first off..not sure if this is the right place for this thread but...feel free to move it if need be.

I'm getting a headache thinking about my pedals and what order they should be in.

Here's my rig. Guitar>Sunn Model T>Mesa 4x12

It's a high gain head and it's LOUD and kinda noisy, so I wanna use a noise suppressor. I have the Boss NS-2 and it gets the job done but, I need help finding the best place to do it.

My pedalboard is this (without the boss NS-2).

Tuner->Ibanez TS-9->MXR blue box (soon will be removed)->Boss PS-5 (pitch shifter)->Boss RV-3->Line 6 MM-4->Line 6 DL-4->Boss DD-6 -> amp.

I used to put the NS-2 right after the delay so its in my signal chain, now it got rid of my noise. BUT it did ruin the sound of my delays (it kills the last few repeats) pretty much with the NS-2 off I get 6-7 repeats with the NS-2 on I get 3-4 repeats on the delay know what I mean?

NOW, my question is...IF I was to JUST put the NS-2 in the Effects loop on my amp, will that get rid of the noise and not get in the way of my pedals that I'm running in my board (other than noise removal?

If you guys need more details from me so you can help me let me know...

Thanks

[iaresee]

Welcome. Here is my recommendation.

In front of your amp:

Tuner -> Boss PS-5 -> MXR Blue Box -> Ibanez TS-9

In your effects loop:

Boss NS-2 -> Line 6 MM-4 -> Boss DD-6 -> Line DL-4 -> Boss RV-3

YMMV bu that's how I'd do it up.

[eventhetrees]

Thing is I wanna keep everything in my pedal board case that's pretty set you know?

I don't wanna have half there and half there...

[jm417]

you could try moving it around in your chain and see where you like it best. It might work well before the delay. Alot of people run noise reduction before time based effects. You could also put it alone in the loop and leave it on top of the amp switched on.

[iaresee]

Originally posted by eventhetrees
Thing is I wanna keep everything in my pedal board case that's pretty set you know?

I don't wanna have half there and half there...

Eh? You still keep everything on your pedal board mate. You're just going to run three cable back and forth between the board and your amp: one goes into the input, one comes out of the f/x send, one heads back to the f/x return. For example, my board:

http://guitargeek.com/chat/showthrea...threadid=83930

It's all on the floor in front of me, but some of it runs front-of-amp and some of runs in the loop.

[MassacredHatred]

Iaresee has it right. It might be a bit of a pain running the extra cables, but it will be worth it. Don't put the gate after delays or reverbs. It just won't work right. It should generally be the first thing in the amp's effects loop.

[velvetjones]

Originally posted by eventhetrees
Thing is I wanna keep everything in my pedal board case that's pretty set you know?

I don't wanna have half there and half there...

I don't a camer (or my rig) handy or Id post a pic, but I have everything on one board and have a lot of stuff in front of the amp as well as in the loop.

I just put the pre effects in a row in the front, and the loop effects in a row right behind (its also raised about an inch).

[eventhetrees]

Alright so I tried the Noise Suppressor in the effects loop....and it's well really ****ty.

So I'm gonna stick to leaving it at the end of my chain, losing a few repeats of delays is a small price to pay. I tried putting the suppressor like before the delays in my chain...but when I put on my gain channel, the suppressor still kills feedback but there's like a nice static noise...not overly loud but it's a LOT less when the NS-2 is at the end.

So that's settled.

Now I got another quick question.

Using the Voodo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus http://www.voodoolab.com/pedalpower_2.htm

Can I power more than 8 pedals using that?

Say can I daisy chain like 2-3 boss pedals out of one of those outputs?

So instead of an 8 pedal total..make it like 10 with only 8 outputs there?

[iaresee]

Originally posted by eventhetrees
Alright so I tried the Noise Suppressor in the effects loop....and it's well really ****ty.

What specifically does "s h i t t y" mean?

Using the Voodo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus http://www.voodoolab.com/pedalpower_2.htm Can I power more than 8 pedals using that?

Yes. As long as the total current draw of the pedals doesn't exceed the maximum current supplied by the output on the PP2+ you're fine. It does defeat the purpose of using an isolated power supply -- you're now possibly introducing power supply noise on the shared line from one pedal to other pedals that would otherwise run noise free.

You'll need to try it and decide if it's an acceptable solution for your rig.

[eventhetrees]

When I said s h i t t y I pretty much mean, my volumes are a bit all over the place now (using send/return volumes) and it hardly reduces the hum, it reduces feedback, but doesn't kill noise.

I'm just content with it at the end of my chain and running nothing through my effects loop.

When I get the Voodoo Power Supply I'm planning on getting a custom pedalboard done. But I first need to buy an Eventide Time Factor before I go through with it.

Though my board would have 10 pedals then...while the voodoo power supply gives out 8...no point in spending the cash buying 2 of them and have 6 unused ports...

But my board would be something like.

Boss TU-2, Ibanez TS-9, Little Big Muff, Boss PS-5, Boss RV-3, Boss DD-6, Eventide Timefactor, Line 6 DL-4, Line 6 MM-4, Boss NS-2.

My idea now is ... The Tuner and the NS-2 give a power out...

What if I had 8 of the pedals plugged in..then like the tuner feeding the PS-5 and the NS-2 feeding the RV-3...

This seems like it could work?


OR

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.c...ply?sku=151091

Could this work and be as quality as the Voodoo? It has 10 outputs...would this work with my pedals?

[jm417]

You could have a ground problem. Alot of people can't tell the difference between hum and noise from a bad ground. Nothing a good power supply couldn't fix. The Dunlop is good for the money but it doesn't have quite as many features as the Voodoo Lab pedal power nor does it fix the hum as well. You can't power EHX, Line 6 or any of the other oddball pedals with it either. You can power a pedal off of the tuner and the NS-2 if you have a cable and the combined mA of both pedals is under the rating for the supply.

[republic]

i use 10 pedals w/ a voodoo lab as well. what i do is hook a good quality power strip up to the aux AC adapter in the back of the voodoo lab and then just plug 2 pedals (in your case, i would recommend the Line 6 modelers) into that strip. also, this will give you a few aux ac ports for an emergency

good luck

[laa0815]

It could be that you don't need the noise suppressor anyway. Your noise can come from the fact that you power so many pedals with at least one single Pedal Power... Many guitarists have no clue that you shouldn't power a n a l o g AND digital pedals with the same power supply because that causes noise... that's why I have three supplies - one for my looper (which has an integrated buffer that's suppressing noise, too - don't know how that works but it works), one for the digital delay and the digital tuner (those two supplies are standard Ibanez devices) and a Carl Martin Big John (similar to the Pedal Power) for the a n a l o g pedals... If you want I can send you a pic of my board (not the newest pic that's why it isn't in my webshots, but it' basically the same for some years now).

I had MUCH noise years ago but then read an interesting article by a pedalboard s p e c i a l i s t (makes and plans professional custom boards) and talked to a luthier/tech I know and since then I planned the whole board new. Now - silence...

Cheers, Dominik

[laa0815]

It could be that you don't need the noise suppressor anyway. Your noise can come from the fact that you power so many pedals with at least one single Pedal Power... Many guitarists have no clue that you shouldn't power a n a l o g AND digital pedals with the same power supply because that causes noise... that's why I have three supplies - one for my looper (which has an integrated buffer that's suppressing noise, too - don't know how that works but it works), one for the digital delay and the digital tuner (those two supplies are standard Ibanez devices) and a Carl Martin Big John (similar to the Pedal Power) for the a n a l o g pedals... If you want I can send you a pic of my board (not the newest pic that's why it isn't in my webshots, but it' basically the same for some years now).

I had MUCH noise years ago but then read an interesting article by a pedalboard s p e c i a l i s t (makes and plans professional custom boards) and talked to a luthier/tech I know and since then I planned the whole board new. Now - silence...

Cheers, Dominik

[eventhetrees]

I've plugged into my amp a few times just to check with no pedals at all, and I just get unwanted feedback (high gain ... fun). The noise suppressor solves that problem. Now that hum problem when I'm not playing is 100% cause of the way I've got all my pedals powered by a power all right now. It's still manageable though.

Alright so that dunlop brick is out of the question haha, so voodoo labs it is.

"what i do is hook a good quality power strip up to the aux AC adapter in the back of the voodoo lab and then just plug 2 pedals (in your case, i would recommend the Line 6 modelers) into that strip. also, this will give you a few aux ac ports for an emergency"

I don't wanna have any power strips in my board and such.

I'm sure I'll be fine connecting the tuner to another boss and the NS-2 to another boss pedal, voodoo labs sells those individual power adapter cables anyway.

Ugh, thinking about pedals gives me a headache! Why is there so many gear options! haha.