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Help with using preamp/rack effects into a combo amp


csacwp

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I'm new to rack preamps and I'm having some trouble figuring out how to set them up with my JCM 900 combo. My first experiment was to hook up a Rocktron Intellipitch using the effects loop of the amp and the input/ouput sockets on the rack unit. It worked in that I could hear the effects from the rack, but they didn't sound great and when I turned my amp on standby, there was a very loud pop that normally does not happen.

 

Ultimately I'd like to use a Rocktron Chameleon preamp and the Intellipitch (it's an effects rack that is basically just an intellifex with an intelligent pitch shifter) together with the combo amp. How would I wire this up? Here's the options each part has:

 

Chameleon preamp: input on the front, output on the back

Intellipitch: two inputs on the back, two outputs (one of them is mono) on the back

 

Amp: send/return on the back, input on the front.

 

Thanks for your help... I'm a newbie at this and I don't want to blow up my amp.

 

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Hi, and welcome!!

 

Is your intent with the rack pre-amp to bypass your amps pre-amp, or to use the rack pre as a way to boost your signal and/or provide more gain?

 

I would plug my guitar into the input on the front of the pre-amp and take the out from the pre and go into the intellipitch. Then take an out from the intellipitch and either go into the front of the amp if you're using the pre-amp to boost, or into the return on the amp if you're planning on bypassing your amps pre-amp.

 

Some effects sound good in the effects loop and others don't. I've never used a pitch shifter, but I'm thinking that's one of those effects that sounds better going into the front of the amp instead of the loop.

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Yeah i think you need to decide if you want to use the preamp/gain on the Marshall. I don't know if you do any damage to the Marshall preamp if you run the Chameleon in front. You might not, but it just might not sound too grand.

 

Pitch shifting generally goes after distortion according to most people... though it's to taste.

 

Going by that logic, I'd go guitar->amp->amp preamp out (effects send)->into chameleon->out chameleon->into intellipitch->out intellipitch->'power amp in' (effects return).

 

The alternative would be.

 

Guitar->chameleon-->JCM in->JCM (preamp out) Effects out->Intellipitch->JCM (Poweramp in) Effects in.

 

This way you can shift either the chameleon or the JCM.

 

 

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