pure tone mixed with effects

[Hard Truth]

(I apologize for double posting but this got no attention in the electric guitar forum.)

 

I generally use several effects but recently I tried plugging in my guitar straight into the amp as an experiment. Whoah! The guitar sure sounded crisper. clearer and fuller without all the effects and extra cabling required to connect them, even though I don't use any crummy pedals or cables.

 

After some thought and research I came up with this solution to get the best of both. I got the Radial Switchbone which is a high quality A/B/Y switch. I connected one output of the Switchbone to one of my two amp channels. I connected the other output of the Switchbone to my chain of effects. The last effect feeds a volume pedal which is connected to my other amp channel.

 

Now if I don't need any effects I can activate only the output that feeds the amp directly and get a very clean noiseless tone. When I want to use the effects I can activate both output channels and use the volume pedal to mix in the proportion of effects I use.

 

I recommend this strategy for those seeking to get both cleanliness and the flavor from effects. If all of your effects have true bypass it might not be necessary. If your amp has an effects loop built-in it might not be necessary. But if you compare your direct signal and find that you are losing a lot of quality with your effects chain, then this might be the way to go.

[CS]

It really is a matter of what works for you. I've done something similar. I've got an old amp that has two independant channels. You can 'jump' them (input to input) with a cable. I've put effects in this 'loop' and blended the wet and dry signal with the second channel.

 

My main method is to use TB pedals and a booster set to unity always on as a buffer.

[papa taco]

Sounds like a great set up. You gotta like amps with seperate inputs for each channel. What are the specifics of your amp and effects?

[Hard Truth]

Guitar to Morley wah to Radial Switchbone. Switchbone out 1 directly to amp. Switchbone out 2 to Pod 2.0 to Electrix filter Factory, to TC D-2 delay to Morley volume to amp.

 

The amp is a 100 watt Peavey Classic from the 1970s. It originally had two Peavey 12" speakers. I replaced the two speakers with just one Electro-Voice 12" speaker. That was an amazingly effective upgrade.