Boost pedal in the effects loop?

[davidd]

Afternoon,

I'm getting to grips with a blackstar HT40. I'm finding it pretty simple to use and can get most of the sounds I want however I'm having issues with volume. I get the clean channel where I want it, then use a boss sd-1 with a little drive on it to get the sounds I want for most of the stuff I play. There are however a couple of bits in our set where I would like to be louder for a few bars without getting much more drive. The o/d channel adds much more drive than I want.

So I've bought a TC spark mini, the chap in the shop said to stick it in the effect loop so it would boost the power amp and give me more volume when I want it without sticking a lot more drive in.

Is this likely to work (it won't arrive before the weekend!)??

Cheers

D

[singlecoil]

I'd be more surprised if it didn't give the result you wanted than if it did. That's as long as the effects loop is actually between the pre and power amp sections, which of course it should be.

[gazza285]

You might struggle, pedals work at guitar output levels, the effects loop is generally for proper rack effects, which work at a much higher level, so you might distort the input of your pedal.

All you need is a simple switchable attenuator, about a tenners worth of bits. Can you solder?

[davidd]

gazza285 said:

You might struggle, pedals work at guitar output levels, the effects loop is generally for proper rack effects, which work at a much higher level, so you might distort the input of your pedal.

All you need is a simple switchable attenuator, about a tenners worth of bits. Can you solder?

The effect loop is switchable for rack or pedal so hopefully it'll be fine. If not how do sort it with the attenuator? (I can solder).

[davidd]

I got it, I shoved it into the loop (setting the loop to pedal level -10db or something). Works perfectly!

[OldSkoolRS]

That's handy to know as I have the much smaller HT5-R that has the same options on the loop (+4dB or -10dB ?). I was going to try putting some time based pedal effects in the loop (chorus/delay/reverb) so I might add a booster as well for the same reasons as you mention.

[davidd]

Works a treat (-10db) I've got a delay then a boost in there. The rest are before the preamp.