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Loosing volume through chain?

*insertcoolname

*insertcoolname

Jan 5, 2007
732
14
Twin Cities
#1
Help! I'm loosing volume when I run my bass through my effects. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but here is why it is. Right now my board is set up like this:

Bass > Whammy > Wet out to 12 other effects > Side A of my EHX switchblade
> Dry out to side B of my EHX switchblade

then switchblade runs into my amp. This allows me to go from clean tone to many different pedals on at once very conveniently. All fine and dandy

BUT

the straight clean tone side of the switchblade is louder than the effect side. Is this just a result of the many different effects I'm running through or is it some other reason?
 
#3
It's not a loop, just two parallel chains that I switch through with the EHX switchblade. As for the pedals it goes:

Wet out of whammy > OC2 > EBS Multidrive > Tech 21 XXLB > BBM > BDDI > 105q > EBS BassIQ > Voodoo Labs Tremolo > BBE Mind Bender > BF3 > DD7 > Hardwire RV7 > Side A of switch blade

And the volume loss occurs when I'm switching between my clean tone from the dry channel and my clean tone (no pedals on) from my wet channel. That's where the problem lies.
 
#5
I run 10 pedals in one of the loops in the Boss LS-2, and leave the other loop empty (so I can quickly swap, or blend both sounds). The loop with the pedals suffer from a slight volume loss compared to the clean, which I compensate by boosting it just a tad in the LS-2. It's a really subtle thing, tho.
 
#6
I'm counting at least 6 buffers in that chain and my guess is that each is dropping the volume just a little.

You may want to dig into your pedals and see if there is just one that is a primary culprit. I thought that the 105q had a notorious bypass, but I may be mistaken.

You could always find a tiny always on boost to jam in the chain if all else fails.

Good luck.
 
#7
Are you sure that you are supplying sufficient power to your pedals? Maybe a battery is running low.
Has this setup worked in the past or is this the first time running this configuration?
I would start removing pedals from the chain until I find the culprit. Also try swapping the inputs on the switchblade i.e. clean bass into input B and effects into A or vice versa. This would eliminate the switchblade as a possible cause.
 
#8
Yeah, thats a lot of pedals to run through! It turns out that stacking buffer on top of buffer on top of buffer can go awry just as easily as a string of true bypass pedals! (sorry, Bongo! ;)) Eliminate pedals one at a time to see if there is a "smoking gun" culprit. If it's a case of a cumulative overall loss, you'll need to come up with a whole new strategy of signal routing!

When you get into that many pedals (and notice volume and/or tone loss), it's time to seriously evaluate whether you want to use that many pedals- or invest in a thought-out switching strategy that preserves your tone.
 
#10
A buffer should not cause this IME and IMHO. That being said, there are bad buffered bypasses. I would check the gain on the pedals(some have internal trim pots) and see if that helps. Before you adjust the trims though, mark the original settings.

Hope this helps.
 

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