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'Onboard' feedback loop

B

bhass

Oct 21, 2008
355
1
England, UK
#1
Lately I've been wanting to create musical chaos, and decided that a feedback loop would be a good start. Because there's little parts involved in the pedal I was going to build, I wondered if I could build it into my bass. Unlike other effects this idea could actually be practical because there isn't any need for power.

Can it be done?
If it can, how would I go about putting the pedal design into my bass: (without the true bypass stuff ofcourse)

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/PedalHacker/LooperWithFeedbackLoop.gif

Presumably the send would be the output of my bass, and the return would go out the 'real' output into my amp?
 
#4
If you built one into your bass you'd have 3 cables coming out of it, instead of 1. Sure, it sounds kind of cool in a Mad Max sort of way, but personally I wouldn't want to deal with that. Also, yes, they do need power. So make that 4 cables.

The point of a feedback loop is to make pedals feed into one another endlessly. If you just fed your bass into it and nothing more, I don't know if it would even do anything besides perhaps a light chorus sound. Could be wrong, but I did just eat a large breakfast, so please bear with me.

EDIT: you know, I could be entirely wrong. Perhaps with an onboard active EQ, it could work.

Link Removed
 
#5
Why not put a delay pedal guts in your bass? like, get a DD-3 and wire it in your bass so you can tweak knobs in real time. I know a guy who did that with his guitar, and he had loads of fun. Sure, it was a pain trying to squeeze it all in, but one he got it it was pretty rad during the live show. Of course, he once forgot which knob was the volume, and tweaked the wrong knob, so instead of dropping the volume he made this really loud sound that I can only describe as awesome in an world-ending kind of way. Like, it was the sound of a delay oscillating through a bank of other delays that started self oscillating.
 
#6
Well I've always liked the idea of inbuilt effects, although I have a hatred of batteries. The feedback loop only needs power for the LED?

Onboard delay would be awesome.

Edit:
If I have a simple cable connecting the send and return inside my bass, then wouldn't I still get feedback? The signal from my bass feedbacking through the loop?
 
#7
bhass said:
Well I've always liked the idea of inbuilt effects, although I have a hatred of batteries. The feedback loop only needs power for the LED?

Onboard delay would be awesome.

Edit:
If I have a simple cable connecting the send and return inside my bass, then wouldn't I still get feedback? The signal from my bass feedbacking through the loop?
Click to expand...

I think your right, the battery is only for the led.

Yes, you would still get feedback, as shown in the page posted by nad, you get feedback with no pedal in the loop.

Instead of using a send and return jack with a cable connecting them inside your bass, just skip the jacks and connect the wires together. That should work fine, since you aren't actually sending it to anything.
 
#9
Let's say if I wanted to go a step further and put a Subdecay Noisebox into my bass, then what would be a practical way of powering it? Is there a way where I can have a switch which cuts off the battery and signal going to it; to prevent the battery being run down when I'm not using it?
 
#10
bhass said:
So I would have one knob and all the way down I would have clean bass, and as soon as turned up I could get feedback? Very tempting.
Click to expand...

No. Electricity does not flow in such a way, what you would have done is simply shorted out the input to the output. You won't get feedback, especially since the circuit posted is a passive one (no buffers)

bhass said:
Let's say if I wanted to go a step further and put a Subdecay Noisebox into my bass, then what would be a practical way of powering it? Is there a way where I can have a switch which cuts off the battery and signal going to it; to prevent the battery being run down when I'm not using it?
Click to expand...

You use a stereo jack and use the Ring and Sleeve connections as your switch. I think this precludes using a onboard preamp.


There are 2 ways of getting feedback. Electrically, you could use a very short delay in the loop, along with a volume control in the loop or a expression pedal controlling feedback amount.

Physically, just touch your headstock to your amp, or use a Sustainiac.
 

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