Using effects in GK MB212 Active Input - Good idea or not?

[Bassist24601]

Hey everyone!

I've been getting back into music again and have been redeveloping my chops and wiping the dust off of my bass rig. As the thread title suggests, I have a GK MB212 combo amp and play it using my Geddy Lee Jazz. I absolutely love progressive music and the stereo rigging of the prog giants have always intrigued me. I don't have the funds at the moment to buy another amp, nor do I need to yet. I don't have a band to play with yet.

I have an EBS Wahone, Multidrive, and Multicomp; DOD Chorus, and an old Boss ME-8 (for octave, vibrato, harmonizing and other nifty effects). I want to be able to have two channels - a dry and wet. I was thinking about getting an ABY pedal (probably the Radial Twin City) and have my bass go into the passive input and my effects into the active input. The effects will probably change, as my idea of tone has changed dramatically in the year or so that I haven't played it in a gigging fashion.

Would this work? Or would I need to go about it in a different manner? More importantly would doing this cause serious damage to the amp?

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[bongomania]

No damage will happen, but it will sound bad. The two inputs are not for mixing; what will happen is the pedals etc. connected to one input will "load down" the passive bass in the other input, making it sound dull and weak.

Instead of buying an AB switcher, you want to buy an active blender. The Boss LS-2 is a popular cheap and good one. To find out about others, just search here on "blender".

A blender will give you the mixed wet and dry, plus a clean bypass of the wet channel.

 

[Bassist24601]

Awesome! Thank you for the advice! I've looked into line selectors and the Boss one sounds the best. I've been gasing on an EBS Microbass II and saw that it has an effects loop and blend. I take it that would achieve the same thing as the LS-2?

 

[bongomania]

Should do.