Voodoo Lab

Hi!
it's almost a year and a half i own a GCX
i'm very happy about it
the only problem i had is that if plug the guitar into one input in the front
than chain all the rest in the rear i defenetely hear a loss of sound and frequencies
even into the buffered one ... to be more specific...
i use a marshall jubilee
if i plug the guitar straight into the head it's all obviously regular
when i plug into feedthru then i go to a dunlop DCR-2 then again into loop 1
i can hear something different like a little less volume and almost imperceptible but is there...
if i plug into the buffered one there's no volume loss but the tone gets thinner with less basses and a bit more harsh.( the op amp is the BB...maybe it's too transaprent and clear for my purposes)
this is for in chain signal...
the part of teh signal that goes in FX loop it's always been perfect.
i use Evidence cables for all the signals and all of them are perfectly working.
now you could say it could be the fact that i get in and out and in again...
but it makes it even if plug straight from FT into loop 1 bypassing the rack Wah
It does NOT if i plug straight into loop 1 without using any of the front inputs.
i spent months trying to understand why...changed cables and most of all patch cables but any cable i use doesn't make any difference...
now i keep using george L's which should be the less tone degrading patch cables out there...
what could it be?
please try to help
Thank you

Simplify the setup further, it is highly unlikely that the Feedthru is changing the sound in any way unless you are simply adding a lot of extra cable length when using it. Take two cables and test each one with only the guitar connected directly to the amp. Let us know how long each cable is, then use these two cables to do the next three tests and report the results.

Test 1. Route only through the GCX Feedthru... guitar to Feedthru, Feedthru to amp.

Test 2. Route only through the GCX buffer... guitar to Guitar In, Guitar Out to amp.

Test 3. Route only through the DCR-2... guitar to DCR-2, DCR-2 to amp.

Hi John!
thank you for your reply.
i tried the things you said
here the results...
the cables i use are the one from guitar to the GCX about 5mt and the one it goes from the output to the amp not longer than 2 meters (i also tried a shorter one about half meter but didnt change anything).
if i plug FT straight to amp i still can hear a little subtle change in frequencies response like if i turned some basses down and a little less volume... very very little
but still present...
if i plug buffer and then straight to amp instead i feel like the tone gets harsher and loses basses it's still present but the character changes...

i tell you more..i tried to unsolder the "sleeve joints" form the FT input jack and i heard that the tone returned to be like when i plug straight into the amp...
i don't think i'm getting crazy but i seriously can hear a difference there....

so in conclusion doesn't change anything when i plug into the DCR.

do you find any clue to elaborate on this?

thank you!

If de-soldering one wire made it sound better, imagine how great it will sound if you de-solder all the wires!

If you connect your guitar to GCX Loop 1 In, then connect the GCX Loop 1 Out to your amp... what does it sound like?

Is there anything else I should know about this rig? Is this the first time you have de-soldered or somehow modded the inside of the GCX? Is there anything else connected when doing these tests? If there is anything else in the rack, remove all connections including any power connections and start the test over.

Also, put the wires back where they go... look slightly to the left of the front panel jack connections, the wire connecting to a ground lug with a screw through it will lift audio ground from the chassis ground... no de-soldering required!