sonic BBE and voodoo GCX

[dominof]

Hi Guys
Im new into the RACK Systems and have some questions
I want to use BBE sonic maximiser connected to GCX (controlled by GCP) and plugged to MESA Dual Rec.
My question is where should I plug the BBE ?

Just to mention that I have in front of the signal my tuner - vox vah - compressor - mxr phaser 90
than in loop - noise reductor (to reduce hum and noise from dist.channels) - chorus - tremolo - delay and than from output of loop 5 (delay) going to bbe In. and than to mesa return. But there is some sounding problem sound is not very clear and got a really bad noise on high volumes
Pls help

Dom

[domct203]

Welcome to the forum.

IME I find that the BBE maximiser does not mix well with the Mesa Rectifier. I tried one with my Dual Rectifier Roadster and felt it removed all the midrange character of the amp. Why do you feel you need to use it?

Can you better describe the "bad noise" at high volume?

How are you powering all these effects? You may have a ground loop issue that is introducing noise.

Dom

[dominof]

Welcome to the forum.

IME I find that the BBE maximiser does not mix well with the Mesa Rectifier. I tried one with my Dual Rectifier Roadster and felt it removed all the midrange character of the amp. Why do you feel you need to use it?

Can you better describe the "bad noise" at high volume?

How are you powering all these effects? You may have a ground loop issue that is introducing noise.

Dom

Hi domct203 thanks for reply my post
Well I have read and watched on youtube lots of videos and people said that the BBE is a secret weapon to the sound of many pro guitar players so decided to try it out.
It does sound quite cool in some knob positions (need to tweak more to get the perfect solution in future) but in fact i get the feedbacks sound especially when my DD-7 is on (delay and bbe are somehow connected to each other as from GCX loop OUT (delay) going stright to BBE (as I've heard it should be the last in fx loop) all my pedals and wireless is connected like on the diagram:

http://www.voodoolab.com/gcxdiagrams/13 ... nd_You.pdf

except that i have MESA and as You can see on the diagram BBE is connected to the loop (sent-ret) but in my setup i connected to the OUT of the last loop.
I cannot try it now as my gear are in the studio far from me at the moment.
But what would be the theory? what connection would be the best for that?

Thanks
Dom

[domct203]

If you do not need to switch the BBE in/out then there is no need to put it in the GCX, your audio hookup is fine.

I am still curious as to what the "bad noise" is, and to how you are powering your pedals, they could be related.

Dom

[JohnClark]

If you must use the BBE, I would dare say to run it before the effects in the effects loop. There is no need to process what a tremolo is doing nor the delay repeats.

[dominof]

Yeah that's a good idea John I will put my BBE before the pedals. I don know why I didn't think about it before - maybe because I was suggested to put it at the and of the FX loop.

My pedals are powered by a daisy chain from my NS-2 (I know maybe its not a good idea but after spend all my money on the whole rack etc. got no more money left to buy the power brick at the moment) I will try to buy it next moth as well as isolate the rack units from rack rails. and maybe it will eliminate the hum on my loop.

In the mean time I did this graphic illustration how I connect my pedals.
here it is:

http://cl.ly/351J1B2X0d3l2T052912

Pls shere Your thoughts and tips if this set up will be correct.
Just to let You know that the CHANNEL 2 (CRUNCH) on my MESA is turned when the channel 1 or cannel 3 in off. So basically when non of the channels is ON (thru gcx) I have channel 2 ON

Dom

[JohnClark]

This should be a perfectly fine way to route the effects. Have you tried this routing yet? Does it solve the original problem?

As domct203 also pointed out, you may want to try powering the front end pedals separately from the effects loop pedals. A common ground daisy chain connecting all the pedals could introduce a ground loop buzz.

[dominof]

Hi John
Yes I have tried this routing yesterday and it sounded almost perfect. Just it turned out that the NS-2 doesn't do anything in this position so next time I will put it after loop 4 (so after bbe, tremolo and chorus pedals) and just before delay. I wonder the results
and if this position won't do anything I will put this noise suppressor in from of my amp so after loop 2 (killing noise from my guitar, wah, compressor and phaser)
One more thing when I connected channel 1, channel 3 and SOLO switches to gcx and the SOLO didn't turn On any idea why? (just to mention that the channel 2 is selected when non of the channels are on so i thought its good idea to use the free loop as a solo switch)

Thanks for helping me guys!
Cheers Dom

[JohnClark]

Are you sure that GCX Loop 8 is set to Normal rather than Momentary? Perhaps try another cable? The GCX should have no problem controlling the Solo boost on this amp, it's been done on countless Mesa amps in the past.

[dominof]

Yes all my loops are set to normal.
Maybe it has something to do with that I have an empty CHANNEL 2 on my mesa? (to control my 3 channels and solo switch on my mesa I'm trying to use GCX so to free one loop I have just connected:
CLEAN -loop 6,
CRUNCH -no loop
LEAD - loop7
SOLO - loop 8)
but the SOLO don't work with it..
Also some of my cabels have s STEREO jacks instead of MONO is this cause of problem?
Also when I plug my NOISE SURPRESSOR as shown on diagram above it just don't do nothing so is it because MESA has a parallel loop? I used to have MARSHALL amp and when NS-2 way in loop worked perfectly.
thanks for takin the time to help me sort the problems out
really apreciated
DOM