Volume Boost for a parallel FX loop?

[Keven]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for any pedal that could give me a hand boosting my amp's volume a tad more for leads to cut through. i currently use an OD pedal that gives a nice fat sound but parallel loops are tricky and so far attempts to add an EQ after the od pedal to brighten up the tone a bit just fail.

any foolproof methods for parallel loops? mine seems to let a bit of the signal in even at 100% mix..

[bucketshred]

I dont know what a parallel loop is but I used to use a Boss EQ in the loop of my JCM800. A wee bump in the mids and some added gain and it used to tear the heads off the front row.

[Mr. Air]

Like bucketshred I know next to nothing about loops so I'm in for some education  :D

Without knowing wouldn't a regular boost pedal of any sort (in theory) placed in the loop work as just a volume boost???

[TheyCallMeVolume]

Are you looking for a straight-up volume boost or do you want some hair and gain on it as well?

[Keven]

I'm looking for something that will interact ok with my parallel loop. this amp has no serial loop so for volume boosts and stuff it's not as easy as just sticking and EQ and raising the volume on the EQ, it seems to interact with the dry signal even if the mix is at 100%. a bit of a pain. is there a way to convert the loop to serial?

[Brow]

Parallel loops with volume/boost pedals are a total bitch as you've discovered  :lol:

I've always found them to work very well with Chorus/Flanger/Phaser etc where you want to mix in and control how much of your signal you want to be affected, but not great for when you want the whole signal to be affected so Tremolo, OD, EQ etc tend to not work.

Wouldn't using something for extra volume only, no tone shaping, work ok? As technically you'd just be mixing the signal back in with itself. Have you tried your EQ with the frequency faders set flat and just upped the volume slider a bit?

[Keven]

I tried that with a Boss 7 band EQ.. just raising the volume fader, didn't work so well, made the whole sound alot fatter with just a small notch of the fader, alot of tone coloring for a very little volume boost.

i'm currently using my Monte Allums od-308 as a boost, volume at max, tone at max, and just a bit of od to crank the volume. it sounds allright, but could be a bit brighter. the tone definitely contrasts with the rythm tone however.

[Keven]

I found the trick actually!

thinking like a sound guy, i had the idea of putting the EQ pedal, but having it always on for rhythm tone and then i just turn it off and wham, volume boost without headaches :)