I think I am becoming a “guitar – cord – amp” kind of guy. Of course, my amp has three channels with switchable boost and effects loop, so it’s not like I’m plugging into a vintage Marshall or anything.

Lately I have been using kind of a complicated setup with my effects. I have been connecting my M13 to my amp through the amp effects loop using the 4 cable method. This allows you to put certain effects (filters, compressors) in front of the preamp and other effects (delay, modulation, EQ) in between the pre and power amp. Some effects work better before distortion, and others work better afterwards. It’s a cool setup and it works exactly like it’s supposed to.

If you sensed a big “but” coming, here it is: I don’t really use that many effects, so all the extra cable coming to and from the amp is kind of unnecessary. I use a lot of delay and stuff when I play at church, but I don’t use much of anything with TLP. I use a phaser on one song, and that’s it. Everything else is just the amp. Of course, we’re playing loud stripped-down modernish rock rather than trippy outer space music.

I’ll probably stick with the M13 because when I do use effects it’s just so easy to operate. Besides, the delays sound really great on this thing. I don’t know – maybe I’ll just skip the pedalboard at the next TLP practice and see what happens. Maybe that one song doesn’t *really* need a phaser.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 at 10:07 pm and is filed under amps, effects, guitar.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.