Overdriven

John Walden · Post by **John Walden** » 5 Sep 2004 8:28 pm

I'm playing a LaGrand III through a Black Box > a Hilton pedal > a silent A / B switch by Boss, and a pair of Mesa Boogie Mark 4s with a Black Shadow 12", in each. Through one amp I'm running the effects loop to a Pro Fex II. One returns to the first amp, and the other returns to the other amp. The A / B switch is for my guitar or steel. Through the process of elimination I've determined that my investment in the amps is great for guitar but maybe not so good for steel. If I pick hard on the steel I get too much of an overdriven sound. When using the direct outs from the amps, ( silent mode ) into pro Tools, I get the same effect. Way too much, OK let's call it distortion. Any fix for this ?
J.W.

Ron Randall · Post by **Ron Randall** » 5 Sep 2004 10:02 pm

Sounds familiar. If the preamps/amps are designed for guitar pickups, a modern steel guitar pickup, with about 2 or three times the impedance, will overdrive the preamps. Very nice, if you want it.

I am not offering advice, just letting you know what worked for me.I also use a BB and a Hilton. I used the "volume knob" on the Hilton, to reduce the signal going to the preamp/amp. This solved my problem.

Hope this helps.
Ron

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 5 Sep 2004 11:36 pm

Yeah---not unusual to overdrive something in the chain with the hot PSG pickup. Have you tried going into a padded down input in the Mesa? (I don't know for a fact that it has one but it's the standard Fender style arrangement, having a high and low level input). Have you checked the Profex levels, in and out? You may be hitting it too hard. Shouldn't be a difficult problem. And like Ron says, the solution may be in dialing down the Hilton signal.

John Walden · Post by **John Walden** » 6 Sep 2004 7:12 am

Hi Ron, Thanks for reminding me that I have controls on the Hilton pedal as well. The fix seems to have gotton rid of about 80% of the distortion. I'm used to having my amps set so low that I doubt that the true nature of the Mesa sound actually is comming through. By useing the direct outs, I can crank it up a little bit more. When using the speakers in the amp, the sound is even cleaner. Now I'll try recording it with a pair of mikes. By the way, what mikes are the standard for micking a steel ? I usually hang a Shure sm 57 on the sweet spot when playing guitar. Is there anything better ?
Thanks for the help.
Gratefully, J. W.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 6 Sep 2004 9:30 am

John, I'd also check the global balance on your ProFexII. I don't know about the effects loop scenario, but I had to make adjustments when I ran direct into the effects in on a Peavey amp- around 30-32 on the input level and 75-100 output. When I would use the ProFex direct in the studio, I usually had to further reduce the input and output levels... good luck!

------------------
Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

John Walden · Post by **John Walden** » 8 Sep 2004 7:56 pm

Thanks guys ! You can close this thread.
I'm happy now!

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 9 Sep 2004 4:08 pm

Guitar pickups alone will rarely cause an overload problem because most amps are designed to handle about 1 volt of input. (Pickups, even "hot" steel pickups rarely put out over half a volt.)

Your problem is caused by guitar feeding the black box preamp, and that feeding into the volume pedal preamp, and that feeding into the profx preamp, and then that signal (which has now been amplified by a factor of 3!) going into your amp. Yeah...with all those "preamps" in the line, you'll probably always have some distortion (unless you can set them all to unity, or zero gain).

Do you really need all that stuff to get a good sound???

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 9 Sep 2004 5:23 pm

Time for an oscilloscope or True RMS Digital Volt Meter on the feeds...[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 09 September 2004 at 06:24 PM.]