SLO100 effects question

[jgcable]

What do you SLO100 players use for solo boost and effects?

I need both if I am going to use the amp live. I need delay, chorus and solo boost. Thats it. Thanks in advance.

[markD]

when i had mine, i ran it with a TC2290 in the loop. no solo boost because i was the only guitar player in the band. that was a long time ago though....

[hippietim]

John - the best thing for a solo boost on an amp without a boost but does have a loop is to use either a volume pedal in the loop or the moral equivalent. I had a guy make me a pedal that is designed for line level with a silent relay switch that can be remote switched with any standard on/off pedal (like the boss ones). I have one mono one that I was using with my RM100 and he made me a stereo one that I use in my rack. This is a very nice little device that is extremely well made. There are other similar products out there that do not work worth a fuck.

http://www.psionicaudio.com/main/lumos.htm

[jgcable]

John - the best thing for a solo boost on an amp without a boost but does have a loop is to use either a volume pedal in the loop or the moral equivalent. I had a guy make me a pedal that is designed for line level with a silent relay switch that can be remote switched with any standard on/off pedal (like the boss ones). I have one mono one that I was using with my RM100 and he made me a stereo one that I use in my rack. This is a very nice little device that is extremely well made. There are other similar products out there that do not work worth a fuck.



http://www.psionicaudio.com/main/lumos.htm

Thanks for the info Tim. When I checked out the site though they mentioned that the pedal is consumer level. I need +4db professional level for the Soldano. Am I off base on this one?

[hippietim]

Thanks for the info Tim. When I checked out the site though they mentioned that the pedal is consumer level. I need +4db professional level for the Soldano. Am I off base on this one?

Read again

...designed for use with low impedance effects loops at line or consumer level, with no noise, no timbral change, and no hassles.

As I mentioned, I use my stereo Lumos coming out of my rack before the power amp and on my RM100 I used my mono Lumos in the loop. Lyle is really good at this stuff. If you have any doubts send him an email - he is *really* helpful.

[hippietim]

BTW, to know if the Lumos will work for you, try a low impedence volume pedal in the loop. Until I got the Lumos I was using a Boss FV-500L in the loop of my RM100.

[slo100]

I would offer the opinion that if you absolutely need a boost for an SLO you use something into the front end. Volume pedals and boosters do fine through the front and many are designed to be used as such.

That said, I have never used a boost of any kind in all my years with an SLO. Even in situations with two guitar players it does fine without a boost in terms of cutting. If you are playing in a one guitar band you definitely don't need it. If you are playing in a two guitar band the two of you should be working together to play off each other and make adjustments on the fly when the other is doing his thing.

The best case for this is to have the soundman adjusting for you as you come in and out of leads through the house system.

My personal opinion is that nothing should ever be put through the loop of an SLO. It does your tone no favors regardless of how transparent the manufacturer of the effects unit in question claims to be or what line level it operates.

If you do your homework and compare your tone with given effects through the front end and through the loop you'll discover what I have (unless, of course, you like it better LOL). I like the raw tone of the SLO without any effects but if you need them for live work you're stuck.

If you end up experimenting let us know your results. I'd be curious to hear your opinion!

Bret

[Twisteramps]

A passive volume pedal shouldn't cause that many problems in the loop. Neither would a passive volume control with an on/off switch - wire up a pot with a footswitch, turn the pot to your RHYTHM level, then bypass the pot for your lead. It sounds backwards, but it should work fine.

Pete

[hippietim]

A passive volume pedal shouldn't cause that many problems in the loop. Neither would a passive volume control with an on/off switch - wire up a pot with a footswitch, turn the pot to your RHYTHM level, then bypass the pot for your lead. It sounds backwards, but it should work fine.

Pete

Pete - that's what the Lumos is. The key is to get it silent. Lyle uses a relay and some other voodoo electronic thingees to get the switching absolutely silent. A straight switch is going to "pop". And it the switching is remote so you actually have the Lumos running with a short audio cable - for my RM100 I was running a Boss FS pedal on my board to switch it. In my rack I use the relay control on my switcher. John, the G-Major has a relay control switcher so you could switch it via MIDI through the G-Major.

I will take some pictures of the stereo Lumos for you - I took mine out of the Hammond pedal case and am rehousing it in a rack chassis. I just took it all apart last night and drilled the rack chassis.

[hippietim]

Bret - counting on the soundman to boost your solos may work if you're a pro working with a consistent soundman but there ain't a prayer you will have any luck with that approach otherwise.

As for hitting the front end with the boost, that is the most sure fire way to color your tone. Maybe in a good way - that's up to your ears. But it doesn't always work either. If you have the preamp gain up pretty high no boost pedal is going to make you louder - all you will do is get a more saturated tone, more squishy, lose clarity - if that's your goal then right on. An EQ or something like a Tube Screamer can help you cut through because of the frequency focus - cutting the bass (like a TS does or with the EQ) will give you headroom in front of your preamp.

[danastas]

It seems a lot of SLO players are using the KLON these days, but that's hiogh $$ and boutique-y. Apparently, it doesn't mess with the tone of an SLO much. The odd thing: $350 for a KLON direct with a 1 month wait, $450 Used.

[hippietim]

I had a Klon - the reason I sold it is because I could make $150 over what I paid - I'm going to get another one

It's an awesome pedal. It is a good clean boost but I wouldn't say it's transparent. It fattens up the tone a wee bit. As an overdrive it's killer - I had a small rig I was using for a while that was just my Jackson Korina Explorer into a Klon into a Dr. Z Maz SR combo - that was kickass tone!

Even with the Klon you still have the problem of saturating the input stage of your amp - if your preamp is already running at max volume (not max gain/distortion) then you will not get a boost - you will just get more distortion.

[Twisteramps]

Pete - that's what the Lumos is. The key is to get it silent. Lyle uses a relay and some other voodoo electronic thingees to get the switching absolutely silent. A straight switch is going to "pop". And it the switching is remote so you actually have the Lumos running with a short audio cable - for my RM100 I was running a Boss FS pedal on my board to switch it. In my rack I use the relay control on my switcher. John, the G-Major has a relay control switcher so you could switch it via MIDI through the G-Major.

I will take some pictures of the stereo Lumos for you - I took mine out of the Hammond pedal case and am rehousing it in a rack chassis. I just took it all apart last night and drilled the rack chassis.

I've had pretty good luck keeping switches from popping by putting a resistor to ground on the switch, but yeah, the Lumos would be the best solution. If it worked well with the RM100 I'd think it would be fine with the SLO, personally.

I'd like to see some Lumos Porn!

Pete

[Twisteramps]

Bret - counting on the soundman to boost your solos may work if you're a pro working with a consistent soundman but there ain't a prayer you will have any luck with that approach otherwise.

Plus your soundman has to know when you want the guitar to be louder - in a song, I may boost my levels for fills here and there along with the solos. Every time I've played a club with a provided soundman, it was hard to get them to always catch when the solos were - they didn't always know the songs we played. Even if they were pretty attentive, I'd lose the first few seconds of every solo guaranteed, and sometimes if I had to go right back into a rhythm part they would have me too loud for a few seconds.

Pete

[Cleveland Metal]

Biggest issue I had with using a lead boost with dumbass soundmen, was that they'd have me almost at redline I guess, I'd hit the boost (I just used an Intellifex patch with direct signal boosted a bit), the soundguy would probably see it lighting up too much red on the meter, and pull me down in the mix, and then forget and LEAVE me down in the mix when I was done with my solo.

Happened ALL the time...

Aaaggh....