Neven

Yea I hear you. But this unit (and others like it) should be able to do what I'm looking for. I normally use a Digitech 1101 rack unit. It has some amp tones in it, and a bunch of effects. I plug into the head directly, and the Digitech goes through the effects unit. It's nice and simple and sounds great. I was trying to lighten the load of carrying a 6 space case around, so I thought the HD500x would do everything and more that the Digitech does. So far, it's been complicated, I'm spending more time trying to get all the details figured out than I am playing. So here's the deal... My guitar into a Wah, into the front of the amp. All other effects to go through the loop of the head. I should be able to set the volume on each channel to my liking, so I could solo boost, and It should sound the same as using pedals. I could combine effects together and store them into a single patch so you don't have to hit them individually. That's what I do now with the 1101. When I tried the 4CM, I had to turn the gain down on the head because somewhere, something was making the signal hotter than if I was going to the front of the head directly. It kind of colored the sound in a way. It was close, but not like going straight in. I was thinking it's the FX loop block I placed to the right of the Mixer in the HD500x signal chain. So I think going guitar straight to the head gives the best sound. All I need to do is to get the effects to work.

I can do the 4CM. What about if you only want to plug directly into your amp and use the HD500x for effects only?

So using the 4CM I put a FX Loop in my signal chain to the right of the mixer with no amp model going. I got my ENGL's tone going. I noticed that the signal and tone was hotter than if I just plugged into the head alone. What is causing this increase in signal? Is it the send and receive levels of the FX Loop itself? After messing with this for a bit, I wanted to try just plugging into the head directly and using the 500x as effects only but I get real low volume, barely any at all. It might be me but the manual doesn't give me much to look at if you want to run it as effects only going into the head. Can you recommend the set up for cables for this? I tried going from the send of the head to the FX Return L Mono of the 500x, then from the FX Send of the 500x back to the Return of the head and it wasn't good. I also tried the 1/4 inch L Mono out and still got nothing. WTF? Arrrgggggh.....

I'll try that tonight. Stay tunes and thanks.

So where do you recommend that I put the FX loop in the signal? In the screen shot you provided, you have the FX loop icon 4 positions to the left of the amp icon. Should I place it to the left or right of the amp icon in my situation? Once I do that, are there internal settings within the FX loop that I should edit? Thanks for all the help btw

Amp is an ENGL Blackmore. It has a series loop. I tried the 4cm and all I got was a clean tone and I know the head was set to dirty. I unplugged and went to the head directly and it was crunchy and nice. I ran it back to the 4cm and the HD500x seemed to just give me clean. How do I use my heads dirty tones with just effects? Yea wah, screamer in front. Delay, Reverb in the loop.

I've put this unit on the shelf for a while but I'm trying to work it again. My goal is to use my tube amps tone, but to have the effects needed available at my feet. Perhaps later, I'd like to have the 500x's clean tone set on a patch. One thing at a time) I tried the 4 cable method, channel 1A, removed all pedals, inactivated the "amp icon" on the display and the first thing I heard was NOT the amps tone but a clean tone. Once I reactivated the amp, I had all the possibilities of amps that are offered, but I wanted MY amp's tone. Only trying to do effects here. So I have questions... 1. Is my set up incorrect? 2. Within the Settings, I have 1 set to "Guitar", the 2nd is "Same". Is this correct? Why is there a second amp option, and how/should I remove it? 3. Is the 4cm the ideal way for me to go? 4. If I use the 4cm, how do I get my amps tone on everything except maybe 1 single preset to use for the cleans offered by the 500x? Any other tips or suggestion are appreciated. Cheers.

Here's a question... Sitting here at work thinking about this stuff. If I run the guitar directly into the front of my amp, and use the amps effects loop to only go into the HD 500x's effects loop, will it work? Do you need to have the guitar plugged into the 500x at all? I will be disabling all amps or pre-amps settings, and only looking to use effects, so I'm wondering.