Drive Blocks in Bypass Gain Loss

[sgwilson]

I noticed recently on 2.8 that if I put a couple of bypassed drive pedals in front of a Plexi there is a noticable gain loss to the amp block.  In this case it's a Arbitrator Fuzz and TS808 into a cranked Brit Plexi.  Has anyone else noticed this?

[phil_m]

This has to do with the Auto setting for the Input Z parameter in the Input Block. With this setting, the input impedance is changed to match whatever the input impedance of the first pedal in your signal chain is in real life, and it affects it regardless of that block’s bypass state. So, with a fuzz, you probably want to have the lower impedance when it’s active, but not when it’s off. You can approach it a few different ways. You can assign the Input Z parameter to a footswitch, preferably the same footswitch as the fuzz, so that the value toggles between the lower level and higher level. Or you can assign Input Z to the Snapshot Controller and change the value per snapshot.

[rd2rk]

Those pedals have <1M input impedance. 230k for the Scream 808 and 10k for the Arbitrator.

Assuming that you're using a cable, assign the switch you're using for bypass to the Input Block Impedance parameter, 1M MIN and 230k or 10k MAX as appropriate.

If you're wireless, use different effects, as it will never sound right with the pickups loaded at 1M.

If this doesn't solve the problem, come back, but this would be the place to start.

[rd2rk]

This forum used to have a feature where if someone posted while you were busy typing, you'd get a notification. Wonder what happened to that?

[sgwilson]

Thanks so much for the info!