External Distortion Pedal & FM9

[stm113]

Hi all, I am thinking of using an external distortion pedal with my FM9. I was thinking about running it into the FX Loop.

Anyone have any experiences with doing something like this? What do y’all reckon is the best way to go about it and some things to be mindful of?

 

[unix-guy]

See the Inserting Outboard Gear section of the manual...

 

[GuyJames]

I’ve tried it but even with my favorite OD pedal (J Rockkett Dude) I’ve been able to get the results I like with built in hardware. Adding outboard gear defeats the advantage of the all in one unit approach imo.

 

[Spanky437]

I haven’t felt the need to supplement at gigs personally, but I’ve thrown friends’ pedalboards that I’ve worked on at home in front like I would a regular amp and drives/fuzzed sound great that way.

 

[elvis]

I use tube amps coupled with a load box as if they were distortion pedals in Loop 3.

 

[sprint]

Use the unity gain loop (3 on FM9 I think - chk the manual) + use a humbuster cable out to the pedal's input.

 

[AlexMania]

I too have done it with various drives in the loop only to find the built in drives to be just as good at best and plenty good enough at worse.

 

[slimefuzz]

i often use a fuzz in front of fm9. works great.

 

[Paulg2uk]

I recently got an RJM Full English for my birthday. And think I'm just gonna run in straight in front of the FM9. I'd like to be able to use both configs 4CM and also go direct when I need to. Plus the Full English has midi so that will be handy!

 

[Jim Amsden]

Putting drive pedals in front of a modeler is somewhat different than putting them in front of a guitar amplifier. It is common practice to use the level control on drive pedals to control overdrive in the amplifier. While you can do similar things with a modeler, you have to be careful to avoid digital clipping at the modeler input. That’s less of a problem with effect blocks in the modeler because internal calculations are done in multi-bit floating point. You don’t have to worry too much about digital clipping between blocks, it mostly the input and output where the analog/digital conversions are taking place.

 

[Rick]

I’ve thrown a Tumnus in front of the FM9 before, just like you would in front of an amp, and it worked the same way. You can give it too much gain, so watch that, but it didn’t appear overly sensitive. You can experiment with it in different signal positions in the loop, too. Can you say a pedal takes pedals well? lol… the FM9 does.