Need help setting up the fx loop for use with Strymon Pedals

Jesse Eyserbeck

Jesse Eyserbeck

New Member
I've not had my Axe-Fx II XL+ for long and I'm just now delving into it. I have 3 Strymon Pedal (Mobius, Timeline, and Bigsky) that I really enjoy and want to continue using in this rig. I know that the Axe-FX has many amazing effects that I intend on using but I still want to use those pedals.

I can't seem to get it right with the fx loop. I think I've fixed one problem and just run into another. The tone is not there. I know what my pedals sound like and it's just not there (seems distant). The cables are all good quality and the pedals are in the rack so they don't have far to travel. I'm using them in stereo and I've Output 2 and Input 2 to stereo. Now the main guitar tone is only on the left side with.

I've had the fx loop both between the amp and cab and after the cab.

I'm sure that it's come up before in the forum but I've not found it. Any advice/direction, thread, or video etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Jesse
 
IIRC Strymon pedals can't handle line level signals so you're probably driving the snot out of them.
 
I run stomp box effects through my effects loop too.

1. Make a patch that only has the effects loop in the signal path. Connect shunts from the input to the output.
2. Change your view to the input/output meters on the front panel.
3. Use your hum bucker and strum your guitar as the hardest you would likely ever play it. Watch the meters. Teach/learn how "hot" the signal is on the Axe meters for input 2 when you play your guitar through the effects loop with hum buckers and strumming the hardest you would likely ever need to strum it. Logic would follow, that this is the signal that a stomp box is accustomed to see from you, if you are plugging directly into it. Any hotter than this, and you, in Cliff's words, are driving the snot out of it.
4. Create presets and always check the input/output meters for input 2, to make sure you aren't sending too much signal into your stomp boxes, when using the steps 1,2, and 3, above as a reference.
5. I have found the right combination for me includes "go to" input and output settings for my effects loop block. And I don't want to share what they are, because everyone is different.

I think I read that you only hear guitar signal on one side. Go into the menus and make sure your input 2 is set to stereo.
You may find that in order to keep the input 2 from being driven too hard by the amp block, you need to turn down the Global 2 master EQ output. Balancing the level controls out of the Amp block output, the cab block output, the input /output settings available in the effects loop itself, and the Global 2 output are potentially all involved.

In my case, I have found it useful to actually boost the output of the effects loop block various settings, in order to achieve unity gain between my guitar input 1 level, and the main output 1 levels. I also double check I have everything reasonably in balance, by bypassing my effects loop, to see if my signal jumps up or down. I strive for "no noticeable change in volume" with the loop toggling in and out.
 
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