Bass & 2 Synths through pedal chain to 1 bass amp

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Nick Fox

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Jan 23, 2018
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#1
I'm planning to run my bass & two MicroKorg synths through the same pedal chain into my bass amp. So far it works OK using the Morley ABC pedal, but I'm having a slight issue that my bass drops in volume fairly significantly when the two keyboards are engaged through the chain as well. I can level like this, so it's not a problem really, but I wanted some advice as to whether this is something I should worry about long-term (i.e. is this a sign that something is wrong and I might be damaging my gear)? My bass is active, so all three run into the 'active' setting on my bass head. I'm currently using a Hartke but planning to upgrade to an Orange shortly, but wanna make sure there's no problem with the chain before I do.

Chain looks like this:

Bass -> tuner -> EHX Blogger -> EHX Microsynth -> Boss Harmonist -> Morley ABC (Where MicroKorgs join) -> EHX Memory Man -> Moog MF Chorus -> TC Delay -> Bass head

Anyone got any advice? Cheers!
 
#2
Nick Fox said:
I'm planning to run my bass & two MicroKorg synths through the same pedal chain into my bass amp. So far it works OK using the Morley ABC pedal, but I'm having a slight issue that my bass drops in volume fairly significantly when the two keyboards are engaged through the chain as well. I can level like this, so it's not a problem really, but I wanted some advice as to whether this is something I should worry about long-term (i.e. is this a sign that something is wrong and I might be damaging my gear)? My bass is active, so all three run into the 'active' setting on my bass head. I'm currently using a Hartke but planning to upgrade to an Orange shortly, but wanna make sure there's no problem with the chain before I do.
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Anyone got any advice? Cheers!
Click to expand...

You aren't damaging anything.

Basically the signals from the keyboards and the bass are interacting with each other when they're both on in a way that drags down the output because they aren't electrically isolated from each other.
To prevent that you'd need to use a mixer instead of a switch. A mixer would have separate preamps for each channel.

By the way, the "active" setting on your amp doesn't mean what you think it means. That input (or switch position) just has a little less gain than the other one. Try both and use the one that sounds better.
 
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#3
lz4005 said:
You aren't damaging anything.

Basically the signals from the keyboards and the bass are interacting with each other when they're both on in a way that drags down the output because they aren't electrically isolated from each other.
To prevent that you'd need to use a mixer instead of a switch. A mixer would have separate preamps for each channel.

By the way, the "active" setting on your amp doesn't mean what you think it means. That input (or switch position) just has a little less gain than the other one. Try both and use the one that sounds better.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for the response! So as long as I'm happy with the volume levels as they are, I don't need to do anything? Will look at a mixer long term as it will probs be the best solution. Thanks for the tip!
 
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