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by Jim Button January 12, 2021 3 min read
The four-cable method refers to the use of four cables in your guitar rig when using pedals both in front of your amp as well as in the effects loop.
This method should be considered if you are using your amp to provide some of - or all of - the gain, as time and modulation effects will sound much cleaner and faithful to the intended result when setup in the effects loop of the amplifier, while overdrive, wah and other similar effects will work best when setup between the guitar and the input of the amplifier.
If you are running the amplifier clean, you might get away with your time and modulation pedals connected up to your drive pedals in front of the amp, but if you are getting some dirt from the amp then utilising the effects loop is definitely preferable.
Typically wah, fuzz, overdrive and distortion pedals feed into the amp's input and therefore come before the amp's preamp section.
Time and modulation pedals, however, sound the most pristine and accurate when connected to the amp's effects loop, which bypasses the preamp section and avoids any colouration by that particular gain stage.
To achieve this setup, the four-cable method is put together as follows:
The result is one chain of pedals located pre-amplifier for your dirt and wah effects, then a second chain of pedals for time and modulation effects that sits in the amplifier's effects loop.
One benefit of using four cables is that you can use a preamp pedal in the effects loop to provide an alternative voicing to your amp. Say you have a Vox AC30C2 Custom Combo but for some songs in your set you require a Marshall tone. Stick a preamp pedal voiced on a Marshall in the effects loop and you can then switch between Vox and Marshall sounds with the simple click of the preamp's footswitch.
Multi-fx pedals are pretty complicated these days, providing the ability to reorder multiple patches and use an internal effects loop. One perk of the four-cable method when used with multi-fx pedals is that - as with the preamp pedal example above - you can switch between the multi-fx pedal's amplifier patches and your real amplifier tone.
Additionally, you can set up your effects patches to appear before the amp or in the amplifier's effects loop.. It's clear that if you want to use a multi-fx pedal to its fullest potential, the four-cable method will allow you to do so. Here's how to set it up:
So there you have it. If you're looking for a solution to enable you to run both drive- and time-type pedals together in a rig, give the four-cable method a go. Chances are you won't go back!
by Jim Button April 18, 2023 12 min read
by Guest Author August 26, 2022 3 min read
by Jim Button June 24, 2022 5 min read
I’ve just taken delivery of this beautiful pedal.
To get a first impression I’ve put it through a Simplifier DLX and straight into a FRFR speaker. Delightful.
I’m a guitarist in a Christian Church worship band, so I’m always looking for O/D that is both subtle and musical - that makes a statement without the darkness. The Forest Song, with its rich range of driven tones delivers.
Indeed, high gain plus low volume is an interesting musical mix in this pedal. It works. My complements to the DB development team, and to Boost for supporting them.
This Pedal is easy to use and has many sweet spots! Perfectly tuned combination of two legendary circuits! Highly recommended!
super fun trem, decent sound, huge volume. havent spent a lot of time messing about with it, but did have a play with the slide and drift feature which are a nice bonus. cant wait to have more time to play around with it.
Boost Guitar Pedals are great as always, fast delivery
been playing it a few days now, and have it set up so it works with with whatever i thow at it. its in my chain after OD but Before Distortion. feedback dial is great and can have it very far clockwise before it sends you in an infinity loop, mix is a bonus, i haven't messed about with the shapes much yet because i found a dreamy setting i dont want to change. would highly recommend isolated power suppy, it did not like daisy chain or cheap single wall one, but works smooth with isloated brick
Boost Guitar is great again to got it within 24 hours of shipping
Perfect for that traynor amp growl on bass. There’s a lot of scope with gain and EQ controls (which sound ace wherever you dial them in). Had the Tronographic Rusty Box before this which I regrettably had to sell; this is a perfect (and smaller, less power hungry) substitute.
I spent months searching for an affordable vibe pedal that actually sounded authentic.
Not only does this have the very sound that I was after, without a ton of tweaking, but it is priced reasonably too. It is not at the cheap end of the market, but for a hand-built pedal with dual speeds this is unbeatable.
The sound is spot on. Warm and rich with the throb missing from many of the lower-priced pedals. The second speed makes it easy to switch between chord and solo settings.
The delivery was amazing too - ordered in Friday afternoon and delivered on Sunday morning!
I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone looking for the best univibe around.
add another 5 stars, im no pro but i know what sounds i like and the Bloom is the sound i like. ive had Boss BD2, donner dumble drive, Tumnus and Tumnus deluxe but to me The Bloom tops them all. its a well built easy to dial in. having full gain is so clear and not nosiy. only tried with my strat single coils atm. the distortion isint the best but im comparing it to the Drunk Beaver Batv2 and have a feeling that its a layer distortion for another distortion pedal. fuzz is lush. the chip and fat switch really bring it to live and gives you more options for sound. i cant believe this is made by 1 guy. To me Drunk Beaver are up there with the best pedal makers. could send hours going on about the great things. and im only useing a boss katana mk2 no tube amp but you can get some faux tube headroom with the right switch. if you like the demos, well i got good news, it sound way better in person
Boost Guitat Pedals are great too, fast delivery, great communication. couldnt ask for a better store
Bone white Davies 1611
The Bleak District Tapescape is one of the best delay and ambience style pedals ever invented. The controls are all intuitive but highly flexible, the sounds are rich and detailed, the modulation can go from dreamy to nightmarish very quickly, and all of that inside a small footprint with a low power requirement. It's difficult to get a bad sound out of it, honestly.
Add in that Boost shipped it out quickly and it arrived with a nice note written on the invoice, is there anything else you could ask for? Definitely will be buying more from both Boost and Bleak District in future.
Part came as described. Website was easy use.
very cool pedal
Awesome service and communication all along!
Will gladly order again
I ordered a set of strings from Boost, that did not initially turn up. After contacting Boost via the website they immediately sent out another set (no questions asked). Both sets arrived a few days later (Thanks Royal Mail!). Boost were prompt in dealing with the issue (gave) me a set of strings and got things sorted out. Highly recommend you use these guys.
My favourite strings, at a great price! Very reasonable postage rates and speedy service. My first purchase from Boost, but will definitely not be my last. Hassle free, excellent...
Jazzmaster happy🙏
I didn’t know that particular manufacturer from Italy, but I definitely recommend their "Vintage Vibe”. It’s simple, intuitive, it looks awesome, the build quality seems impeccable, and most importantly, it sounds fantastic.