Hoping to get some opinions on how to best use this pedal. These are kind of "nitty gritty" questions and how to get the best sound with my instrument and this device.
Not really looking for advice on other pedals or preamps so please don't tell me about how easy your redeye is to use or how great your tonedexter is
This is the link to the manual:
https://gracedesign.com/support/manu...anual_RevD.pdf
1. This is from section 9.3 "Because we designed Felix to play well with a wide array of mics and pickups on a wide array of instruments, the gain control sweep required is more than this single potentiometer can provide. Accordingly, an internal jumper is provided to select between two different gain ranges on the Ch1 line input. This range is set to the LOW setting at the factory, which means the jumper is NOT connected and which closely matches the gains of Ch1 and Ch2.
If you are using a source that requires more gain (e.g. a low output pickup on a delicate acoustic instrument), you may need to set this jumper to the ‘HI’ position, which shifts the gain range up by 18dB."
Using my piezo I had never been able to turn up the gain so high that the indicator light turned red, so I figured I should try using this 18db gain range boost. It seems to be helpful, I can definitely get more gain out of my output. I can get the indicator to turn red if the gain is really up. It is a little bit more feedback prone if I really lean into a monitor, but not bad.
2. There is also a switch to match impedance. From later in the same section.
"Both instrument inputs have 3 different impedance settings:
Ch1: med - 1MΩ / hi -10MΩ / low – 10kΩ
Ch2: med - 1MΩ / hi -20MΩ / low – 332kΩ"
Based on what I have read here and from what I think I recall of my piezo I am using the med- 1 Mohm switch setting.
3. The Low frequency control of each channel also has this function:
"Also, because certain acoustic instruments (banjo) may react better to a higher corner / peak frequency, we have added a Low control range jumper on the main PCB. Moving this jumper shifts the Low frequency up to 250Hz (+/-3dB) corner frequency / 80Hz peak. "
I tried this but it doesn't seem to do much at all for me, probably because of the range of the mandolin?
To adjust the settings for 1 and 3 you have to open the pedal up and move a jumper. Not hard at all, but also not something you can adjust on the fly.
The db boost mentioned in 1 only effects channel 1. Well until now I had been only using channel 2 and everything sounded fine. Great even, especially with the rest of my pedal rig. The nice thing about this is I can experiment with channel 1 and if I am unhappy I can just go back into the undisturbed channel 2.
With all these options and a piezo pickup, I want to get this dialed in as much as possible. Things sound good. But with all these features I want to make sure I am getting the most out of this device. So I am wondering...
Am I missing any other settings?
Is anyone else using these settings (mentioned above as 1, 2 and 3)?
Any other advice on how to get the best sound out of THIS DEVICE?
Thanks!
Dan G.
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