4 Cable Method?

[Doug B]

Hi-could you please tell me if I would be able to use the "four cable method" on my Bud amp? Also, would there be any benefit? I have read a couple of articles, but it's not sinking in what the benefit would be!

Thanks

Doug

[Alder Statesman]

As your Bud has an FX loop, yes, you can use the 4-cable setup with an mfx pedal which also has an fx loop.

I tried this years ago when I briefly owned a large Boss mfx. Sorry, I can’t remember which one, but it was their top of the line at the time. Yes, I could get a gazillion tones out off it, but those tones did not lend themselves to my playing style.

YMMV, but such a setup is suited to shredders.

[Doug B]

As your Bud has an FX loop, yes, you can use the 4-cable setup with an mfx pedal which also has an fx loop.

I tried this years ago when I briefly owned a large Boss mfx. Sorry, I can’t remember which one, but it was their top of the line at the time. Yes, I could get a gazillion tones out off it, but those tones did not lend themselves to my playing style.

YMMV, but such a setup is suited to shredders.

So what benefit would that 4 cable method be for a "jazz" player?

[garybaldy]

Hi-could you please tell me if I would be able to use the "four cable method" on my Bud amp? Also, would there be any benefit? I have read a couple of articles, but it's not sinking in what the benefit would be!

Thanks

Doug

I've never used it but isn't it just to channel gains through the front of the amp and everything else through the effects loop? If so then it wouldn't be just for shredders.

[Average Joe]

4 cable method is imo most useful if you get your gain from the amp's preamp section. Then you can route distortions and boosts in front of the amp and time based effects after gain.

If you use your amp as a clean platform, you may as well have all effects in front of the amp

[Alder Statesman]

So what benefit would that 4 cable method be for a "jazz" player?

Paging Bill Frisell. Paging Bill Frisell.

[Doug B]

I've never used it but isn't it just to channel gains through the front of the amp and everything else through the effects loop? If so then it wouldn't be just for shredders.

Is that all it is? The name "4 cable method" makes it sounds mysterioso (to me) when it's really just distortion up front and time based effects in the fx loop?

[Alder Statesman]

Is that all it is? The name "4 cable method" makes it sounds mysterioso (to me) when it's really just distortion up front and time based effects in the fx loop?

It is a bit more than that. If you look at a standard pedal board, you have some effects that typically are in front of the preamp, then others taking the signal out of the effects loop and then returning the wet signal to the power amp. Some may and will disagree but my basic signal chain is;

Guitar->Compressor->Preamp->Reverb->Power Amp->Speaker

With a multi-effects-pedal you can recreate such a chain if it is say a GT-400 (I remember what I had), Helix or other higher end mfx as they also have the fx loop in their modeling. You cannot do this if your mfx is straight in, straight out.

[garybaldy]

Is that all it is? The name "4 cable method" makes it sounds mysterioso (to me) when it's really just distortion up front and time based effects in the fx loop?

Yeah you assign the effects in your mutifx to where you want them to go. I have an old Boss GT5 that will do it but I've never tried. I still use an even older Boss ME8 which doesn't have the loop. For my rock stuff I just put everything through the front of my Musicman 65RP. It works fine.

[Woodstove]

The most specifically useful way to use 4 cable mode I know is when using a pedal amplifier with your tube amp. So if I use a UAFX Ruby (Vox AC30) pedal with my clean tube amp in the loop 4 cable, when the pedal is on the preamp of the tube amp is bypassed and the Ruby plays through the power section of the amp. When the pedal is off the tube amp's preamp is on. It's a "reverse" jazz use, turning a clean tube jazz amp into a rocker. Of course if the amp pedal is a clean/jazz friendly tone it can be used for jazz as well....see the UAFX Dream (fender deluxe reverb) pedal which can turn your plexi amp into a fender clean.

[Doug B]

Yeah you assign the effects in your mutifx to where you want them to go. I have an old Boss GT5 that will do it but I've never tried. I still use an even older Boss ME8 which doesn't have the loop. For my rock stuff I just put everything through the front of my Musicman 65RP. It works fine.

Ya, I don't use a MFX unit. When I do use fx sometimes, they are individual fx on a pedal board powered by a Voodoo Labs PS.

[JCat]

"4-cable method" is just a fancy way of saying that you need four instrument cables. The assumption is that there are two groups of pedals; preamp pedals (e.g drive pedals) and fx-loop pedals (e.g time based effects like Delay and Reverb)

1. from your guitar to the first preamp pedal in chain.
2. from your last preamp pedal in chain to the amp Input
3. From the amp's Fx-Send to the first loop pedal in chain
4. from the last loop pedal in chain to Fx-Return of the amp

There are different types of Fx-loops; passive or active, serial or parallel with or without a blend volume control. The Fx-loop is a small circuit, implemented in different ways depending on amp design.

If the loop is useful or not for clean application depends on the things listed above; type and implementation.

For example; An active fx-loop first attenuates the preamp signal to instrument level (to match pedal input specification), then re-amplifies the signal to match some internal voltage expected by the power amp. This re-amplification tends to add noise, the op-amp itself could be noisy and it's also going to re-amplify pedal noise. With a parallel loop you can blend in more of the unaltered preamp signal to control the noise, but a serial loop is what it is. (Test the loop noise level by plugging a patch cable between send and return and turn up some amp volume...)

Try plugging a passive volume pot (e.g a volume pedal) in the fx-loop, you may find it useful for some clean applications (it'll warm up the sound). The volume pedal also facilitates output control and noise management.