clean boost in FX Loop?

[bryan_kilco]

Been contemplating this but am not sure if it could potentially damage my amp.

If I ran a clean boost in the loop, would it give me a volume boost for leads? Could it possibly damage my amp?

I'm not really familiar with how exactly amps are laid out and was a bit afraid to try it without asking around first. This would be for a Mesa Mark IV and running a BBE Boosta Grande.

 

[Red Phoenix]

if you keep line level in the fx loop than all is fine. i have an EQ Pedal in the fx loop were i raise its outputvolume a bit for solos.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

It would be downright impossible to cause damage to anything in the amp, especially if it is a tube amp. If there were transistor based circuits their damage/breakdown voltages used in line level devices are up in the 40-50v area, or as about as high as a 120 Watt speaker output at full volume. As for tubes, inputs on them before you cause damage is in the kV region and would be hard to do, plus it would sound like shit. Regardless your tone would sounds like shit and your power amp would over saturate and further sound like shit LONG before you could even get close to doing damage. In solid state buffered loops and amps which are more sensitive to high voltages they will have a very VERY nasty distortion to them way before damage could be caused. Remember with tubes the voltage going into another gain stage can be well over 100 Volts, and that happens over and over again and. The values and tolerances of the components used in amps are intended to be way beyond what the circuits will go through, so audio signals will saturate long before you get to damage shit levels. Regardless a 6 or 12 dB boost in your effects loop won't hurt anything. However depending on how loud you play, if may only saturate the power section more and not really give more volume.

 

[amarshism]

i use a tech 21 boost dla in my loop

 

[septic]

the MXR MC-401 Line Boost works pretty well in the FX-Loop.