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Hi,

Hi,

To keep it short lol, I have an EVH Lunchbox running through a Marshall 1 X 12" cab. The amp sound is great, the only problem is the amp has two channels but only one volume control for both channels combined.
Being in a six piece band, sometimes we play gigs with just a vocal PA, and not the full rig. This is when i get into problems with lifting the overall volume of my lead guitar sections over the rest of the band. I've just bought a Blackstar LT drive as i intend to use only one channel on the amp, and a little overdrive always helps for lead passages, also i've bought a EQ pedal, which i hoped would lift the volume of the solo's using the main slider on the right with the 15db lift. I use both units in my line before the amp, neither gives any volume lift whatsoever.
They do give a volume lift in the effects loop, and also running into a solid state amp. Does this mean my valve amp is defective, or is this the norm for using these units into the effect chain before the amp?
Any help would be really appreciated

in a nut shell ...boost your eq in the MID RANGES ( 600HZ/4K )...forget about the bass/treble ends esp if you want to cut through a wall of a six piece band ...dont waste your setups energy trying to compete with an already full range sound
volume needs to be applied at the effective frequencies....it will sound thin solo'd ( sound on its own ) ..but you've got to share the audio bandwidth and keep your own space

polyal wrote:in a nut shell ...boost your eq in the MID RANGES ( 600HZ/4K )...forget about the bass/treble ends esp if you want to cut through a wall of a six piece band ...dont waste your setups energy trying to compete with an already full range sound
volume needs to be applied at the effective frequencies....it will sound thin solo'd ( sound on its own ) ..but you've got to share the audio bandwidth and keep your own space

Thanks, i'll give it a go at the weekend

I tried an EQ pedal (the cheap Behringer one) and even though the graphic was set flat, it seemed to make the sound of the amp very harsh, even though the amount of boost using the master slider was barely moved higher, it did lift the volume though. i was thinking about another route of buying a boost pedal (the blackstar lt boost - £36 - in my price range). by using the unit in the clean boost setting, will this lift the volume without doing what the EQ pedal did by making the overall sound a little louder and possibly fuller?

at the end of the day sound is very subjective ..but you still need to find a good eq range
read this + articles on how to cut through the mix
http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/1 ... not-buried

Thanks for the advice, i took a leap of faith and bought a Blackstar LT boost, popped it in the effects loop, works a treat! Give a great. slight change in sound as well, the bass and treble dials are very responsive and fattens the solo sound out great without adding a tiny amount of gain ( i mean tiny), the gain dial up till 2 o clock is clean, i use it at 1 and the volume lift is great! guitar forums are definately similar to a help line! thanks again!

Much better to use the EQ pedal as a volume cut. Turn it off for solos.

Solarflares wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 10:53 am Much better to use the EQ pedal as a volume cut. Turn it off for solos.

Don’t know why I have never even considered using it this way round before.

I haven’t used individual pedals for some years now but I guess I could still try this way using my Fractal FM3

Olly wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 10:11 am

Solarflares wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 10:53 am Much better to use the EQ pedal as a volume cut. Turn it off for solos.

Don’t know why I have never even considered using it this way round before.

I haven’t used individual pedals for some years now but I guess I could still try this way using my Fractal FM3

Well, it depends how you are using the FM3. But the premise of ideal loop level is always demanded from a valve-amp, as you can distort the return circuit with excess level. Especially if you are breaking up the power-section a little to get warmth.
Whether you have amp’s pre-amp - Fractal - amp’s power-amp, or just guitar-Fractal - amp’s power-amp, it’s the same.
If the Fractal has metering it would be helpful.

Basically, play through just your amp, not using the loop. Wind it up to your gigging volume on your lead sound, or where you want the amp for sweetness.
Now connect the Fractal in the loop with a blank patch, and match the volume to the original.
Pay attention to where the output level is set on the Fractal.
Every patch you make after that should generally be slightly less than that output level.
When you add delays and reverb, the overall level will rise, so aim to never exceed that original level.
Your lead sound with delay/reverb will probably be your loudest patch, so most all others will be set with less output.
Try and preserve unity-gain through the Fractal, and control output level from the output section.

This keeps clarity intact, reduces risk of overloading the output section, and noise-level is optimal.