The Steel Guitar Forum

I mic my Nashville 400 for on stage so my preamp out and the power amp in jacks are free to run effects thru. Is it better to run effects thru these jacks or thru the pre-EQ patch on the front of the amp? Any suggestions?

DJ, I use the jacks on the back of the amp for effects because I use the 3 cable volume pedal hook up on the front jacks. I use a Nashville 400 too and sometimes a Session 500. LH

Would you men explain the differnce between the back and the front. I can read about these things but don`t understand them. You see,I was out of music fifteen years and when I started back it was with steel and never used effects. The effects are, to me, is the hardest part about steeling. I thank all of you with your help, Rick W.

Sorry about the verbs. Rick

Hello DJ and Rick,
As you know, Peavey steel amps(with the exception of the older Session 400/LTD 400 amplifiers)feature a "PRE EQ PATCH" insert point that was intentionally designed as a volume pedal loop. Peavey is the only company that includes this "patch point" to insert your volume pedal. This circuit design is called "zero negative feedback" and what this allows you to do is to patch your volume pedal into the circuit after the first gain stage of the amp. Therefore, the signal coming from your guitar is not degradated by some devices before it reaches the input of the amp. In other words, by connecting directly from the output of your guitar straight to the amp input, no signal loss from the pickup occurs.

If you think about it, for years the steel guitarist has been patching from the output of the guitar to the input of the volume pedal. Then, a second cable is patched from the output of the volume pedal to the input of the amp. Keep in mind, that many players also patch through an various effects devices before they even reach the input of the amp.

Our suggestion is to use three shielded guitar cables for this patching procedure. Connect the first cable from the output of your guitar to the input of the amplifier. With a second shielded cable, connect from the "OUT" jack to the input of your volume pedal. With the third shielded cable, patch from the output of your volume pedal to the "IN" jack on the amp. Try this and let me know what you think.

Now, to your original question. The "IN" and "OUT" jacks are designed to accept a low level signal(less than 1/2 volt) and the "PRE AMP OUT" and "POWER AMP IN" are designed to operate with "line level" (1 volt nominal) devices.

My suggestion is to try both patch points. But, it really depends on what the input sensitivity and output levels are of your effects devices.

If you have other questions, please feel free to contact me here at Peavey Electronics. Our U.S. toll free number is 1-877-732-8391.

RickW. I'm sure that Not all amps have jacks on the front and the back in which you can run you effects thru. The nashville 400 does. From what I understand if you run your effects thru the pre-EQ jacks which are on the front of the nashville 400 you are basically changing the signal from your guitar( ie adding an effect) before adding any desired tone changes with your EQ knobs (ie the low,mid, shift, presence etc). When effect pedals are run out of the back of the amp ( power amp in and the pre-amp out jacks)the effects are added after the EQ has already altered the signal from the quitar. I guess what I was looking for was If anyone had any preferences or reasons why whether one method is better than another etc. I hope this has helped a little?

Mike Brown
Thanks for the reply! You beat me to the punch by one minute. I hope rickW saw your reply too.

I used to use the Volume Pedal Patch on a Session 500 and it seemed like I was always burning up pots.

Larry, you shouldn't have. I used the volume pedal in-out on my Session 500 for 15 years (the entire time I had the amp) and didn't have any abnormal volume pot wear.

Larry,
I think that there was probably another cause of the pots failing in your pedal. The PRE EQ PATCH would not be the cause of this. Did you have any other devices connected to the amp? If so, where were they connected and what were they?