Me
Member
I haven't tried this entirely yet, but just experimented with the input meters of my FX unit and a lead and it looks like it works. The magic is that the Herbert loop switches BOTH the send and the return of the loop, not just always send on with the return switching between the internal and external signals...
As you know the Herbert has a MIDI programmable loop. Put an effect in it and it switches in and out if you program the patch with "Loop" on (kinda like 1/4 of a Voodoo Labs GCX). Sure we all know that!
Then as implied by the manual you can use an external preamp. Run a splitter cable to both the Diezel guitar in and the external preamp in, run the preamp into the switchable return. Now you can use "Loop" to switch between the Diezel preamp or the external one. I tried this with my old Mesa Triaxis and it works. You have to be careful you don't make a ground loop else it hums, but as long as it's isolated you can then have as many preamp sounds as you like, just using the Diezel power amp for them all! (This is because the return is switched so the internal "through" isn't heard any more, so you don't get both preamps with no send).
Now the new bit I didn't know til I just experimented is that it's not just the return path that switches what the power amp is "listening to", but it switches the send too. This means if the return isn't connected the jack socket is bridged internally, and means you can use your Diezel totally normally and the switchable send only goes to what is connected to it when the Loop is on. This means you can connect another power amp to the send only and that one will come on AS WELL as the Diezel power amp. Or if you put a lead into the return as well which isn't connected to anything it'll send to the new power amp, and connect the Diezel one to nothing, so use the external one instead.
I'm gonna try putting my Marshall power amp into the send and my Marshall cab off it. I can then program patches so I get full Diezel head and cab sounds, and then have some patches which switch in the Marshall too so I can get massive Diezel + fizzier Marshall sounds, like a poor man's Adam Jones rig! Well only "poor man's" in that it's only the single Diezel preamp is split to different power amps, (not Adam Jones' 2 Diezel VH4s + 1 Old Marshall), but then again since the Herbert has more power than the VH4, and the power amp is a dual mono-block EL34 100/100, it'll actually be more powerful! Someone find me a stadium. This weekend's gonna get loud!
As you know the Herbert has a MIDI programmable loop. Put an effect in it and it switches in and out if you program the patch with "Loop" on (kinda like 1/4 of a Voodoo Labs GCX). Sure we all know that!
Then as implied by the manual you can use an external preamp. Run a splitter cable to both the Diezel guitar in and the external preamp in, run the preamp into the switchable return. Now you can use "Loop" to switch between the Diezel preamp or the external one. I tried this with my old Mesa Triaxis and it works. You have to be careful you don't make a ground loop else it hums, but as long as it's isolated you can then have as many preamp sounds as you like, just using the Diezel power amp for them all! (This is because the return is switched so the internal "through" isn't heard any more, so you don't get both preamps with no send).
Now the new bit I didn't know til I just experimented is that it's not just the return path that switches what the power amp is "listening to", but it switches the send too. This means if the return isn't connected the jack socket is bridged internally, and means you can use your Diezel totally normally and the switchable send only goes to what is connected to it when the Loop is on. This means you can connect another power amp to the send only and that one will come on AS WELL as the Diezel power amp. Or if you put a lead into the return as well which isn't connected to anything it'll send to the new power amp, and connect the Diezel one to nothing, so use the external one instead.
I'm gonna try putting my Marshall power amp into the send and my Marshall cab off it. I can then program patches so I get full Diezel head and cab sounds, and then have some patches which switch in the Marshall too so I can get massive Diezel + fizzier Marshall sounds, like a poor man's Adam Jones rig! Well only "poor man's" in that it's only the single Diezel preamp is split to different power amps, (not Adam Jones' 2 Diezel VH4s + 1 Old Marshall), but then again since the Herbert has more power than the VH4, and the power amp is a dual mono-block EL34 100/100, it'll actually be more powerful! Someone find me a stadium. This weekend's gonna get loud!