I have an ML5 in which I’ve noticed some odd behavior. I have five drive pedals set up in the ML5 as follows:
A- Timmy
B-Wampler Belle
C-Barber Direct Drive
D-Boss Angry Driver
E- Soldano SLO
The issue:
I can select A, B, or D and have the true-bypass sound and unity gain when engaged as if they were connected to my amp in-line. When I select C or E, the volume is reduced below unity, and turning the volume of either pedal up does not make a difference until it is almost fully up. I’ve tested other combinations of the suspect pedals by putting them at A and B, etc. and it seems like certain high-gain pedals have this behavior within the ML5. This behavior is not the same with these pedals when connected directly in line to the amp.
I have done a hard reset on the ML5 by following the manual and holding A-C-E until it blinks. I’ve also tested for the muted switching mode by holding down D while booting it up…none of the loops were selected. I am using all new EBS flat patch cables which have been tested as “good”.
I am curious why the ML5 doesn’t seem to play nice with certain pedals vs. others. The Boss pedal mentioned above is very high gain on the Angry Charlie setting and does not have the volume/unity problem as the SLO and Direct Drive. I would love to be able to use these pedals as configured above in conjunction with MIDI to set up my live rig. Right now the volume drops for loops C and E make it unusable for this.
Just to clarify, so when you moved the Direct Drive and SLO to a different loop (A&B), it still exhibited the same behaviour?
What if you try bypassing the output, so lets say you have the DD and SLO in loops A and B, and then have your amp connected to Send C, so that if C is engaged, the signal goes out to your amp. Does the issue still occur then?
Thank you for the response. I tried plugging the SLO into A and the DD into B and then using Send C, and this seems to have resolved the volume issue. I plugged the Timmy into C and moved the output to Send E to see if that pedal worked correctly as it did before…and it did!
So, curiously, everything works when using a loop send as you suggested. But I lose high gain pedal volume when using the main output it seems as described above. I could use the ML5 like this (using loop send as main out), but it would essentially become a 4 channel switcher instead. Any ideas as to what might be causing the high gain volume drop within loops while using the main output?
At the output, there is a light dependent resistor (LDR) that controls the muted switching. That’s the only passive component touching the circuit. It is a very high resistance value (5-10Mohm) so it’s odd that its affecting your audio. Not sure if you want to try but it’s possible to just clip one of the legs to disable it, and it can be easily soldered back if need be.
I think you might need to unscrew the audio jack nuts to remove the board (don’t think it’s possible to clip it without removing the board).
It’s one of these 2 pins here. Just clip or desolder either.
I have disassembled the unit and located the resistor legs to be desoldered. I will do this surgery tonight and post back results once reassembled and tested.
I desoldered one leg of the highlighted resistor, closest to the end of the board.
I plugged the DD into A, SLO into B, and tested the output from the main output jack.
It seems that this may have resolved the problem with the volume sweep on the high gain pedals. Both pedals are now acting “normal” with the full sweep of volume and gain instead of before when those knobs would only increase the sound during the last 1/4 of the turn.
I will build out and test this weekend with five pedals and let you know what happens.
