Hello Cryabetes,

Thanks for the response, and no it’s not patronizing I’m just glad you responded! Basically, I have tried it up front, and in my loop (Mesa Boogie Mark IV and/or V) both with and without any effects. I’ve basically tried everything possible. I’ve even tried it up front with no effects in the loop, and in the loop with no effects up front. Also with the loop hard bypassed (just to see.) When I do play it with effects, it goes:

WHEN UP FRONT WITH EFFECTS: guitar – boss noise suppressor (with Diamond Comp, Maxon OD808, and Boss CE-5 all in the noise suppressor’s “loop.”) out of the boss noise suppressor – ehx 16 second delay – amp.

WHEN IN LOOP WITH EFFECTS: fx send – ehx q-tron – ehx stereo polychorus – moog mf-101 lowpass filter – ehx 16 second digital delay – ehx deluxe memory man.

That would be my “main/go-to” line of effects that are always in the chain, but like I said, I’ve even tried it up front and in the loop with no other effects at all. I would chalk it up being the active pickups if it weren’t for the fact that the 16 second responded and sounded great with the actives when I first received it. But also, my second 16 second delay is doing the same thing so it’s obviously something I’m doing. This sucks because that is one hell of a looper and I want to use it.

Not a bad idea at all on turning it down and running a booster after it. The only problem I can think of there is that when I run straight into it now, it overloads basically until I turn the input gain slider all the way down to off. Let me know if you think of anything else man! Thanks…..it’s gotta be the actives preamp overloading it. I mainly play the clean channel and it’s only when I really dig in on a chord that the 16 second really starts clipping. It’s a terrible sound though. It had a ton of headroom when I first got it….can’t think of what I’m doing that any different from then…

You know what, I can’t say 100% if there is a small amount of signal present or not when the input gain slider is all the way down….I can’t remember! I can certainly find out when I get home though.

Do you run passive pickups through your 2880? Also, don’t you have an issue with volume loss when you run your 2880’s input gain way down? Idk, mabey I’m just missing something here.

I want to be able to use this live though, so I gotta figure something out! I guess I’ll just wire up some passive Dimarzio’s I have laying around the house and start the process of elimination. I didn’t want to have to do that but both of my guitars are active right now.

Hahahha, yeah I’m not a huge fan of changing batteries either (especially with the price of 9v’s) but the Seymour Duncan Classics have a massive amount of headroom, organic tone, and they’re dead quiet. I’d rather run passives anyday over EMG’s though. I can’t believe you ran a 1 spot to power your pickups!! What a pain in the butt that must have been! haha. But then again I guess you didn’t have to worry about batteries!

Yea your totally right. I believe the input gain on the 16 is analog (so it shouldn’t actually sound that terrible when it breaks up a little) but it does, so mabey your right, mabey I just need to take it to my tech and have him calibrate the damn thing. I agree that it’s weird that both would be acting the same (which is why I think it’s something I’m doing,) but as I’m sure you know….weirder things do happen when it comes to gear. Plus I’m with you when it comes to dirt…I want it from my amp, or a pedal that’s designed to provide it, NOT from overloading input gains. Especially when I’m trying to get a clean thing going.

PS – I’ll let you know on that input gain slider passing signal or not when it’s all the way down when I get home.