Help with W/D/W levels with Tri-Avatar Chorus

D

drspearing

Member
Greetings!

I'm having some trouble with my W/D/W/ setup. Running my main amp (Wizard MCII) as the center. Running a line out into the Free the Tone Tri-Avatar, stereo out to a Strymon Timeline and BigSky and then into a Fryette 2/50/2 power amp. While the Tri-Avatar can handle a +7db input level, I can't seem to get the level set right. Whenever I get the input level set to where I can hear chorus, it seems to distort as I hear a hissing/distorting sound for about a second after I pick a note. I can hear the chorus with the "distortion", or hear no chorus and no distortion.

I have tried with just the Tri-Avatar (i.e. no Timeline and no BigSky) with the same results. I have tried every setting combination on the Tri-Avatar. Level high and low, mix from 100% dry to 100% wet, the Depth settings all over the place. I have tried 3 different line level methods. Direct out from my amp, using a Suhr Iso line out box and a Suhr Reactive Load.

I have also tried a friend's TC SCF with the same result as well. The TC can also support a line level signal. There is an input level on the TC and it had to be at almost 0 to not clip and it had to clip a bit to hear any chorus... with the distortion. I must be doing something wrong.

I'm running the level on the Fryette 2/50/2 levels at about 10:30. Should I have it higher?

Thanks in advance!
 
drspearing said:
Greetings!

I'm having some trouble with my W/D/W/ setup. Running my main amp (Wizard MCII) as the center. Running a line out into the Free the Tone Tri-Avatar, stereo out to a Strymon Timeline and BigSky and then into a Fryette 2/50/2 power amp. While the Tri-Avatar can handle a +7db input level, I can't seem to get the level set right. Whenever I get the input level set to where I can hear chorus, it seems to distort as I hear a hissing/distorting sound for about a second after I pick a note. I can hear the chorus with the "distortion", or hear no chorus and no distortion.

I have tried with just the Tri-Avatar (i.e. no Timeline and no BigSky) with the same results. I have tried every setting combination on the Tri-Avatar. Level high and low, mix from 100% dry to 100% wet, the Depth settings all over the place. I have tried 3 different line level methods. Direct out from my amp, using a Suhr Iso line out box and a Suhr Reactive Load.

I have also tried a friend's TC SCF with the same result as well. The TC can also support a line level signal. There is an input level on the TC and it had to be at almost 0 to not clip and it had to clip a bit to hear any chorus... with the distortion. I must be doing something wrong.

I'm running the level on the Fryette 2/50/2 levels at about 10:30. Should I have it higher?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
and we are sure the tri works properly in front of the amp when you plug gtr straight in?
 
sounds like an impedance mismatch and i feel your pain. i dealt with that trying to use the H9 tricera patch and the Jackson New Wave chorus. it worked but was very touchy, easy to clip, and not sounding as clear as when using on my pedalboard.

IMG_4757.jpeg
here’s the latest batch of chorus crack i’ve got brewing.

after a ton of experimentation recently, i started dropping different chorus pedals in and out of the loops of the 2290. the pedals seem happier in the loops of that unit.
this example was the lil wave in loop 4, and the tc scf in the last stereo loop 5 of the 2290, bypassing the spx 900:



after having recently sent my intermittent arion and vintage small clone to wayne at @griff10672 (thanks again pedal wizard!) for an overhaul, i now have the 3 chorus pedals you see (except the red one which is a Griffin Atomic Punk Overdrive) all running in series (arion->lil wave->tc) mono in loop 4 of the 2290, and the spx 900 in loop 5 running (what else?!) symphonic stereo into the 2290 delays.

to me it’s sounding more landau ripple—voila:

 
mentoneman said:
sounds like an impedance mismatch and i feel your pain. i dealt with that trying to use the H9 tricera patch and the Jackson New Wave chorus. it worked but was very touchy, easy to clip, and not sounding as clear as when using on my pedalboard.

View attachment 366248
here’s the latest batch of chorus crack i’ve got brewing.

after a ton of experimentation recently, i started dropping different chorus pedals in and out of the loops of the 2290. the pedals seem happier in the loops of that unit.
this example was the lil wave in loop 4, and the tc scf in the last stereo loop 5 of the 2290, bypassing the spx 900:



after having recently sent my intermittent arion and vintage small clone to wayne at @griff10672 (thanks again pedal wizard!) for an overhaul, i now have the 3 chorus pedals you see (except the red one which is a Griffin Atomic Punk Overdrive) all running in series (arion->lil wave->tc) mono in loop 4 of the 2290, and the spx 900 in loop 5 running (what else?!) symphonic stereo into the 2290 delays.

to me it’s sounding more landau ripple—voila:

Click to expand...

that Arion is such a great chorus !!!
 
Thanks for the replies!

Great sounding rig mentoneman!

Can I do anything in my case if it is an impedance issue? Maybe run it into a buffer first? Or maybe a Lele P-Split that has a transformer? I don't have the room for a 2290 in my rig.
 
griff10672 said:
that Arion is such a great chorus !!!
Click to expand...
i’m so happy you brought it back to life. i swear it sounds better than i ever remember it sounding since you replaced the switch and cleaned it up.

and for some reason, it handles the input level from the 2290 loop better than all the rest of my chorus pedals thus it is first in my chorus pedal chain.

fyi i also had the later sch-z made in sri lanka which was not even close to the same magic, and the vertex sch-z landau mod which sounded way better than stock and had the improved switch,

but the OG sch-1 MIJ is gold.
 
drspearing said:
The Suhr reactive load has an unbalanced output impedance of 6k.
Click to expand...
it might be a good idea to reach out to Suhr or RJM and ask if they have a recommendation on what product would work best in your case.

something that does what the radial reamp does—line to instrument level interface- so maybe it’s a call to sweetwater.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...92e10a4cd53119923cc66d0fbe103523&gclsrc=3p.ds

the trick is preserving your tone, keeping small and affordable.
i’ve used things in the past like ebtech impedence level shifters and the behringer splitter mixer for audio in permanent install video systems but that’s way overkill for what we’re talking about. whirlwind makes fixed inline impedance adapters to pad line level signal i’ve used in live audio applications too. just not in my gtr rigs.
 
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