Far too many pro's / hardware manufacturers just assume everyone knows this stuff. Thanks for being different and explaining everything clearly 😉.

You’ve been doing a great service for our community, I wish you all the success.

Man this video answered questions I didn't even know I had. Thanks so much Mason, I'm going Ampless for my church Worship setup and you've just saved me heaps of stress and time I would have wasted otherwise!

I use the Bass Simplifier and it has changed my whole sound. I couldn't live without it!

These new amp pedals have truly changed the game for me personally. The genre of music I play the sound men usually run your rig directly into the DI and out of a DI into your amp. They don't care if you're playing a $20k two rock amp. They're not micing it up. So, even though the tone out of your amp and something like magic. That DI sound is like a kazoo if you have any type of drive on. The UA Dream 65 has changed this for me. I run two lines out the outputs. One to my monitor or "power in" section of my amp. The other to the DI box. The IR's and cam Sims on any of the UA pedals are CRAZY good. Now I don't lose my tone.

EXCELLENT video! I have always struggled with the concepts of "wet-dry-wet" rigs, and this made it much more clear

I have never seen this explained better. Thanks so much. Keep up the great work! God bless.

Thanks, doc! Your rundowns are always clear crispy and concise, and also superlative!

Thanks a bunch! I placed my wet effects after the Dream as you suggested, and the sound got SO MUCH better! 👍

Thank you for this wonderful guideline . Helped a lot . Keep posting such videos related to signal path and Mainly using pedals on recording

This so helpful Mason ! I watched many other signal chain videos for Amp-less rigs and only your detailed video gives me all the understanding and options w my Strymon Iridium. NICE ONE !!!

Excellent, clearly explained and easy to understand. I use an Iridium when not using regular amps and use it in a stereo set up. What I learned from your demo is that I have my boost and volume pedal in the wrong place, many thanks for helping me understand why! Keep up the great work! 👍🎶

Thanks, this answered my question about using the boss ir-2 in a simple stereo ampless rig. 👍👍👍

Great vid, i can always count on you to answer/ preempt my questions.

Best video about ampless signal chain. Simple, clear, good examples. Thank u for sharing. Keep doing these stuff. Best luck for your work 🍻🤟

Nice work, Mason and hats off to vertex effects for putting on this video very helpful. I was going up that path already and apparently hooking things up right this video just confirmed it. Thanks.

The depth of your tutorial is fantastic; yet, HOLY MOLY the complexity of a complete virtual rig is making me consider going acoustic and singing on a picnic blanket in the park . . . alone. ;-0

The graphics, the editing...the clarity. You keep evolving Mason. Thank you. I still think in metaphors and concepts more than technology and blueprints, but your delivery continues to be more focused and It's getting easier to follow along. Such a useful presentation on this topic 2 video suggestions: - Would you consider a video on a cable management of your brand new STUDIO and WORKSTATION? Beyond the pedalboard, I'm a firm believer you can apply that kind of tidiness elswhere in one's music space. And I'm fairly certain many cords behind an average computer are a rats nest, lit up by some sort of LED light to create the illusion all is well. Or maybe it just signals you like create. Either way, I bet you could make one mean video on it? - It's been asked before, but could you discuss and dedicate a whole video to HX STOMP specific routing? I've watched Line 6's demos and they're good, but boy do they fly past the material. To me the ports on the unit seem to connect a little differently to an effects loop or setting up cap Sims, etc. And I am simply not an engineer. Considering there's millions of users out there, perhaps I wouldn't be alone. Keep on what you're doing!

This makes soo much sense. Thanks for making this video. Super clear

Mason, your content is very enriching! Love it!

Nice vid and clear explanation. I am using the ruby to create an ampless rig and loving it. My modulation and wet effects are after the ruby to make them more pristine. I run a boss EQ pedal last in chain to create a clean volume boost for solos as I run the ruby dirty and have noticed that the reverb pedal I have tends to distort when boosted. Works like a charm!

Thank you! I was waiting for this 🙏🙏🙏

Thank you for instantly answering questions/fears I had about my UA lion and solutions given in a straightforward concise video!

Thanks...Your videos are always so clear and informative.

thank you for making time on this!🍻

That was super-helpful and very well explained! Thank you! 🤘

What a timely blessing this video is. I am reworking my rig to go amp less today with the Woodrow.

Thank you! Very informative and the images really helped!

Nice to see something about this, I came back to guitar about 1.5 years ago and have joined a band, using just a pedal board. And it's taken a while to get the set up right, Iridium really helped to create the amp feel, and a DI box, and a whole host of pedal swapping. Can be hard to get your head around how to create all the tones you need. (Without using digital modelling. As that's just not for me!)

OUTSTANDING advice and information ~ exceptionally presented and super generous, wow Mason thank you! I'll be gearing up with some of your buffers and boosts 100%! I have on my agenda to get help from a Rig Dr. consultation too. You could 'aka' this channel as Rock Star University man. The effort you put into your business and channel really comes across and the quality shines, super positive vibes. Great input and tips from the community also thanks all ~ awesome!!!

Great suggestions for alternate routing with amp sims! I’ll have to try some of these.

Vertex makes pedals that feel awesome. Now you know why! 🎉 thanks for the video

So many good tips, Uncle Mase, idk what the pedal world would do without you. I've been playing digital for about 4 years now. I have a stomp, and I've always put my wet effects last on the chain and go straight into the stomp. But if your digital rig has an fx loop, run the wet effects into it either mono or stereo because it takes away so much digital harshness. Having your drives smash the amp and putting the wet effects post is amazing. Also, if you're running the stomp, axe fx, quad cortex, etc. put a compressor with a low mix after your amp and cab before your reverb tames a lot of digital noise coming from driving the amps into the delay/verbs. Because a lot of modelers are frfr, so you just get so many crazy signals coming through that you won't get with a regular amp. Love your content always!

Awesome video and good timing for me. I’m putting together an Ampless praise and worship board for church right now.✌️👍

Being a drummer, I never got a lot of experience setting up effect pedal signal paths. Now that I have my home studio set up, I want to make sure I have a nice assortment of effects and pedals available for my partner and I to dabble with to get tones for guitar, vocals, drums and whatever else comes down the proverbial pike. I am glad to see I have somewhat approximated the kind of setups demonstrated here. But definitely learned a few alternatives. One cool addition you might find of interest that I added to my signal flow is the Erica Synths Matrix Mixer which I am using to program and automate from what and to where I can send my signal path for up to 16 inputs to 16 outputs. It can get really interesting. Thanks again for what you do. Cheers!

unexpected result from watching this video, I finally understand Wet/Dry/Wet set ups!! thanks!

This has been so helpful... thank you! :)

Mase! Right out of the park! A walkoff winner. 😎

Your good Mason, very good. And you keep getting better over the years.

Exact pedal I needed , thank you !

Great info Mason! Learning and evolving thankyou!

Thank you This was the best explanation I’ve seen Amazingly simplified with all the pitfalls 👍👍

0:21 Not all are digital! Kingsley Amps make amazing ‘Pre Amp’ pedals that are all analog! Love the content! Thanks for all your commitment to educating us ❤

Good video. I do the same idea within the helix using the DSM Humboldt DLX 4cm. Love this sort of content 👍🏼

Thank you. Your knowledge and sharing is the best. 👏👏👏👏👏

Great! Flawless explanation! I’ll try the wet/dry examples with Strymon Iridium! Many thanks! Best! Regards 👏👏👏

Thought this was brilliant. Thanks for sharing this with us. All my best wishes from the UK. 😎😎😎😎👍👍👍👍

Truly the easiest explanation and examples out there thanks man…

This helps out so many people, Thank you!

The Boss IR-200 is so underrated. It has an effects loops which you can program to before or after amp, 2 eqs, reverb, noise gate, stereo with 2 different amp/cab combos u can split L/R, can act as simple midi controller, u can upload your IRs, tons of amps including bass…. It’s amazing, sounds amazing.

Always great guidance and information. I always learn something new from you!

This was great, thankyou!

I'm thinking of getting one of these ampsims pedals, probably the UA Dream 65....there are almost too many options today. This is good information. Thanks Mason

A great explanation- thanks.

Thank you so much for this info am really considering trying these individual amp sims verses the the all in one multi effects deep dive menu situations

Thank you so much for this Doc. It would be interesting to hear next time if you can talk about Fractal Axe Efx, Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Kemper, Line6 Helix and the likes of it on how you set up this type of rigs on a live situation or how you incorporate this on a pedalboard set up along with some analog pedals. Thank You!

Great video !

thanks for this breakdown

Amazing content!!! Ampless was my next question, lol

Hey Mason, amazing video as always :)) I use the DSM & Humbolt Simplifier Classic which has an integrated FX loop and balanced XLR outputs. I’ve been using the pedal live for months now and couldn’t be more happy with it. Just plug in the board and run the front of house. A save for any giging guitarist!

Great stuff! I’ve currently set my Simplifier up with wet effects in the fx loop. Might try the w/d/w setup and maybe add another volume pedal just for dry

thanks Mason, i was needing this

Very informative. Thx

Thanks Mason!👍🫡👏

Super clear explanation

Living in an apartment, a loud tube amp is just not really an option. So, I decided to go with an Iridium and I'm very happy with it. I have struggled with placement of pedals around it, though, so this video is very helpful. Thank you!

Aloha and Mahalo Mason! Good info

Thanks for this. ❤️

I go back to when we brought our 30 watt amp to church and mic'd it or used the line out if it had one. Some people even tried using just a pedal with some boost like an overdrive pedal with the gain turned down to go to the board. Sometimes there were 3 amps up there all blaring. Thank God for these amp simulators.

Super handy video. I have to go amp-less at a church and have been coping by using my Mesa boogie vtwin. I was stuck using the clean channel til I realized I could put my time based stuff after the boogie’s output and could set the calibration on my nova delay….now I’ve got cleaner delays, can run the boogie like a dirty amp, and can go stereo with two direct boxes if I get greedy.

That was great! Thanks...

Thank you always Mason👏🏾👏🏾

Thank you for the explanation. When I build my next pedalboards I am selling my Pedaltrain board and picking up one of yours.

There I am trying to figure out an amp less option, and thank goodness you have a video about this. Everybody else is a bunch of fluff.

Your channel Mason is guitar signal university, man great job, really appreciate your content.

It's good to be validated. I have a set up almost exactly like this. My guitar signal is like this: Guitar Tuner Compressor Distortion (amp sim preamp pedal) Overdrive Noise gate Mooer D.I. box. ^it has cab sim, d.i. xlr out [dry], and an unbalanced out to continue the chain. Univibe Chorus Mono female to dual mono male adapter Stereo in EQD Avalanche Run delay/reverb Left Stereo out to Joyo JDI-01 #1 [Wet Left] Right stereo out to Joyo JDI-01 #2 [Wet Right] Both of those have XLR outs to FoH or Interface.

This is great stuff. I would love to see a breakdown of signal path once the foh gets it. Ij the variety of options for monitoring ( wedges, iem, etc )

HAPPY NEW YEAR. I know it's late but still. Before I became a Gear head, I knew the basics, got my big muff,cry baby,CH-1,Boss digital delay ( I dont remember if it was DD3) and the DS-1. And then in 2014 got a Digitech RP360XP for xmas. I loved it, later went to pedals again. I got into TPS and learned more about everything.amp+cab simulation were in that RP360XP. Let me tell you the Heads and Cabinet or DEAD ON. This for me is a Sleeper pedal, I go to guitar center and bring the pedal and when compared to the real deal its extremely close

Very helpful. Thank you. Now do it with an amp-sim pedal that has an effects loop!

Nice one!

Great video and useful information as usual! I just got a Simplifier classic, not sure the tone is better than the alternatives but the opportunities in terms of connectivity are way better than Iridium & co

I use just a Boss multi effect board.. most of the time in the garage.. directly in to the board we have setup... works great and way lighter than my tube amp .. and way less wear and tear on it also ... but playing out i drag my amp and just run the Boss right in the front...like a drive pedal.. matter of fact i also run a Boss Combo Drive after the board.. and it just add the slightest bit of chime the board just doesn't have... i have always wanted to try others but i own this and it works well... Great video thanks... ✌👽👍

This is great. You may have just sold me on getting a UA Ruby (side note: I wish there only there was stand-alone modeling for Matchless. IRs to the rescue?). Anyway, I feel like the perfect follow up to this would be a discussion on stereo width techniques i.e haas effect vs LCR and then for live mono FOH, optimizing a guitar’s place in the mix given the mono restrictions. You can even talk about Goodwoods new RCV box and the difference between “mix” and “sum”. I know I’d appreciate it! Good stuff today 👍🏼

Been running an ampless rig w/d/w with the SSS as my “amp” in combination with the ultraphonix mk2 and Vox silk drive and the story on night sky and volante in the effects send on my mixer. Best choice

Damn that is hella tech , jeff beck plugs straight in to amp and sounds like God!

Greetings. My post might a little long, but it should be fun/stupid/entertaining (and, on the subject matter, of course). Oddly -- unrelated, ish -- I've been doing acoustic for about a year, but we all love electric and we all love our gear/rigs (give or take). Regardless (acoustic/electric), in ampless mode, I am always playing at headphone level (I even use the mixer out to headphone for my acoustics, as I mic a la Sure SM58 (not 57, but 58 -- all good, either way). For my last electric performance (Spiggot, circa spring of 2022), on a Univox Les Paul Junior clone (1978), I had an interesting amp-full/amp-less rig -- I have a modest pedalboard, and I run that to a 1964 Sears Silvertone 1482 (the single speaker combo with the rectangle cutout), but I run my Silvertone tube amp through the Bugera PS-1, which has a line out plus an XLR cab-sim out. I had my Silvertone pumped up to 8 on the volume (it's a 20 watt tube amp), and I run the line-out to my Pod GO, and I run the XLR cab-sim out to a small Euro-402 mixer, which then mixes the output of the Pod Go (after a digital reverb / stereo) with the cab-sim and then I send all of that to yet another mixer (Mackie DFX-12), where I add the final 5-band EQ along with yet another room-digital effect on the Mackie, and then I record the tape-out of the final mix to a Zoom H1N field recorder (a la line-in). On my front pedalboard, I have the usual assortment of NRs, Aphex Aural Exciter, a VT999 vintage tube monster. On the pod go, I have a full chain of amp/cab and effects (both drive and ambient), and I run the effects loop of the pod go to a Arion Chorus (stereo). Fun/stupid/entertaining gear signal path description for y'all to enjoy, chuckle. I must say, my Les Paul Junior (clone) sounded super-grungy on that set up. Oh, I replaced the Arion Chorus with a Zoom MS-70 CDR (remember the pod go limitations?, well the Zoom MS-70 CDR adds another 6 effects to the chain! Chuckle). Blessings... (it's 2023, we need all the help we can get, it's getting pretty scary out there).

Excellent

Best and most concise explanation on KZfaq. Thanks!

another reason for the DI is to get rid of any ground loop hum if you’re using 4 cable method / wet/dry method etc

Thanks!

This man REALLY knows his stuff! Thank you sir!

I use a Boss IR-200, and I don't know if I made the right choice... I'm looking forward to what you are going to say Dr.! 😁

Thanks Mason.

As someone who just bought a dream 65 and ruby this came at the perfect time for me. I’m running them kind of different than what you show here. But most likely I’ll switch it up. I’m running polytune> Nobels>obne visitor(modulation)> obne sunlight( tape reverb) > DL4 mk2> ruby> gfi specular tempus for reverb> walrus audio canvas in stereo. Signal chain starts in stereo after my dl4 . Run stereo xlr out through the canvas into interface or frfr. With the dream I don’t need the reverb as it has one so I just run that as the end of chain before canvas. The obne sunlight I have I kind of use separate even though it’s on the board. Mostly use it di into interface no amp modeling for pad sounds. So that explains why it’s in a weird place in my signal chain. I do recommend if you like reverb to set it after the ruby and not in front. I messed around with that for a while.

Awesome video, great explanation and nice graphics! I do have a question regarding the Wet/Dry/Wet setup: Why use a volume pedal with the dry effects instead of the wet ones? (Or what is the advantage of using it that way?) I thought you were trying to keep the wet effects from being too dominant and could control them accordingly with the volume pedal.

Great job as always. Video looks great, sound is clear and graphics are hip…says this non-artistic curmudgeon. 👍

Excellent content here...The digital amp emulators are still TOO DAMN PRICEY & still a bit behind the USA made Tech21 sansamp technology. Because their cab-sim is designed to also work *WITH* your traditional amp and speaker, it is not always the best sounding DI, but is still very good and flexible. Simply adding or stacking the sansamp into a standalone speaker sim or IR plugin yields the most realistic DI sound and feel that I have employed. The sansamp amp and their clones like the JOYO american sound are ALSO VERY effective in *re-voicing* a very sterile and cheap solid state amps or Blues Juniors into something much much better.

1) I don't think you need a boost at the end of the first half of your chain. The "Volume" on your distortion pedal is there for adjusting the output level. Right after that, you have an EQ with, again, a dedicated all-frequency boost/cut control (which you have shown at max boost). 2) A wah isn't a dynamic effect; it's a filter. It works by boosting/cutting select ranges of frequencies (just like your modulation effects like chorus, phaser, and flanger do). Just like the modulation effects, it has the most effect _after_ the distortion has filled the signal with lots of overtone frequencies.

I have the UAFX Dream. Do I need an output buffer for this ampless rig or is the buffer included in the dream good enough by your standards? Thanks!

In the digital age, things have gotten much more complicated. Back in the '70s and '80s, when I made a living playing full time, my high-end amps didn't even have effects sends and returns. I kept my pedal array very simple ... a Vox Wah, MSR Distortion, MSR Phase 90, a Japanese Boss Chorus, and of course, Echo & Reverb. With those effects and the controls I had on my amps and guitar ... I could get any range of sound effects I needed. My current rig is not quite as simple, but I still limit my "toys" in the rig.