Royal Atlantic owners - Effects Loop?

Question for the RA-100 owners:
How is the effects loop? I can't seem to find in the manual if the effects loop is meant for Line-level or Instrument/Stompbox-level effects.

I am loving the effects loop of my RA. I run a Phase 90, DD7, Loop Station, MXR Reissue '74 Dyna Comp, Pigtronix Comp (forget the name), MXR Flanger (non EVH), and MXR Micro Chorus. Out front I run an OCD and Boss Tuner. I love the sounds I'm getting. It was daunting at first not having control over the send level, but it was more of a mental challenge than anything. All in all, everything sounds great and as it should. Not having the send control mix also is nice in keeping with the ethos of the RA -- just set it and forget it. I had a Roadster, an amp I absolutely loved, but spent far too much time tweaking and dialing in to. The RA is a very easy amp to dial in. It helps that I am just loving the tones I am getting from the settings too, of course!

I have only run stompboxes through mine-- a maxon ad-900, a dunlop 10-band, and a dr.scientist tremolo. It played very nicely with all of them, even the trem which is a very badly behaved little monkey that outputs some seriously apeshit volume levels.

Keep in mind that the RA is pretty dependent on power tube crunch for its overdriven tones, so that makes it maybe a bit more limited as an effects platform than some other amps that are almost all preamp drive.

mistercoffee1 said:

Question for the RA-100 owners:
How is the effects loop? I can't seem to find in the manual if the effects loop is meant for Line-level or Instrument/Stompbox-level effects.

Click to expand...

Every Mesa manual recommends using line-level gear in the loop; however, with the send control knob, you can use whatever you have.

To my ears, the amp sounds great both ways -- with lots of power tube clip or more preamp gain dominating your sound. Everyone is different though and may find that more power tube clip sounds best, or vice versa. I think for the blue channel, power tube clip is great. For the red channel, not so much. There is so much preamp gain on tap here, to use the attenuators to goose more power tube clip can sound a bit thick. If you run the amp with more power tube clip involved, you may run into some effects loops issues that will be minor at best. I like to run the amp loud, like practice loud, with no attenuation whatsoever and mic'ed into my PA. It sounds fab. I've been toying with using some slight attenuation on the blue channel for more power tube crunch mixed in, but haven't decided what I like best yet.

ifailedshapes said:

Every Mesa manual recommends using line-level gear in the loop; however, with the send control knob, you can use whatever you have.

Click to expand...

Does the RA-100 have a dedicated Send level knob?
As I understand it, it's determined by where you have your Master Volume set.



Thanks for the replies everyone, I'm glad to hear of your actual experiences with those pedals.

Whoa, my bad. I just assumed it had an effects send control, but it looks like I was wrong.

No, there is no dedicated f/x loop send control. I wouldn't expect there to be one either on a non-master volume amp. The signal mixes in automatically as you turn up the channel volume. It does a great job mixing in my pedals, so I really have NO complaints so far. I can say it sounds great loud and semi-loud as well. I don't really use the amp for any home playing, so I can't comment on the quiet tones with effects.

The amp is really designed to be a plug and play amp, with very little tweaking involved. It is really difficult to dial in a bad sound in the amp. That doesn't mean that I haven't found my own preferences however ...

I am running mine with a G-System --using the 4 loops included are: BB Pre, TS808, Nova Drive and Fulltone (Orig.) Fatboost. The tone is Glorious. Through the G System I cam adjust my send levels (despite the amp not having this built in....so I have a bit more flexibility to match the levels.

I had a G-System and sold it last October to a board member here. I'd do anything to have that effects unit again! It just didn't jive with my Roadster the way I wanted it to. I think I just don't like effects with dark sounding amps. I like higher midrange amps that push the effects more in the mix.

I bet your tone is incredible. Post clips if you get a chance, k?

I have been reading up on the G-System for a few weeks now. I have read a lot of complaints of tone suckage and hum problems. Any thoughts on these issues with the RA? Would love to get one.