Got my Qtron today!! WOOOO!!!

[flavaham]

Picked one up on Ebay. It's the older 4 knob version and works perfectly! A few scratches but that's it! A few questions though:

There is Effect Out and Direct out. What are the different purposes of this? Is it for running stereo? A dry signal to one speaker and effected to another?

What are some good settings and uses for this? I'm noticing that it sounds best playing through a clean channel. It gets a little sloppy when distorted.

Anyhow, I'm pretty happy to have this thing on board! Now I just need my new Cab and SMS Preamp to get here!!
Happy dude over here!

[JonnyBoy]

the effects loop is for pesky pedals that don't seem to play well with the qtron by being in front or behind the pedal. they developed the loop to help those pedals work better, ie OD or octave divider even delay. You can also use it to develop your own sound by putting an EQ in its loop and keeping it there full time. turning on and off the qutron activates the loop too. so in bypass it bypasses the loop too.

try turning the peak down to 9-10 oclock, if it still farts and blows speakers go lower try and fine tune it, get the gain set to where a moderately swift pluck will open the envelope completely. its a machine you have to fine tune, and then fine tune some more. There is hell to pay messing with my Qtron settings while I'm gone from my rig and someone decides to play through it at our space....... BP or LP to preference of sound or mix of both, Jerry used LP on his mutron. Have fun!!!

[inthedark]

I have a Q-Tron, always liked it. If i hadnt gotten the Mutron i would still use it. Only issue i ever had with it was the AC input on the pedal broke.
So i had to wire the AC adaptor directly into the unit. Still works 100%. I got mine in 03 and used it up until a few days ago. Def a great pedal.

-Walt

[inthedark]

Heres a pic of my old Pedal setup from 09.

Now i have a MXR 70's Delay, MXR 70's Dist+, and a 70's Mutron replacing the Qtron, Guyatone and TS9.


Also dont use the EH LB (nano), Line 6 delay, Vox Wah, Qtron, Mini Qtron and Boss Compression anymore

Pretty much my setup now is

Output - BBE Sonic Max, BBE Boost, MXR Delay, Mutron, Blues Driver, MXR Dist+, Boss TU-2 Tuner - Input

[jdsmodulus]

Cool Pic it is saying."GCX!"

[flavaham]

Okay, I'm still confused as to how to set it up though using the loop. There is input (guitar into qtron) and then Direct Out and Effect Out. So, which output do I use and how? I have it set up like this right now:

Guitar > Tuner > Qtron (Effect Out) > RAT > Delay > Amp

Seems to work okay. Great for clean but not awesome for distortion. I'm assuming that this is where the loop comes in. How do I set up pedals on this loop and can I use them on their own still if I do that? Sorry, I've never used an effects loop before so I'm a noob on this topic. I kinda need a road map of sorts, like, "Plug this into here, that into there...", etc.
Thanks!

[waldo041]

on the original qtron, like yours, does not have an effects loop. it has 2 outputs, a direct out, and a effect out. this is for stereo operation. if you want to use the envelope in mono operation, then use the effect out like your using. if you want stereo operation, then use the effect out to one amp and the direct out to the other.


peace,
waldo

[tigerstrat]

on the original qtron, like yours, does not have an effects loop. it has 2 outputs, a direct out, and a effect out. this is for stereo operation. if you want to use the envelope in mono operation, then use the effect out like your using. if you want stereo operation, then use the effect out to one amp and the direct out to the other.

You might want to try plugging your tuner (if it's not true-bypass) into the Q's direct out, possibly cleaning up your signal path a little bit, by taking that pedal outside of it.

[flavaham]

on the original qtron, like yours, does not have an effects loop. it has 2 outputs, a direct out, and a effect out. this is for stereo operation. if you want to use the envelope in mono operation, then use the effect out like your using. if you want stereo operation, then use the effect out to one amp and the direct out to the other.

You might want to try plugging your tuner (if it's not true-bypass) into the Q's direct out, possibly cleaning up your signal path a little bit, by taking that pedal outside of it.

Okay, but now how do I mute the rest of my rig to tune? haha. I guess I'll just try to find the right chain here...

[bdhact1]

The Q-tron manual can be downloaded from EH.

Q-tron Manual:
http://www.ehx.com/assets/instructions/q-tron.pdf

Q-tron + manual:
http://www.ehx.com/assets/instructions/q-tron-plus.pdf

[flavaham]

I'm getting better results with the RAT before the Qtron. Is that abnormal?

[JonnyBoy]

I'm getting better results with the RAT before the Qtron. Is that abnormal?

Nothing is ever quite totally abnormal with those pedals... you will have to experiment with your pedal placements if you are having issues, tone loss, noise, etc... I like to have my filter first so the other pedals don't have an effect on how strong the signal is going into the Qtron and I can set it and forget it. Having a pedal switcher helps too, ie GCX and other's, but that is a pricey solution to things. It really helps if you gig a lot, and are sick of setting up 8 pedals at every gig.

The OD before the Qtron will give you a different type of envelope sound, if you want the envelope sound you get on clean to sound similar to the envelope sound when OD'd then you may want it after, but we all have different tastes. Sometimes another pedal before it is just boosting the signal to help the filter open and close at a lighter touch, something you can control with the gain knob... have fun and keep some Advil handy.

[tigerstrat]

on the original qtron, like yours, does not have an effects loop. it has 2 outputs, a direct out, and a effect out. this is for stereo operation. if you want to use the envelope in mono operation, then use the effect out like your using. if you want stereo operation, then use the effect out to one amp and the direct out to the other.

You might want to try plugging your tuner (if it's not true-bypass) into the Q's direct out, possibly cleaning up your signal path a little bit, by taking that pedal outside of it.

Okay, but now how do I mute the rest of my rig to tune? haha. I guess I'll just try to find the right chain here...

Ha, good point! I guess you would need a volume pedal down-chain, but then you'd probably have a tuner out on that you could use.

[waldo041]

got to play around with an original qtron, here's what i found.

in an OBEL, with Super 2 and TPC1 preamp, these settings work really well and super close to the real deal. the Norm-Boost switch has a very slightly different flavor in Boost. Boost allows the Gain to operate just like the Mutrons where it controls overall level and sensitivity control. However i feel that in "Norm"al, which only controls the sensitivity, sounds closer to the Mutron and has a very matched level, so no need to boost it anyway.

Shakedown, Estimated, FOTM etc etc...


Dancin' in the Streets 70's version tone, only change is to the Drive and Range switches.




and a very cool reroute of the Indicator LED mod. the LED is always on stock, but with this easy mod it can be wired to only come on when the effect is engaged.
http://s440.photobucket.com/albums/qq12 ... ctions.jpg

lastly, the Direct Out comes directly off the input and the Original Qtron IS true bypass.

peace,
waldo