Puzzling situation

[Boy Howdy]

I just bought a Gonkulator ring modulator. I'm chasing some of the sounds John McLaughlin gets with his RM. He has the ability to control the mix with a foot pedal to fade it in and out. I'm trying to figure out how to do the same.

I got the idea of using something like a Y-cord to run the Gonk and a volume pedal on one line, and straight signal on the other. But since I wanted to use just one amp, this dictates that I use two y-cords, one in a forward direction and one in reverse.

I don't actually have any y-cords, so I made a box with two Y setups in it. It has one in jack and two out jacks on one side and the same on the other side of the box.

So I plugged the guitar into the in jack on Y-box 1 and ran out of the out jacks (as described above - effects on one line, straight signal on the other) and then into the *out* jacks on Y-box 2. Then I come out of the *in* jack on Y-box 2. (If you can follow this, your patience is admired and appreciated.)

When I back all the way off on the volume pedal, instead of getting straight signal at full volume and no ring modulator signal, it kills the signal altogether. No sound is produced. And the Y-box(es) is checked out and works as it should, no faulty wiring or anything.

Thanks for any help.

[The Dude]

The volume pedal grounds the signal when it's down all the way. Since you're just using Y's, it will ground both dry and wet. Do you have another pedal you could use as a buffer- maybe EQ pedal or something of the sort. So the "wet" side is guitar- Gonkulator- volume pedal- buffer. You need to get the volume pedal away from the end of the chain so it doesn't ground all of the signal.

[olddawg]

Try a small, inexpensive mixer. They’re good to have around anyway to use for a DI, a line amp, isolation, even clean boost and EQ. AND.. much smaller and cleaner than they once were.

[Boy Howdy]

Now we're getting somewhere! I'll try that. Thanks.

[Boy Howdy]

I'll look into that. I've been thinking that I might need a mixer for some other reasons, so.... Thanks.

[52 Bill]

Plug the guitar into the in of one Y-cord.

Feed one Y output directly to the amp, feed the other Y output to the input of the RM.

Put the volume pedal inline with the output of the RM going to the amp.

[Boy Howdy]

Yeah, that's what I was doing with two amps. I want to use just one amp. The two amps I have set up and use regularly only have one input (each), so that wouldn't work. But thanks.

I haven't set had a chance to plug in yet, but will try the dudes suggestion later today.

[Boy Howdy]

Okay, so I tried Dudes suggestion. I haven't figured out what's wrong. I'm not out of the woods yet. It seemed to work, what he suggested, but there were issues. The biggest one: I keep getting a squeally feedback.

I thought it might be because I put the two Y-boxes in a very small aluminum housing. The jacks on one side are about a quarter-inch from the jacks on the other side. So I made another Y-cord (just wire and jacks) and used one half of the Y-box and the Y-cord. That didn't work either. I still get the feedback. So I took the Gonkulator out line altogether, leaving just my buffer (I tried a couple of different ones, and Ibanez phaser and an Ibanez chorus), and it still squealed. The only way to get rid of the feedback is to remove any and all pedals (except for the volume pedal).

'Bout ready to give up on this idea.