Owner`s manual

True to the Music

Radial Engineering Loopbone Owner’s Manual

Drag Control

The Loopbone employs active buffering to permit seamless switching

between multiple pedals and to drive longer cables with less noise. Once

the signal is buffered, it can be argued that the tone becomes too clean

or too perfect. The reason for this is that the guitar pickup, when con-

nected directly to the amplifier, creates a complete electrical circuit. The

amplifier’s load and the guitar cable resistance cause the guitar to sound

a particular way. This is part of the reason that every guitar and amp

combination has its own particular sound. With a buffer in between, the

direct relationship is lost.

The Drag control counteracts any effect of the buffered circuit for the

most natural tone. Drag control lets you reintroduce the load on the pickup

so that your guitar sounds as if it is connected directly to the amp.

We recommend that you set the Drag control to its 12 o’clock position to

start with. At this setting the load is similar to a typical Fender Strat

connected to a Twin Reverb amp. Use a guitar pick as a screwdriver to

make adjustments. Once all of your pedals are set up, go back and

adjust the Drag control to find the ‘sweet spot’ for your particular setup.

Full clockwise removes any effect of the Drag for a brighter, more open

sound. Counterclockwise will darken the tone.

The Power Booster

The Loopbone features a very high quality, variable gain, Class-A power

booster. The power booster circuit is inserted after loops 1 & 2, and just

before the Loopbone’s output. This means that when you engage the

power booster by depressing the boost footswitch, it will boost anything

connected before the Loopbone along with the loops when they are in

use. This way, you can create a rhythm sound with effects loop-1 and

boost that same sound for soloing.

The boost level is controlled using the adjustment pot on the rear panel

using a guitar pick as a screwdriver. Be careful as the boost level is

quite powerful (15dB) and could cause quite a startle if engaged with the

level set to the maximum. We suggest that you start by having it set

counterclockwise for the least amount of boost and adjust upwards as

needed.

Detail of rear panel showing the Gain and Drag controls.