I’m currently experiencing an issue when trying to run a boost pedal in front of the ZMAC. I’m also running a PS100 and have set it up exactly as the diagram suggests in the owner’s manual, screenshot below.
Everything is working perfectly (including pedals in the effects loop), but when I switch any pedal on in the front ( I have tried both the rear and active and passive inputs, as well as the front input of the ZMAC) the signal is cut. The only way I have found to get it to work is to put the pedal in front of one of the amp heads, but this restricts the boost to only one amp.
Both the ZMAC and PS100 are brand new, and the pedals (all tested to be working) are powered through a Voodoo labs V3.
Thanks for going to the trouble to make a well-posed question! It really helps.
What happens exactly when you kick in the boost pedal in front of the ZMACS?
My understanding is that it uses relays to route the signal around to the select amp. They should not care about whether or not the boost pedal is active. This is an odd one.
I tried the different power options (two separate Voodoo Lab V3, one in the FX loop and one for the front) and also via battery power with just a boost pedal, nothing else. I also removed the effects loop completely as well as pushing the loop button on and off on the front of the ZMAC, but still the issue persisted. I then turned every thing off and restarted with just the Boost pedal in the front.
Now it started working. I then proceeded to plug back in all the effects back into the effects loop (also in the same order) and they are all working. It seems like the order of connections (Front end, followed by the FX loop after a power reset) had something to do with it, though I’m no Electrical Engineer so take that with a huge pinch of Salt!
