Tubemeister Deluxe 20 - Rebox DI into FX Pedals??

I just picked up one of these, and I love it so much it’s disturbing. A man has to sleep sometime for god’s sake! Anyway, I wonder if someone can educate a very, very novice tube-amp user who’s even more novice with regard to H&K gear.

I want to use the redbox DI out to go into the mono input of one of my stereo reverb and delay pedals, through the whole stereo pedal chain, and then into my audio interface. I know the TM has an fx loop, but it’s mono and I need that stereo ping-pongy, shimmery goodness in my earholes.

I don’t currently have the XLR to ¼” adapter I need to do that, or I'd give it a shot. I know jack squat about DIs, Redboxes, or even tube amps for that matter. (this is my first one) Is this something I could do without damaging anything, and if so would I get the same gorgeous tone I get when I go direct into my interface with the XLR? Sorry if this is a very dumb question. Like I said, I don’t know sh*t.

Thanks for any help!

Hi there. Don't apologise for not knowing something James, we are all in the same boat with something somewhere. As the old Chinese proverb says, "A moment of embarassment is better than a lifetime of ignorance". You only have to ask. I'll admit, I don't really have any first hand experience of what you are suggesting, I'm a very simple animal with simple needs.

You can easily make a XLR - 1/4" jack convertor if you want to, there is nothing magic about it, it's just a matter of knowing which pins to connect to which and that is easy to show you. If you are able to do that let us know and we can talk you through it.

Bear in mind that the Redbox out is the signal picked off at the point where it goes out to the speakers so it has the full power amp output stage distortion, output transformer distortion and then cabinet simulation in there too. If you play with the amp cranked that is all going into your Fx box and having processing done on top of it. I'm no expert on this sort of sound but it may end up a bit rough after processing all mushed in together.

I'm not sure what you are doing with this setup in the big picture. Do you mean you don't want to use the H&K output through speakers, you are just monitoring yourself in headphones as you play? Or is it that you want the H&K to continue to power your speakers for band work while you monitor it through your interface at the same time? That would change your options.

In the meantime does your Fx Unit have a mono input and a mono straight through output? Some do. If it does you could just go with taking the H&K Loop Send into your Fx box and, if necessary, a second cable back to the H&K Loop Return from it. Is that an alternative?