Marshall Vintage Modern, buffered FX loop?

[Andwuu]

Hi!

Having recently acquired a pedal board which has two "loops" on it, one which is (guitar > wireless receiver > tuner > Dunlop crybaby wah > amp input) and one which is (fx loop send > MXR Carbon Copy > BOSS CH-1 > fx loop return) I've started to think about cable lengths and what not. I've heard a lot about tone loss when using longer cabled, especially high end tone loss and I've also heard that having a buffer in your signal chain can help remedy that problem.

Now to the question; I was thinking about getting two 6m (~20 feet) cables to and from the fx loop, and I already have a cable that length that I've used before between the tuner/wah section and the amp input which seems to have worked fine. Now, is the fx loop on the vintage modern buffered or am I going to notice a lot of tone loss by going for those lengths? The reason I have to get longer cables is because I have that wah pedal on my board, if I wouldn't I would have been able to place the pedal board closer to the amp. I know there's a -10dB/+4dB switch next to the fx loop jacks (where mine currently is on -10dB), is this switch supposed to be set to +4dB if you need a stronger signal for effect pedals running through longer cables, or what's the purpose of that switch?

 

[solarpoint1]

Generally stomp boxes will be best served using the -10 setting while pro outboard gear uses the +4. In the studio I like to run a lexicon rack fx in the loop and having that switch makes it much easier. Personally I don't think the cable lengths your using will compromise tone to any degree you could likely hear live if at all. Once in the 30 ft plus lengths then maybe. Interestingly most if not all Boss pedals are made with internal buffers that can be strategically placed in lieu of custom buffer pedals when dealing with long cable runs.