effects loops: tell me about them

Guitar Heel

Guitar Heel

Demented Trick
A couple of my amps have them. Should I be using them?

I have 4 amps in the den that I'm toggling between, so would I have to keep changing things around to use amps with and without loops?
 
I have only used an effect loop once. It had a level control so I put a patch cable connecting the 2 jack and used it as a boost.


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I used to get really crazy with them...I'd run the guitar into a wah, OD and distortion pedal, then the amp...then I'd run the loop into a bunch of flanger, chorus and delay things...

Now I just plug into my ME70 and run that into the amp...
 
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jelloman said:
I used to get really crazy with them...I'd run the guitar into a wah, OD and distortion pedal, then the amp...then I'd run the loop into a bunch of flanger, chorus and delay things...

Now I just plug into my ME70 and run that into the amp...
Click to expand...
I am now spoiled by running the stereo outs from the HD 500 to a pair of Roland Jazz Chorus amps. It is a thing of pure beauty.
 
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OGG said:
I am now spoiled by running the stereo outs from the HD 500 to a pair of Roland Jazz Chorus amps. It is a thing of pure beauty.
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The ME70 has stereo outs but I never bother running into a second amp...
 
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The loop is the best place for my TC X2 Looper.... I can loop a clean phrase, switch channels and have a high gain solo over the top of it.

If I put it out front, the clean phrase would change to distortion too.
 
Essentially, the FX loop bypasses the preamp and goes directly to the power amp. What that means for you is that the preamp will not color the pedals that are in the loop tonally or in terms of gain. For some pedals, that can make a difference (like time-based pedals). For others, minimally so.

In my own rig, it's indispensable, and on my main board I have a signal chain that goes to the front end of the amp, and another that goes to the FX loop. That said, I've bypassed the loop entirely many times and didn't hear much difference tonally. The only time it mattered was when using my loud button for solo boosts -- instead of clean boost, it merely adds gain to the preamp.
 
If you use any type of loop station to jam with (like a BossRC2) the pedals in the amp's FX loop will not be heard on the recordings.
 
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