Reason for plugging effects into Effects Loop?

[corrosivesubstanc]

Yeah. Just wanted to know. Cos i know guitarists plug in stuff such as delays, phasers etc... And i heard some where tht its so tht the amp's preamp doesn't colour up the tone?

And issit advisable/possible to run a distortion pedal into the effects loop and does it have the same effect as mentioned above?

(i actually wanna try this out but... i dun wanna ruin my amp...)

 

[carboxymoron]

In fact some people want the preamp to work on the pure guitar signal first (or "colour the tone" as you say) before it gets modulated by other effects. This is especially true when using delay with a high-gain/dirty channel, as it can get quite messy if you put delay before dirt.

For drive and dirt pedals, it seems more common to run them in front of the amp, but every pedal and amp reacts differently.

If you have an amp with effects loop, the best answer is to try it yourself, since different people prefer different things.

 

[dodgethis]

Because running effect types like time-based and modulation effects post-drive does not subject them to any clipping. You do not want the delay or phaser effect being affected by the clipping effect of the drive that you are using. Distorted delay and chorus sounds plain weird, unless, of course, that's your sort of thing. For example, A uses pedals to get his all of his drive from his pedals so he's perfectly fine with the said effects being run after all the drive pedals and right into the pre-amp. However, B uses the amp's pre-amp to get his drive so he makes use of the effects loop and places all the said effects in the loop.

There are no issues in running a distortion pedal straight into the return of the loop. It just may not sound as good, depending on the output impedance of the pedal, as running it through the clean pre-amp. Related to that, I found that sometimes running a multi-effects board into the clean channel of an amp, rather than the power section directly, yields better results, like a Boss GT-8 running on the clean channel of a Marshall TSL100 or an AMT SS-11 into an AVT150's clean.

 

[Likui]

For me I prefer AMT SS 20 into the return of the amp rather than into input of the amp

 

[subversion]

some FX loops are running a parallel circuit so plugging effects through it would generate a different tone.

 

[corrosivesubstanc]

ooo... thks for the enlightenment guys btw, i think i saw on some amps that the are series and parallel effects loops? wats the diff?

 

[dodgethis]

http://tcsupport.custhelp.com/cgi-b...std_adp.php?p_faqid=1884&p_created=1150195526

 

[chungmun77]

Hi folks, something I found out rather recently but for the benefit of those who don't know (I didn't!), I thought I'd share it anyway.

I was also messing about with my effects loops and decided to upgrade my stock speaker cables that runs from my amp head to the 2 cabs. Having some left over guitar cables I decided to use them as they were much thicker and had cost a lot more, since they were constructed using "audiophile" components. After a while, I noticed my guitar tones were getting muddier, but I thought it was because I had bought a bunch of new effects. I then used the treble knob to compensate for it, followed by using the Sansamp Classic to model a "clean" amp, in a bid to restore some of that treble.

Then, by pure luck, I chanced upon an article online about cables and that explained everything. I then got some proper speaker cables and believe it or not, the sound is back to normal. More importantly, I didn't have to risk damaging the amp. Hope this helps!

Here's the article: http://www.fender.com/news/index.php?display_article=458

 

[bf0502tr]

after reading all that and more i still dont get it. i tried running my drive pedal into my amp's effects loop and no sound came out of it. only a hum when i stepped on the drive. so to prevent myself from damaging the amp any further i stopped it altogether. didnt wanna experiment too much haha.

 

[PatheinRaindropMoe]

efx sent to input of pedal, output of pedal to efx return.

it should not spoil anything even if connect wrongly as theres no power involved, just a matter of input not receiving audio signal and thus not able to send to output.

 

[chungmun77]

Lest I confuse anybody, I wasn't referring to the cables that go from effects to amp. Rather, the cables that go from the speakers to the amp head itself. Those are the ones that are required to be proper speaker cables, not guitar or instrument cables. Those cables that run from efx to amp, those should be guitar/instrument cables. Hope this saves some amp from getting ruined!