Effects loop confusion

[Matman1]

The Amos that I have had in the past did not have an effects loop. The whole concept of the effects loop is confusing to me. Over the years I have accumulated a lot of effects and messed sround with the effects chain order. No I feel like I am starting over with learning about why to use an effects loop and whah the benefits are. I have a tube amp the has an knob named fx on the back of the amp its a 2 channel tube amp. The other amp is a solid state head with two channels and two effects loops. The manuals do not go into much detail a out the fx loop other than showing where the return and send are. Quite a few pedals and do not know what to put into the fx loop the pedals which some I use a lot others rarely are as follows and in no particular order: boss noise gate, boss metal zone, boss distortion, boss chorus, boss flanger, boss overdrive, mxr phase 90, digitech whammy, Ibanez delay/echo, zakk wylde wah, boas 7 band EQ, and the mulch effects pedals are an old zoom 505 pedal and a new zoom g2.1dm Dave mustaine multieffects processor/pedal. Im pulling what little hair I have left out because I have no idea what should go I'm the loop and then don't know if thr order is just as important inside the loop like it is going directly into the amp. The whole loop thing is confusing to ms and I don't understand the purpose but if it gives me a better sound then I am all for it. Thanks everyone and sorry for the long post

[crguti]

Re: Effects loop confusion

in a nutshell, the fx loop is where the preamp signal goes to the power amp. If you use the distortion from your preamp, some effects (e.g. delay) sound better in the loop. If you use a clean amp and you get all your distortions from pedals, you don't need the fx loop.

[Matman1]

Re: Effects loop confusion

So if I use the amps distortion what other pedals should I put in the loop besides chorus and delay? Where should the wah go?

[Chickenwings]

Re: Effects loop confusion

wah - compression and dirty boxes - amp input - fx send - chorus/modulation, delays, reverb - fx return

[devastone]

Re: Effects loop confusion

/\ What Gibson said, except I like to run phasers and flangers in front of the amp.

Delays and reverbs always go in the loop.

Chorus, usually in the loop, sometimes are cool in front too.

Univibes in front (IMHO).

Wahs and distortion/OD in front.

Noise gate, experiment, in the loop will remove noise from the amp's preamp and the pedals, in front will only remove noise from the pedals.

Whammy, ?, never used one, I would think in front.

EQ, experiment, they make cool boosts in front, but can shape the whole tone in the loop.

[baritone]

Re: Effects loop confusion

If the amp has 2 loops, there's a possibility that one is parallel, and the other is series. A parallel loop can sometimes be blended in and out using a control on the amp somewhere. A series effect loop puts the pedals after amp's eq and gain stages.

[devastone]

Re: Effects loop confusion

Series or parallel has nothing to do with where the loops are located in the circuit, both should be after the preamp. Parallel loops just mean that you can divide the signal between the loop and straight through, in a series loop the whole signal goes through the loop.

[Matman1]

Re: Effects loop confusion

Ok a really stupid question what exactly is the preamp? How does it work is it in all amps is it different in solid state and tube amps because I have effects loops in both?

[Matman1]

Re: Effects loop confusion

It has been years since I played this amp I usually play a tiny practice amp. I did notice a little bit of a hum when playing but figured it could be the output from the alnico 2 pickups

[Chickenwings]

Re: Effects loop confusion

oh yeh....phasers and univibes before the dirty boxes. thanks Devastone...forgot about that!

[Chickenwings]

Re: Effects loop confusion

the preamp is where your guitar signal goes when you plug it into the front of the amp, that boosts and shapes the signal before it goes into the power amp. The fx loop comes out of the preamp and returns to the power amp.

[baritone]

Re: Effects loop confusion

Series or parallel has nothing to do with where the loops are located in the circuit, both should be after the preamp. Parallel loops just mean that you can divide the signal between the loop and straight through, in a series loop the whole signal goes through the loop.

Like if you use an amp's built-in distortion and put a flanger in a parallel effect loop, you get one sound with just distortion and can blend in another sound with distortion + flanger, rather than clean + flanger. I know. I just thought of this: a series loop is shaped like an "S", while a parallel loop is shaped like a "P".