snd & rtn questions and advice

[jake_xms3_punk]

which pedals do you think absolutely must go through send & retern on your amp and which do you find have to go straight in the input? the reason I ask is beause I have a volume boost and it has to go in send & retern or it just acts more like a volume knob on a guitar. so i've gotten into a habit of just putting everything in send & retern just for convenience and using a wireless pack mainly but some pedals sound terrible like my wah.
my chain is AMP SEND> GATE> VOLUME > WAH > DELAY> CHORUS> AMP RTN the gate only cuts noise from the guitar and not the amp and as i said the wah sounds terrible. should I only put the volume through send & retern & everything else straight in? what about other pedals like loop stations, compressers etc this is relatively a new concept to me

[Brow]

Re: snd & rtn questions and advice

I personally wouldn't put the wah in the loop, I don't really have any experience with Noise Gates so can't comment on that, but the Delay and Chorus I'd use in the loop.

If you're using the volume pedal for overall level then I guess it's ok in the loop, but if you want to use it to control gain setting then infront of the amp might be worth a try.

[dominus]

Re: snd & rtn questions and advice

The effects loop is after the preamp and before the power amp. Usually the only effects you want in there are tone shaping (EQs) and time based. (Delay, chorus, etc.)

Most of the time you want the wah before the preamp.

[GuitarStv]

Re: snd & rtn questions and advice

The easiest way to explain an effects loop is that it is between your preamp and your power amp.

Put any effects you want to come after the preamp distortion into the loop.


Your wah sounds terrible in the loop because wahs (and fuzzes) tend to be very sensitive to input impedance, and you're changing this when you plug the SEND in rather than your guitar cable.

FWIW, I'd run your pedals like this:

Guitar->Wah->Amp In
Send->Gate->Delay->Chorus->Volume->Return

This way your volume pedal controls the volume of everything going to the power amp, the noise gate is supressing and hum/buzz you get from the preamp distortion, and the wah doesn't sound crappy in the loop. Most people like chorus and delay after distortion, so in the loop works for them.

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: snd & rtn questions and advice

thanks for your help everyone, It makes a lot more sense to me now. so am I right in thinking that if everything in the loop is after distortion, any effects i put in the front will come before any in the loop?

[dominus]

Re: snd & rtn questions and advice

thanks for your help everyone, It makes a lot more sense to me now. so am I right in thinking that if everything in the loop is after distortion, any effects i put in the front will come before any in the loop?

Yes.

Guitar --> pedals --> amp (Distortion + Front EQ controls) --> loop --> power amp (resonance and possibly presence controls if any on amp) --> speakers