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School me on fx loop

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  • #16
    Re: School me on fx loop

    Looping pedals are great in the loop, especially if you get distortion from the amp. If you get the gain from a pedal (like me), it works well before the amp.
    Administrator of the SDUGF

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    • #17
      Re: School me on fx loop

      Originally posted by Demanic View Post
      I may just try my MT-2 in the loop.

      Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk
      Otherwise known as "The Magic Metal Sauce"
      “For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” Yvonne Chouinard

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      • #18
        Re: School me on fx loop

        Originally posted by Demanic View Post
        Succinct
        Now there's a word that one doesn't read too often.
        I had to really dig that one up.
        “For me, when everything goes wrong – that’s when adventure starts.” Yvonne Chouinard

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        • #19
          Re: School me on fx loop

          Originally posted by NegativeEase View Post
          I had to really dig that one up.
          I was impressed.

          I agree with pretty much everything here, delays and reverbs in the loop, modulation is a dealer's choice. Chorus works very well in the loop, I usually put phase and flange in front because, well, that's what Ed did.

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          • #20
            Re: School me on fx loop

            The other thing is that loops are notoriously inconsistent in how they work with different pedals and rack effects. Impedance differences at the send and return, signal level, how much dry signal passes at 100% wet, amongst other things that I don’t even know about. Basically, if you run into issues it may only be one of the pedals in your setup, and you may need a buffer to adjust impedance, a pad to reduce overloading or an adjustment to effect and amp mix level. Don’t expect plug and play, then if you get it, be happy.
            Oh no.....


            Oh Yeah!

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            • #21
              Re: School me on fx loop

              So just sat down and put my eq in the loop after my reverb and for the first Im getting a decent tone out of my Jackson as well as my Dracarys. May leave it that way for a bit to see how I like it. The gain is more saturated, the Jackson doesnt sound shrill any longer either.

              I was on the verge of selling the Jackson, could not find a tone I liked, now the eq is in the loop, it thickens up the guitar almost to the point that I may give it a bit longer.

              Same really goes for the Dracarys, just couldnt get it to sound right and was about to give up the ghost on it, Ill wait a bit and see if my mind changes.

              So basically, try different things in and out of the loop.
              1994 Ibanez IC500 Iceman reissue
              Jackson Soloist 7 string
              ESP LTD M-400
              Original Marshall Silver Jubilee 2553

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              • #22
                Re: School me on fx loop

                Another handy hint: EQ before the preamp allows you to alter the gain character somewhat, while EQ in the loop works as expected to tune the overall sound.

                Tube preamps often love being fed extra mids and treble. That was the idea behind the original treble boosters of the 1960s, an effect that's becoming more popular again today.
                .
                "You should know better by now than to introduce science into a discussion of voodoo."
                .

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                • #23
                  Re: School me on fx loop

                  EQ's or volume pedals in the loop can act like master volumes or boosts if you want, along with their tone-shaping abilities.

                  Loops excel in high-gain applications whereas you might've wanted less "wet" time/modulation FX signal mixed in if you had something like a delay out front with a lot of gain.

                  If you're trying to quiet things down, a noise gate can assist in the loop. I've heard of folks running one at the end of their "dry" effects in the front of the amp, or one at the end of the loop, or people doing both.

                  Some amps have a pot to transition from a parallel to series loop so as to act like a mix knob for your wet time based/modulation FX.

                  If you have a parallel loop, you don't need anything in the return. This means you can split off to other amps with potentially no pedals needed. If you have phase or grounding issues though, you have to handle that. I've been lucky in the phase department, and my second amp has a ground lift/polarity switch, so I run from one preamp into 3 power amps with the parallel loop. The send goes into stereo effects, which in turn head out to a stereo tube power amp and then on to two 2x12 cabs flanking the center amp which has no modulation/time effects, thus you have a wet/dry/wet setup. Still requires at least 5 instrument cables and 2 or 3 speaker cables but it does sound pretty cool. You could do without the power amp if you have cab sims of some sort going with your (stereo or mono) FX, into the mixing board. The power amp is a rackmount deal which brings me to another point...

                  Some loops have a switch to select +4 or -10dB, for pro (rack) or semi-pro (pedal-based) effects, respectively. I believe these are also referred to as line level (+4dB) and instrument level (-10dB), with there also being a mic level that is lower, IIRC. When slaving to the rackmount power amp, I found the volume mismatch too extreme when slaving to a 5W dry amp in the center, until I hit the +4dB switch. This made it possible to get a usable balance between the wet and dry channels.

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                  • #24
                    Re: School me on fx loop

                    Originally posted by Demanic View Post
                    I would think that the stock reverb would have to be in the loop. But probably always at the end of it.

                    Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

                    Sadly not always. My Ironball has built-in reverb, but it's at the start of the loop. So hooking up a gate with the 4-cable method kills the trails.
                    --------------------------------------------------------
                    1973 Aria 551
                    1984 Larrivee RS-4 w/ EMG SA/SA/89
                    1989 Charvel 750 XL w/ DMZ Tone Zone & Air Norton
                    1990's noname crap-o-caster plywood P/J Bass
                    1991 Heartfield Elan III w/ DMZ mystery pups
                    1995 Aria Pro II TA-65
                    2001 Gibson Les Paul Gothic w/ PG-1 & SH-8

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                    • #25
                      Re: School me on fx loop

                      That's a weird design.

                      Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

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                      • #26
                        Re: School me on fx loop

                        Originally posted by Demanic View Post
                        That's a weird design.

                        Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk
                        Very.
                        --------------------------------------------------------
                        1973 Aria 551
                        1984 Larrivee RS-4 w/ EMG SA/SA/89
                        1989 Charvel 750 XL w/ DMZ Tone Zone & Air Norton
                        1990's noname crap-o-caster plywood P/J Bass
                        1991 Heartfield Elan III w/ DMZ mystery pups
                        1995 Aria Pro II TA-65
                        2001 Gibson Les Paul Gothic w/ PG-1 & SH-8

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                        • #27
                          Re: School me on fx loop

                          My Mesa has a parallel loop, with a level control. Great if you can set your effect to 100% wet.
                          Administrator of the SDUGF

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                          • #28
                            Re: School me on fx loop

                            The amp manufactures often mention what level the loop is at, like line or instrument, sometimes its inbetween like on some Laney amps. But you can always email the manufacture & find out. Line level is at +4dB more suited for rack units, -10dB is instrument level that works for majoriy of the coomon pedals.

                            A series loop is 99% wet in real world cases unless its a very well built amp. Modulation effects like a series/serial loop. Modern delays/reverbs mostly have a mix level knob to control the wet/dry, this comes in handy with series loops. Parallel loop works with time based effects.

                            Always get quality instrument cables for the loop too. I use the planet waves american stage cables that have a wire mesh form of shielding in them. Had got them in 2012 i think, nome have broken. There must be other brands out there with such form of cables, I find the mesh type shielding helps in rejecting noise better & the cables are low cap so less loading on the signal.
                            Anyways point being, use quality cables for the loop.

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