Does a solid-state effects loop bother you?

misterwhizzy

Well-known member
I know there's a religion based around all-tube. If I were more creative, this is where I'd put in a funny name for the religion, probably picking on a member here while doing so. Obviously putting in a transistor-based effects loop negates that title. Does that bug you?
 
Re: Does a solid-state effects loop bother you?

I'd have thought the only thing a loop should do is impedance match and leave the signal un-coloured. If it does that, it really shouldn't matter whether it's tube or solid-state. Cue someone now arguing that one does and the other doesn't.
 
Re: Does a solid-state effects loop bother you?

If it's possible to have a valve loop, then I'll take that any time over s/s. No reason to have silicon in the signal path for me as i build my amps.

I don't really care what anyone else thinks. For me, valve all the way is the only way to go inside the amp, with minimal silicon between the guitar and amp. There's no such thing as a completely transparent loop so if you're going to compromise the signal, it's got to be better to do it with valves.
 
Re: Does a solid-state effects loop bother you?

That's a great question. Would there be any solid-state circuitry inside the hypothetical devices I might patch into this effects loop? Or are my pedals and processors all tube?
 
Re: Does a solid-state effects loop bother you?

On amps with a tube-driven fx loop you can jumper the loop and use the send and return levels as additional preamp gain stages. Fender suggests doing this in the owner's manual for the Super Sonic.

Nothing wrong with a good clean solid state stage or three, but more tubes means more tubey-ness.
 
Re: Does a solid-state effects loop bother you?

Personally, I have no preference...there are plenty of good and bad examples of both. I will say that if you are designing an all tube tube, adding a solid state effects loop will require an additional power supply for the low voltage. In that case, a tube effects loop is the easier path...not necessarily better though.
 
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