Guitarists and effect loops. Do you?

[NoPro]

Never used an effects loop ever for any effect pedals. .i thought i'd see approx how many guitarists on GS use an effects loop as opposed to not? I am considering delay, verb and chorus in the loop and OD, distortion, wah the old fashioned way. peavey classic 30 amp. If I use Chorus, Delay and Reverb in an effects loop how does it change the order of pedal effects? here's what i'd like the order to be but this time with the 3 pedals in the loop but still maintaining the order of effects. Wah, OD, Distortion, (Modulation, Delay and Reverb in effects loop)
-thank you. any info appreciated.-

[Ving]

Just think of your amp's preamp channels as additional gain pedals. Where do you want them in the chain? I would suggest you always want gain-based effects to come before time-based effects. This is what an effects loop enables you to do when you are using the amp channels for gain.


I personally prefer getting most of my gain sound from the amp itself so I would always put a delay or reverb pedal in the effects loop. If you use a lot of gain from the amp and the delay is in front of the amp then the delayed parts have progressively less gain which sounds unnatural.

Also if you have chorus and pitchshifting effects before the main od / distortion in your chain it can make notes less articulate, but that is more a matter of taste.

If you get all of your gain and effects from pedals then it doesn't matter if you use the effects loop. As long as you put the delay and reverb last in the chain the sound will be the same.

[Muser]

having most time based pedals after the amps own preamps is probably best in the sense that those pedals will often add signals which will smear or interfere with the gain stages and tone stacks in the Amp. so your loosing all the precision of leveraging the OD and Distortions interplay with the Preamp of the Amp. Thats where a lot of the magic is.

but at the end of the day, it depends on what kind of sound you like / want.
in reality you can put the pedals where you want. as long as it produces the best kind of sound for your application.

I noticed recently that if I run my passive strat into a Nobels A/B switcher before going into a Nobels ODR-S and then an ODR-1 the guitar responds and sounds more like an active guitar. basically because the A/B switcher is loading the guitar with it's op amps and conditioning the signal to a 2K line level, prior to the ODR-S. this makes for quite a different sound and frequency response.. much more clarity.

That's not what I prefer, so I now go straight into the ODR-S. I don't currently have a wah but because of that, I'd also try putting a wah after the first ODR pedal. mainly because OD pedals sensitivity / character is often good to be married right onto the guitar load. for the same reason I put my compressor after the 2 OD pedals.

each way you do it impacts the the signal.. the only way you can tell is by spending a good bunch of fun hours trying different configurations.

thats my experience so far at any rate.

[NoPro]

Originally Posted by Ving

Just think of your amp's preamp channels as additional gain pedals. Where do you want them in the chain? I would suggest you always want gain-based effects to come before time-based effects. This is what an effects loop enables you to do when you are using the amp channels for gain.


I personally prefer getting most of my gain sound from the amp itself so I would always put a delay or reverb pedal in the effects loop. If you use a lot of gain from the amp and the delay is in front of the amp then the delayed parts have progressively less gain which sounds unnatural.

Also if you have chorus and pitchshifting effects before the main od / distortion in your chain it can make notes less articulate, but that is more a matter of taste.

If you get all of your gain and effects from pedals then it doesn't matter if you use the effects loop. As long as you put the delay and reverb last in the chain the sound will be the same.

??? how does the order of effects get changed when only some effects are in the effect loop? in other words. If I have Wah/OD/Dist in the amp. and then separately in the effects loop (Chorus/Delay and Reverb)
is the order of effects now chorus/ delay/reverb /wah/ OD/Dist. what im not understanding is what happens to the order. i do use some gain from my amp and some from the OD. When you say the loop put effects in front of the amp does that mean it puts the (looped effects first/last in the pedal chain order???) thanks sorry im not getting something..

[NoPro]

sorry my last post was a little unclear.

Ok the looped effects such as chorus, delay and reverb are in an effects loop. The gain of the amp is lets say first in the chain of effects? now the pedal order would be chorus, delay, reverb (in the loop) followed by the NON in loop pedals such as in my case would be Wah, OD and Distortion. So my confusion is...is the chain of effects now....looped pedals then non looped pedals. in other words (amp loop/chorus, delay, reverb, wah, OD and Distortion?
My point is that i'd like to use the loop for the following pedals. Chorus, Delay and Reverb. I'd like to not use the loop for Wah, OD and Distortion....BUT i'd like the effect order to be guitar, wah, OD, Dist, Chorus, Delay, Reverb.

you see im trying to understand how the loop determines the ORDER of effects. By the way thanks all for your patience and help with this one!!!

[theOnlyMoment]

It will work exactly how you want it to.

wah->OD->Dist->preamp->fx loop[chorus -> delay - > reverb]- > poweramp -> speakers.

of course this is all unnecessary if you're only using the clean setting from the peavey. if you are using distortion from your amp though using the fx loop will help

[NoPro]

Originally Posted by theOnlyMoment

It will work exactly how you want it to.

wah->OD->Dist->preamp->fx loop[chorus -> delay - > reverb]- > poweramp -> speakers.

of course this is all unnecessary if you're only using the clean setting from the peavey. if you are using distortion from your amp though using the fx loop will help

yes i see that if the peavey is on the normal clean channel no effects loop needed. i do use the pre/post channel with a bit of growl but not too much.

so whatever i put in line with the guitar comes first (guitar>wah> OD> DIST>AMP) then after comes the effects in the effects loop...ending with reverb. yes?

[theOnlyMoment]

Originally Posted by NoPro

yes i see that if the peavey is on the normal clean channel no effects loop needed. i do use the pre/post channel with a bit of growl but not too much.

so whatever i put in line with the guitar comes first (guitar>wah> OD> DIST>AMP) then after comes the effects in the effects loop...ending with reverb. yes?

exactly

[NoPro]

thanks alot!!

[NoPro]

...so if i wanted a pedal ( a vibe for example) in the effects loop but # 2 in the order of effects...how? effects loop pedals have to be the last effects in the chain??

Wah (non effects loop)>vibe (effects loop)>OD (non effects loop)>Distortion(non effects loop) Delay (effects loop) (reverb (effects loop)

[Johnny Favorite]

you can`t mix and match, the order will always be guitar>pedals>amp's preamp section> fx loop>power amp.

If you really want that vibe before the OD, you can`t put it in the loop. Try it in the loop, it`ll work very well.