I've never had an amp with an effects loop. When I was gigging I used to stick a delay/modulation pedal in front of my single channel valve amp that was kicking out my main tone. There was a boost in front of everything for solos, but at that time it was just a little graphic eq pedal, no dirt, that was coming from the preamp.
I used the pedal's delay for:
- crochet or minim delays for solos that needed it (we were a three-piece)
I used the pedal's modulation for:
- ripply chorus on on "clean parts", obtained by turning down the guitar's volume
- thickening up crunch rhythm parts when I wanted it
There's nothing drastically wrong with sticking delay/mod in front of a preamp - depending on what you want it to do... it's all personal taste - what does it sound like? What job does it do for you?
Nowadays, using modellors and having access to "after the event" processing in my recording kit I have choices.
For me personally, at the moment, these are my own "rules of thumb" (all designed to be broken if necessary):
- short slap-back echo, has to be applied after the amp (preferably "speakers" and all - I'm modelling remember), that's where it sounds best to me, just muddies things up without adding to the party if I stick it in front of the preamp.
- long (crochet or more) echo, doesn't make much difference either way once it's in the mix, I do tend to prefer reverb after delay, we perceive that as "more natural sounding", but adding echoes to an already reverbed signal can be useful when you want to be unnatural (or if you need the echo in the mix but don't have a dry signal to work with anymore :roll:)
- ripply chorus sounds (I don't use them much anymore anyway, I lived through the "chorused strat" 80s :lol:) these really only sound effective for me with "cleaner" tones and with careful use of reverb after... and the part really must end up stereo to really get much benefit at all - otherwise it's mud in the mix that isn't really adding value for me. Obviously this has to go after the "amp" for it to be possible.
- chorus/phase/flange to fatten up a guitar tone (not a guitar part) for me personally still has to go in front of the amp, it just sounds like a studio effect otherwise... You've got to be real delicate with the amount/degree of effect otherwise an "over-complicated" signal into the amp's preamp will muddy up pretty damn quick - but sometimes that's what you want anyway :D
Those are my tastes at the moment... someone else's will be entirely different.
I'd say ask yourself what you want these effects to do for you? What do they sound like at the moment in front of the amp? If you go for a multi-effects unit in the FX loop - your "pedal effects" will no longer mess with your preamp - they won't do it in a bad way, but they won't do it in a good way either - you might end up with a more "sterile" sound. But if that's what your ears want, then it's a good thing :D
If an effect gives you something you like, that's great. You don't have to use effects the way everyone else does - you'll just find yourself sounding like everyone else. And as long as you don't start messing up the electricity in a dangerous way - you do not have to use a unit in exactly the way they designed it. Stick fuzz on the vocals, chorus on the drums, it all works!
Look at effects as creative tools where you can't break them - you can put screws in with a hammer if you like the effect it has and can use it :lol:
I hope that helps some. Good luck with sorting it out, you will get there :D
