What do you use your FX loop for?

[Jazz Rock]

Hey guys,

I have started to experiment with FX loop on my amp, which is something I never really did before. I am not quite sure what the pros and cons are in comparison to plugging pedals between the guiatr and the amp.

From my limited experience, it seems pretty useless to use a clean boost in the FX loop. I guess it is tickling the power section instead of the pre-amp section.

Feeding an already slightly overdriven sound from the preamp into the loop with the overdrive on the FOD produced mush. It became more interesting with the amp set on a clean sound. But I am used to have a sound on the verge of the overdrive from the amp, using the FOD to provide additional grit... So that won't work too well in the FX loop. Also, I need to almost cranck up the voume on the pedal to get the overdrive sound at the same level than the dry sound, when the efect is off.

On the other hand, it seems to do magic with the wah pedal. Using the wah in front of the amp, I always seem to have a spot in the swep were the sound compressed and shrill, which lead me to try to avoid this spot, playing on either side of it... which is a bit limitating. Plugging the wah in the fx loop seemed to have open up the sound of the wah, as well as negating the above issue. So in this case it is big plus.

I will need to try with the chorus how it behaves.

Nonetheless, is it a kind of a common "rule" that FX loop give better result with modulation effects than boost:overdrive pedals? Or is it just because I used this overdrive pedal with this amp, another overdrive could give me better results in the FX loop than in front?

How do you use your FX loop?

[Transcend]

I think the common rule is time based/modulation effects work better in the loop

and you should not put anything that clips the signal TS/Distortion/boosts in the loop

Also you may notice using the loop can change the tone a bit of your amp but im sure you will have mentioned this if it was a big enough change or you disliked it.

I personally dont like the sound of anything in the loop other than maybe a noisegate & an EQ so i can fight against the tonality changes

[Twinfan]

EQs in the loop are popular for solo boosts etc.

I personally use delay and reverb in the loop only.  I find that my chorus and phaser work better out front, but ideally I'd have chorus in the loop too as it sounds better for distorted sounds that way.  Unfortunately my chorus doesn't like the line output of my XTC.

At some point I'll get a rack effects unit to do chorus/delay/reverb through the loop.

[juansolo]

Delay and reverb are in my loop. I also have a G-Sharp in there.

[MrBump]

It's horses for courses, really - I've found that different amps react very differently to pedals in and out of the loop.

My Eggy Renegade is my main amp at the mo - HATES my digitech delay in front of the amp, but it sounds AWESOME in the loop.  Hates any form of boost in the loop, doesn't like my MXR compressor there either.  MY RedWich Moon Phaser is OK in the loop...  but can sound a little shrill depending on the guitar I'm using.

Complicated, and definitely not something that you can define absolutely.

[Transcend]

i think the majority of problems people face is the different levels on pedals that they try to use in the loop

line level
& instrument level

on most amps this is fine as they have switches to change the level

but still that makes it tough to mix them and some amps dont have this switch and are always set at +4db which with certain pedals can cause artifacts and clipping.

More than anything its a case of try it and see

[choucas09]

I like to use my loop station (RC 2) in the serial loop on my amp. That way it records the preamp sound and can be changed for overdubs.

[tomjackson]

I don't use effects loops.  Everything is better at the front....

[BigB]

The traditional wisdom is "time-based" effects (chorus / flangers / delays / reverb) should come after any clipping device. Now if you always use your amp clean and get your dirt from pedals, then you don't care much about the FX loop, and if you only rely on power section distortion then you don't care much neither, since the loop will still sit before the clipping stage, so it only makes sense to put your time-based stuff in the loop if you get your dirt from the preamp, and even then, it depends on your amp, amp's loop (is it line or instrument level ? Is it serie or parallel ? Is it any good or is it a definitive tone-sucker ?), effects and, of course, personal tastes.

As far as I'm concerned, I kind of prefer some of my time-based and modulation stuff - specially the memory toy delay and the dano Coolcat Trem - in front of my amp (I get my dirt partly from the preamp and partly from a couple ODs which are before the delay and trem), but the HRDx loop is rather in the "definitive tone-sucker" category. I'll possibly start to use the FX loop when I'll get a decent one :mgreen:

I also experimented with EQ and dirtbox in the loop, it gave interesting results on the JCM900, but not that much with the HRDx IMHO.

[tomjackson]

The traditional wisdom is "time-based" effects (chorus / flangers / delays / reverb) should come after any clipping device. Now if you always use your amp clean and get your dirt from pedals, then you don't care much about the FX loop, and if you only rely on power section distortion then you don't care much neither, since the loop will still sit before the clipping stage, so it only makes sense to put your time-based stuff in the loop if you get your dirt from the preamp, and even then, it depends on your amp, amp's loop (is it line or instrument level ? Is it serie or parallel ? Is it any good or is it a definitive tone-sucker ?), effects and, of course, personal tastes.

As far as I'm concerned, I kind of prefer some of my time-based and modulation stuff - specially the memory toy delay and the dano Coolcat Trem - in front of my amp (I get my dirt partly from the preamp and partly from a couple ODs which are before the delay and trem), but the HRDx loop is rather in the "definitive tone-sucker" category. I'll possibly start to use the FX loop when I'll get a decent one :mgreen:

I also experimented with EQ and dirtbox in the loop, it gave interesting results on the JCM900, but not that much with the HRDx IMHO.

Exactly!  Effects loops are bad.

It's a slippery slope to rack effects  (sorry Dave)

Then when the effects are sorted it's worrying about how your perm looks....




I've never actually tried one though, but the missus is watching Desperate Houswives and it's making me angry

I think I need to register on TGP and start an Axe FX v something thread

[BigB]

Exactly!  Effects loops are bad.

Err... Not quite what I'm saying, actually ;)

[Jazz Rock]

The traditional wisdom is "time-based" effects (chorus / flangers / delays / reverb) should come after any clipping device. Now if you always use your amp clean and get your dirt from pedals, then you don't care much about the FX loop, and if you only rely on power section distortion then you don't care much neither, since the loop will still sit before the clipping stage, so it only makes sense to put your time-based stuff in the loop if you get your dirt from the preamp, and even then, it depends on your amp, amp's loop (is it line or instrument level ? Is it serie or parallel ? Is it any good or is it a definitive tone-sucker ?), effects and, of course, personal tastes.

As far as I'm concerned, I kind of prefer some of my time-based and modulation stuff - specially the memory toy delay and the dano Coolcat Trem - in front of my amp (I get my dirt partly from the preamp and partly from a couple ODs which are before the delay and trem), but the HRDx loop is rather in the "definitive tone-sucker" category. I'll possibly start to use the FX loop when I'll get a decent one :mgreen:

That's interesting. So, leaving the Fx loop question aside for the moment, you would generally place your modulation effects after the boost/overdrive pedal, even if all are plugged in front of the amp. For some reason I always plugged my wah before the overdrive... that could explain why I wasn't entirely happy with its sound. Now, since I play with the tweaker, I am using the pre-amp to produce the grit, so putting the wah in the loop would make sense.

Still need to try with the chorus. Will let you know how it goes.

I also experimented with EQ and dirtbox in the loop, it gave interesting results on the JCM900, but not that much with the HRDx IMHO.

[BigB]

That's interesting. So, leaving the Fx loop question aside for the moment, you would generally place your modulation effects after the boost/overdrive pedal, even if all are plugged in front of the amp.

Time-based effects, yes, definitly - but all modulations are not time-based, and vibes / phasers may be better before the dirtbox(es).

I like having the trem sandwiched between two gain/drive stages (currently, between the ODs stack and the preamp), so when I have the vol pot full cranked the second gain stage's compression/clipping almost nullify the trem effect, and when I roll down the vol pot the trem starts to shine thru.

Also, while there are sensible technical reasons behind the "time-based FX after drive" meme, it doesn't mean you have to like it that way. Before we had higain amps and FX loops, everyone plugged everything upfront, and some managed to get great tones that way.

For some reason I always plugged my wah before the overdrive... that could explain why I wasn't entirely happy with its sound. Now, since I play with the tweaker, I am using the pre-amp to produce the grit, so putting the wah in the loop would make sense.

I have mine after my two ODs (and obviously before the preamp). I noticed that when you have a lot of drive after the wha it kind of make it useless. I guess you have kind of the same pattern here - just that your "main" drive stage is your preamp while mine is the OD stack.

[Telerocker]

I have everything in front, since the fx-loop on my Rockerverb 50 sucks (tone and volume). I even had my delay modified to use in front. I used to put the delay and chorus in the loop and when it works properly I think most delays sound better in the fx-loop.

[BigB]

I have everything in front, since the fx-loop on my Rockerverb 50 sucks (tone and volume).

Duh :(

I thought the RV50 loop would have been at least decent.