Overdrive in effects loop

[richard]

What is the reason for the generally held opinion that you don't put overdrive pedals in the effects loop ? If you put a clean boost in the front end of your amp it will increase the gain but if you put it in the loop it will just make the amp louder. So if you put your o/d in the loop it should give you the option of more gain plus a volume boost for solos. Wouldn't it work the same as an onboard switchable extra gain/volume stage ?

[Twinfan]

Loops generally run at line level, not guitar level, plus all the pre-amp distortion will have been generated at the point the loop is inserted.

So generally speaking, you're slamming the front of an overdrive with a massively loud and clipping signal.  Overdrives are designed to receive the weak and clean signal direct from a guitar, so in a loop they usually sound completely shiteee.

I personally don't buy the clean boost in a loop theory for the same reason.  Only something designed to work at line level will generally work well in a loop e.g. rack effects and a select few stomp boxes.

[juansolo]

Overdrives push the front end of your valve amp. Putting it after that won't work. The only effects that tend to work well in loops are the ones that want to deal with all your signal prior to it being amplified. So mainly gates, reverbs and other good modulation effects. You still might find that a lot of them prefer to be on the end of your pedal chain rather than in the loop for the reason that Dave said. It's a suck it and see job for those. But no, boosts, distortions and ODs want to be before the amp.

[BigB]

There's no law prohibiting the use of a dirt/gain stage in your amp's loop, and if it works for you that's fine. Now it's true that whether it has any chance to work really depends on the exact amp and pedal, and in my humble experience,  most of the times it just fails...

[Toe-Knee]

Clean boosts can actually work amazingly well in some loops for a simple volume boost. Dpnt be adding any drive effects though that will sound terrible. And don't go overboard clean boosting either for the same reasons.

However if you are wanting to achieve that a simple volume box will work wonders

nice and simple. one switch two pots & two jacks and you instantly have two volume presets.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

+1 to everyone, don't do it.