When should you plug gear into your amplifier's effects loop and not into the standard input?
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3 Answers
It is useful because it allows you to add effects to your sound after it has been through the amps EQ and pre-amp; What this means; the pre-amp can do its magic on a clean signal from your guitar; before effects are added.
Adding effects which boost(overdrive/distortion) the signal into the effects loop can be dangerous for the amp, as the signal has already been boosted by the pre-amp; it should be ok if you experiment with it and are careful, but is not advisable. Generally these things(boosters) should go in front of your amp; though if your preamp is up high; they will have little effect.
Modulators like phasers/chorus/delay can go in the effects loop; and will probably be better for your tone if there, since the your applying the effect to the already boosted signal from the preamp, instead of boosting a signal with an effect on it.
Unless you specifically want your modulators before the boosters this is a good rule of thumb: boosters -> preamp -> modulators.
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4I actually prefer all my modulation to be pre-distortion, so be careful saying that it is better for my tone ;D. Post distortion chorus sounds 80's, but if you place it pre-distortion it has a subtle fattening effect.– JduvJan 20, 2011 at 2:56
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4+1 "Post distortion chorus sounds 80" Having been playing since pre-80s, I am free to call it what it is: it sounds like a washing machine. :-)– AnonymousJan 20, 2011 at 5:14
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2"Adding effects which boost ... can be dangerous for the amp..." What do mean by "dangerous" in this sentence? It's not really possible to damage a properly designed amp with a hot signal - it will just overdrive and cause distortion. It's a lot more likely to be dangerous for your ears than be dangerous for an amp. Sep 28, 2015 at 12:28
In addition to @DRL's good answer, another use for the effect loop on an amp is to provide access to the power-amp in, avoiding the tone-messing-up circuitry, when you're using some modeling effects. For instance:
I have a Pod X3, which was Line6's bad-boy floor unit until recently. A modeler simulates the chain of effects, preamp, amp, cabinet, speakers, and microphone capturing the speaker's sound, if you want to enable all those things. Because they've already been factored into the sound, passing the output of the modeler into a regular guitar amp's input, through its preamp and tone controls will only screw up the sound you've worked hard to generate.
A good power-amp shouldn't modify the sound at all, except maybe add a bit of power-tube saturation or distortion, but again, the modeler has taken that into account, so we want to avoid that as much as possible.
Sticking with an overly anal/purist attitude, I also want to avoid speaker and cabinet coloration of the sound.
So, for me it made sense to buy one of Line6's Flextone III combos, and plug into its power-amp-in (effects loop return). That amp does some modeling internally but I skip past it, by going into the X3, then into the power-amp, and out its speaker. I also have a direct-out feed on the X3 if I need to go to a board.
It's kind of a waste of a pre-amp in an amp, but they're cheap now, pretty loud if need be, and very neutral sounding so the modeling is not effected.
It's just another use of the loop and ability to get between the pre-amp and amp.
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@TheTinMan Love the X3 Live - I almost never use on-stage cabs any more, just go straight into the backline and take everything from my wedge. Great piece of kit. Need to get the HD next though...– Doktor Mayhem ♦Feb 22, 2011 at 20:26
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@DrMayhem, last night I was thinking of using mine for an upcoming jam I was invited to. It'd be so much more convenient and easier to carry.– AnonymousFeb 22, 2011 at 23:10
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@TheTinMan - when we gig, both me and the rhythm guitarist can play from just a rucksack's worth of kit, so our biggest luggable item is the bass amp. And so far that has worked for everything from just bigger than pub gigs to festivals (usually pubs don't have a decent backline so we need to take our own amps and cabs)– Doktor Mayhem ♦Feb 22, 2011 at 23:28
Use the fx loop to insert delays and reverbs as the loop is after the preamp circuit. I've tried delays and verbs straight into the front of the amp and the sound can get messy when distortion is used as each repeat generated by the delay gets distorted (by the distortion). I would always put delays/verbs after distortion either using fx loop or a chain of stomp boxes. If you play clean all the time and don't use distortion then you insert the delays or verbs straight in the front of the amp. Reading previous posts the use of modulation and where to place it is upto your taste and place where it sounds and feels good to you.
