FX Loops

What is the difference between FX loop and going straight from guitar to amp through pedals. I was reading some reviews on harmony central and noticed some people saying how they put the pedal in the FX loop or not.

Fx loop give you control to dial in the magnitude of effects you want...hmmm not being clear. Say you turn down your fx knobs on the reciving end, then more your amp sound will come through and if you turn it up then more of the effect sound will come through...does that sound better. Can anyone elaborate better....or add anything i missed, please..:)


Its not something thats is a must have, but its a nice feature.

FX loop will bypass your amps preamp.

So how would I go about setting my pedals in the FX loop, as opposed to; straight from my guitar to amp?

It depends on how the FX Loop is implemented in the amp. sometimes it inserts the effects between the preamp and the power amp. In this case, it's a good place for time-based effects like delay and chorus.

If your amp has a level control for the Effects Return, the pedal should be set for full 'wet' (no un-effected signal) because the amp will mix direct ('dry') with effected ('wet') signal. The main advantage of an effects loop is that you can chain several effects in the loop, leave them ON full-time, and switch them all IN/OUT with one switch (for the FX Loop).

OK, I don't think my amp has an FX loop, because there are no outputs for FX Loops, and no switch. It is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I do have a preamp out and power amp in; inputs. Could those be the FX Loop? If so, then do I plug the output on the pedal into the power in or pre-out?

Those connections are 'slaving' amplifiers. You can run an additional power amp by connecting the Pre Out to the power amp's input. Or you can drive the power section of your amp from a different preamp by connecting the preamp output to your Pwr In.

So, no FX Loop then.

LOL, OK I hooked up my pedals to the FX Loop and it does work. But, what is the advantage to using the FX Loop, as opposed to straight through the guitar to amp?

In an amp with a serial FX loop, the "FX send" is the same as the "pre amp out", and the "FX return" is the same as the "power amp in".
In an amp with a parallel loop, however, there IS a difference. You can recognize if an amp has a parallel FX loop by checking if it has an "FX loop level" knob. If the amp only has an FX loop on/off switch, it's a serial FX loop.
The difference between the two is this:
With a serial loop, you go straight from the FX send into whatever effects you're using, and back in the FX return. This means that you have to adjust your effects levels or "mix" on the effects processors themselves.
With a parallel loop, the signal coming from the pre amp gets split into two signals. One signal goes straight to the power amp section, and the other signal goes to the FX send. The signal from the FX return then gets "mixed" back in with the signal coming directly from the pre amp, and here is where the "FX loop level" comes into play. By adjusting the FX loop level, you adjust the level of signal coming from the FX loop you want to add to your pure pre amp signal. This means that you will want to max the level/mix on all your effects processors in your FX loop, and control the overall level of them with the FX loop level knob.

Now, there's no real advantage or disadvantage to putting your effects in the FX loop or not. There are no rules when it comes to getting a good sound. BUT, the general guideline is that its best to put your signal processing units in this order: Signal processing => Effects processing => Power amplification.

Signal processing consists of pre amplification(pre amps, dist. pedals,...), compression, noise gates, EQ, exciters,...
Effects processing consists of pitch shifting, time based effects such as delays, reverbs, chorus, phaser,...

This means that you'll probably want to put at least your effects processors in the FX loop. Not to say that effects in front of the pre amp cannot sound good. But I'm willing to bet, at least when using disortion, that putting the effects processors after the pre amp will result in a much better sound than the other way around.


Long post, I hope that makes some sense...

Thanks alot, for the info.