How to use the effect loop on a guitar amplifier

Sep 17 2008

How to use the effect loop on a guitar amplifier

Published by Ryan Edmunds at 4:04 pm under Tutorials Edit This

In every amplifier, there is a series that the guitar signal passes through, before it gets to the speaker and you are able to hear it. In most amps, it will go through a series similar to the following:

From the guitar…

preamp (with or without distortion)
tone controls and eq
master volume (or channel volume, on multi-channel amps)
reverb
power amp

..to the speaker

That is a lot of phases to go through before getting to your ears. The effects loop breaks this chain and allows you to insert the effect after the preamp before going to the power amp.

How to use the effects loop on a guitar amp

When you introduce an effects pedal into the mix before the amplifier you run a cable from your guitar into the pedal, then from the pedal into the amp.

When you put the effects pedal inside the effects loop, you run a cable from the amplifier’s fx send into the pedal’s input then run a cable from the effect pedal’s output to the amp’s fx receive. Some amplifiers have a volume control for the effects send and receive.

When to use the effects loop on your amplifier

Usage of the effects loop is largely up to personal taste, and a little bit up to what is guaranteed to sound bad. One of the major separators is distortion. If you are using the distortion channel ( the distortion that is built right in to your guitar amp) any effects you plug your guitar into will get distorted when they go into the amp. When you patch the effects in the effects loop they are applied on top of the already distorted guitar signal.

Here are some guidelines to get you going. Wah-wah pedals and modulation effects like a chorus, tremolo, phaser or flanger pedal produce extremely different sounds when they are placed before or after a distortion pedal. Which one you choose is up to you.Effects that rely on volume like delay or reverb would loose some of their effect if they were placed before the amplifier because once you distort the signal going in the effect loses control of the volume.

Anything you want before the distortion you plug into before you plug into the guitar amp, anything you want after the distortion goes through the effects loop.

If you are using a distortion pedal or tone boosting pedal of any kind, it would be best applied before the amplifier so it can effect the preamp gain.