Amp head - Send/return effects for home recording

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pure.fusion

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Hi guys,

Newbie question on guitar amp send/return effects here.

I'm thinking seriously about buying a new guitar amp. The choice of two Mesa heads, one has an effects send/receive loop and the other doesn't.

Now, I'm not a big pedal user. It'll be just guitar -> amp for most of the time. Reverb etc I will manage in the mix.

Honestly, I haven't seen a consistent way of running effects on the internet as I read - some say effects are best placed in front of the amp, others say effects are best placed in teh effects send/receive.

Anyone want to comment on the pre vs effects loop for your FX gear?

Anyway, is there any reason, *other than to use pedal effects*, that I may want an effects send/receive in my guitar amp *for home recording purposes*?

Cheers,
FM
 
Depends what kind of effect. Pedals are usualy made to take instrument level signals, whilst rackmounted gear is usually made to receive line level, which the loop is usually going to be putting out. Things like compression, reverb, delay, graphic EQs and such are best off after the pre-amp too usually, so you'll often put those kinds of effects in the loop instead of in front. As for any other uses it might have, you can use it to slave to a separate power amp. If you have a loop that still allows the signal to the power amp, that could be especially useful for using 2 different amps at the same time. With bass, you can do something like that into a guitar amp, and get a tasty high end distortion, whilst keeping your lows and mids nice and clear. You could also do the opposite, and use a different pre-amp, and go directly into your power amp. Anything beyond, Google is your friend.
 
AS was said in the previous post, pedals are meant to work at instrument levels and the effects loop will likely be putting out line levels for rack gear. It's not that you can't add pedals in an effects loop, but some pedals may work better than others because of the level mismatch.

Putting effects in front of or after the preamp section of the amp can make a huge difference in the sound of the amp and the response of the effects.

For example, EQ in front of the preamp (between the guitar and the amp) will not only affect the tone, it will also change the nature of the distortion you get out of the amp. EQ in the effects loop will simply take the distortion and EQ it. Phasers, flangers, choruses, etc... will all sound different in the effects loop than they do in front of the amp because they will effect the way the signal hits the preamp, therefore changing the nature of the distortion.

Time based effects (delay, reverb, etc...) tend to work better in the effects loop. This is because the distortion adds a lot of compression to the signal. That compression will make the decay of the delay and reverb hard to control. Also, do you really want distorted reverb? You probably want to add reverb to your distorted signal.

So, depending on what specific sound you are going for, you will need to place the effect at a different point in the chain.
 
Most excellent posts gents.

I learn something new here every day. :)
 
I bought an EQ for my effects loop and also to boost the power stage. We'll see how that goes. I don't have much experience with amps with effects loops, but from talking to people that do use them, Farview pretty much said what they all say. I've also been told that effects in the loop are more manageable than effects in front. For example, some delays might be damn near unusable in front of the amp, but in the loop they behave much better. I tried this with a TC Flashback delay and it was true. Out front, the delay was just too much. In the loop changes to the pedals controls were more gradual and controllable.
 
Great info guys. Thank you all.

SomeGeezer, awesome. Some setups there I never knew you could do with effects send and return.

I'm currently stalking a Mesa Boogie TA-15 that I've fallen in love with. No FX Send/Receive, but I think that's not a problem for my situation... and from what I read here it shouldn't be a problem in the future.
I just hope Mesa are as good as they say they are, 'cause there looks like there's a lot of that can screw up!

Cheers.
FM
 
pure.fusion said:
Great info guys. Thank you all.

SomeGeezer, awesome. Some setups there I never knew you could do with effects send and return.

I'm currently stalking a Mesa Boogie TA-15 that I've fallen in love with. No FX Send/Receive, but I think that's not a problem for my situation... and from what I read here it shouldn't be a problem in the future.
I just hope Mesa are as good as they say they are, 'cause there looks like there's a lot of that can screw up!

Cheers.
FM
Click to expand...

Quite alright. and Mesa generally build pretty good amps. I'd personally love a Dual Rectifier. The tone is something I fell in love with right away.
 
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