Before the preamp, or in the loop?

[Greg Ellis]

I'm curious about how you guys wire up your signal chain.

Are there certain effects that you always put ahead of the preamp? Are there others that you always run in the effects loop (between the preamp and the power amp)?

I've heard the "general wisdom" that boost and grit-type effects generally belong between the guitar and the preamp, whereas delay/reverb/modulation effects tend to sound better when installed AFTER the preamp.

Do you actually implement things this way? Does that mean there are three different cables connecting your cluster of pedals to the amp?

What's the drawback in putting delay and modulation effects ahead of the preamp?

[Tarl]

I run my delay, chorus and EQ through the loop. Before the pre amp my signal goes through my Korg tuner and my fuzz pedal. This seems to work best for me. So I have a cable from guitar to tuner, tuner to fuzz then fuzz to amp. The loop goes into the EQ and out the delay (2 cables) with patch cords connecting the pedals.

[konasexone]

Yup, both for me. The time based effects I put in the loop. Wah pedals and overdrives I put before the preamp. This is pretty standard these days but whatever sounds best is never wrong.

[Greg Ellis]

Seems like a lot of cables. How do you keep from tripping over it all? Duct tape?

[dr_iggi]

Seems like a lot of cables. How do you keep from tripping over it all? Duct tape?

http://www.pedalsnake.com/

[iaresee]

http://www.pedalsnake.com/
+1 to a PedalSnake. I've been using a custom snake from them for years now and it's a rock solid product.

As for the in-the-loop, out-in-front question: so I just recently (like 2 weeks ago) gave up on running a few effects in the loop and went all-out-front. The only thing that sucks all out in front is my delay, specifically I can't use the looping function on it now and change channels on my amp (because it'll suddenly overdrive a loop I meant to be looped with a clean sound).

And the funny thing is it was the delay the that drove me to run everything out in front. There's some sort of weird impedance mis-match happening with the SMMw/H and my Koch's loop. I get reflections on the loop when I engage the SMMw/H. It's tolerable on the clean channel, but with the Koch overdriven the reflections get really bad and I end up with a squelchy feedback when using the delay. It sucks. I never had this problem with the DD-20. I tried running my CS-9 in front of the SMMw/H in the loop but Greg and Solid Gold true-bypassed it for me so it only helps when it's engaged and its buffer is in use. I'm tempted to buy a TR-2 and an RV-3 or RV-5 and just put one on either side of the SMMw/H in the loop, box it in with Boss buffered signals that work well with the Koch.

[Kapo_Polenton]

Maybe that is the issue with my delay. I don't have an effects loop on my plexi clone so i run guitar-wah-overdrive-ISP decimator-delay-amp. I find that the repeats on my DD-3 are somewhat distorted/fizzy as they decay..anybody else experience this? Drives me crazy and annoys the $hit outof me. The BYOC delay i built is better in this regard.

I'm looking into that pedal snake, see what all the fuss is about...

[iaresee]

Maybe that is the issue with my delay. I don't have an effects loop on my plexi clone so i run guitar-wah-overdrive-ISP decimator-delay-amp. I find that the repeats on my DD-3 are somewhat distorted/fizzy as they decay..anybody else experience this? Drives me crazy and annoys the $hit outof me. The BYOC delay i built is better in this regard.
That's really weird. Even if you use it clean, the repeats get fizzy? It shouldn't. If anything the repeats should get cleaner with the delay in front of the preamp.

I'm looking into that pedal snake, see what all the fuss is about...
If you're not running stuff from your board in the loop they don't make as much sense. But if you're already running three audio cables, plus power, it can clean that all up really quickly. You can catch them on eBay every so often.

[Kapo_Polenton]

Running clean the delay is fine.. its with the amps natural distortion and a boost pedal like the bad monkey. Still though... i might look into the monty allums mod for the DD-3. Its strage though, i really find it weak.. lately though, that Line 6 D4 has caught my attention. I think you see it on a lot of pro boards for a reason.

[Ripper]

Depends on the amp, some effects loops are crap and suck the tone right out of your sound. The majority of the old amps I play don't have a loop so my stuff goes out front.