Delay/Verb: front of amp, or in FX loop; which for you?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Orvillain
  • Start date Start date
Orvillain

Orvillain

Active member
I love the sound of delay and reverb going into the front of a distorted amp (I'm using a Fryette Sig X) but today I was also experimenting with putting them into the FX loop. The sound is obviously really different, but I couldn't really pick which I prefer. For some lead lines, I can see it being very useful to have the "clean" not mushy sound of having the effects in the FX loop.

So now I'm thinking about having another reverb and delay in the effects loop as well as in front of the amp!! Dooohhh!!
 
Loop. In front each delay echo is cleaner than the last because it hit the amp at a lower volume and distorts less. I like it consistent.
 
Loop I hate when the amps preamp amplifies and distorts or delay and reverberated tails....
 
BOTH. I have 2 Strymon delays, 1 for the loop, 1 for the input.
 
unless you're using an all pedal setup into a clean amp the general rule of thumb is to put all time based effects in the loop. I also greatly prefer them in the loop as well. But its all up to what you think sounds best to your ears.
 
Playing through the clean channel... either way. Dirty channel, the loop. So my 1st choice and preference is the loop so it wouldn't matter what tone I'm using.
 
I'll be the odd man out. I put everything up front but I don't have any reverb. Will let the FOH PA throw a little reverb in.

Steve
 
If my amp has a loop, I prefer the delay/reverb in the loop. On my single channel amps with no effects loop, I run the reverb and delay out front, but on those setups I get my gain from pedals. Basically, I try to run my delay/reverb after the dirt producing stage of the rig.
 
Great topic! Something I was always pondering years ago too...

I like my TimeFactor in the parallel loop, my Reverb in the serial.

That's it that's all, good luck :rock:
Mo
 
If it's high gain, I think delays quickly mush up and sound bad in front of the amp. But some delays have a voicing that makes that not so much an issue.

For anything not high gain, even up to say AC/DC levels of crunch, I prefer the delays in front of the amp because I love the way the delays get compressed and interact with the direct sound that way. Delay into the front of a cranked ac30 very very nice.
 
steve_k":3n6xnljm said:
I'll be the odd man out. I put everything up front but I don't have any reverb. Will let the FOH PA throw a little reverb in.

Steve

i'm the same way.
 
in the loop BUT if you want some cool old RUSH type effects, Alex used to run them in front of his amps (old marshalls dont have loops) and it creates a really cool effect, a distance effect. You just have to use them more sparingly. Its a very cool lo fi effect.
 
Delay/Verb always in the loop if the amp is set dirty. However, delay did sound great out in front of my old JCM800 with no loop....you just have o tinker with the levels to make sure it doesn't overpower the signal.
 
love the crystal clear delays for leads when the delay is in the loop. Hate the way delays sound in front of a high gain amp
 
For decades I was all about pedals, all run in front of the amp. But since I've had Bogners (and my VHT) and been running TC rack FX... there's NO question about it... the loop is the place for time-based FX.

The real question for most is parallel or serial. Some guys seem to prefer serial. But I believe that I've been running both my VHT and Bogner in parallel mode for a while...
 
Back
Top