FX loop question

[jimbob]

I bought this amp about a year ago and it has an fx loop. I read the manual and it states that you should only use effects that dont produce any extra gain? ect..such as distortion effects  and so on..No boosters or of that sort..I read in some threads where people add all kinds of things to thier effects loop..Does it really matter? Im new the the effects loop thing..Ive never went outta my way for something like that..Ive always been the plug in and play kinda person..

any ideas? suggestions? ect..that i can/ and should do with this effects loop..

btw-its the Peavey Triple XXX 112 1x12 Guitar Combo Amp


http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=amps/search/detail/base_pid/481355/

[Mike Burgundy]

guitar-level pedals will distort, since line-level is a LOT higher. Line-level pedals will work fine.
Introducing extra gain will saturate the poweramp for sure, but hey...Who's keeping you?
Pushing any amp to (and beyond) it's limits will increase risk of failure (a recent recording gig yielded two blown up modern Fender amps - but they sounded cool with everything flat out - no extra gadgets), but aside from that, go for it (with a certain amount of intelligence inserted - boosting that signal 30dB is probably not  a good idea)

[mlabbee]

The use of effects loops is, as I suspect you will find from the responses on this thread, a subject of some controversy and disagreement among guitarists.  Ultimately, you just need to play around with them and decide which sounds you like - understanding the theory behind them and the structure of your amp might help you in this process. There are lots of books and tutorials on the subject, but the short form is this:

A guitar amp generally consists of two main blocks - the pre-amp where the guitar tone is amplified and shaped and the power stage, which amplifies the shaped tone.  

Tone shaping occurs in two basic ways - by filtering out or boosting certain frequencies of the guitar signal (i.e., your tone controls) and overdriving the pre-amplifier, causing clipping of the signal.  As it happens, tubes make guitars sound really, really nice when they clip (lots and lots of articles explaining this on the web).

Usually, the power stage is intended to amplify the pre-amp signal as cleanly as possible - i.e., no more tone shaping, just volume.  But, since no amplifier is perfect, some tone shaping occurs by mere virtue of the circuit design.  Also, some people find the sound of a clipping power amp to be pleasing.  Actually, I think most people do, but overdriving a power amp reduces the life of the tubes in the power amp and does some other funky things.  Thus, people with amp techs and big budgets tend to do this more than others  

So where do fx loops fit in?  As it turns out, some tones sound better when they get run through an overdriven amp and others not so much.  Typically, time based fx, like delay, reverb, chorus tend to get a little muddy when you run them through an overdriven amp, because the amp clips both the dry signal and the wet signal - lots of overlapping harmonics, etc., etc.  Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.  So, enter the fx loop - working under the assumption that the power amp will NOT be overdriven, you put an fx loop between the pre-amp and the power amp.  That way, you put the effects that sound best AFTER the signal is overdriven, so they stay relatively clean.  If you put gain boosting fx in this loop, you can wind up overdriving your power amp, causing two problems - shorter amp life and the mud comes back to your sound.

So . . . the general rule is to put gain fx, like distortion, overdrive, compression, etc. in front of your pre-amp to help overdrive it even more (over-driven pre-amps being a good thing) and time-based fx in the loop to give you nice clean effects to be amplified by a nice clean power stage.

Of course, this is all just the theory.  The reality is that lots of people get great, amazing sounds by breaking every rule described above (and doing even worse things, like screwing with the power supply - google "van halen variac" - not recommended unless you have the aforementioned tech and budget).  Play around with everything, try different combinations and use the ones that sound good to you - have fun with it!  more than likely, the worst thing you will do is blow some tubes.  That can be a little expensive to repair, but it probably won't burn down your house.

[jimbob]

Thanks for all the responses. I think ill just leave it be..It sounds great the way it is already..