yo, homemade pedal board with f/x send, return... or something

[aaroncook5]

ok, so i'm building my new pedal board.  (mostly to accomodate all the projects I'll be doing soon..hehe..) and I've run into a snag.  so, i want to have an effects loop on the board, because I'm running my compressor in the middle of the chain.  its racked.  so, instead of snaking those cords all the through the board, i just want a loop at the top, blah blah, you get the picture.  what kinds of things do i need to know about this?  do i just hook the jack together?  ie:

            O a in           O b send             O c return             O d out

where a is from the board and d is back to the board.

do i just connect a to b   and c to d?

lame question, i know....  but hey, i'm trying to learn

thanks,
-Aaron

[LyleCaldwell]

Yes, though you could use a switched jack for B so that when no cable was inserted the signal would bypass the Snd/Rtn jacks.  A switched jack has an extra lug which contacts the Tip lug when no plug is inserted, and breaks contact with the Tip lug when a cable is inserted. 

So wire the Tip of A to the Tip of B.  Wire the Switched lug of B to the Tip of D, and the Tip of C to the Tip of D.

[aaroncook5]

thanks lyle, that sounds like it would work wonderfully.  where might one acquire a switched jack, though?  would radio shack carry them?