Most likely an idiotic question

Thornography

Heya,

Im probably about to ask a really stupid question, but here goes.....

I have a Marshall DFX100 Amp, and have it set up
with about 5-6 Boss pedals and cry baby wah wah all daisy chained together
and plugged in via the regular input.

What the hell is the effect loop for on the back lol?

I'v been playing it like this for as long as I can remember and its only recently i was messing with the amp (Took it apart to fix headphone jack) and I found this input.

Whats it used for e.t.c?

The pedals im running in the input are in this order

Boss DS-1
Boss AC-3
Boss OS-2
Boss MT-2
Boss NS-2
Boss TU-3
Dunlop Cry baby.

Another question is, In this order theres no lag or quality drop, So I know I`ll keep them in this order, But I am aware of an optimum setup, what could that be?

Thanks

p.s I have a channel foot switch plugged into the back as-well.

Paolo_M

Thornography wrote: »

Heya,

Im probably about to ask a really stupid question, but here goes.....

I have a Marshall DFX100 Amp, and have it set up
with about 5-6 Boss pedals and cry baby wah wah all daisy chained together
and plugged in via the regular input.

What the hell is the effect loop for on the back lol?

I'v been playing it like this for as long as I can remember and its only recently i was messing with the amp (Took it apart to fix headphone jack) and I found this input.

Whats it used for e.t.c?

The pedals im running in the input are in this order

Boss DS-1
Boss AC-3
Boss OS-2
Boss MT-2
Boss NS-2
Boss TU-3
Dunlop Cry baby.

Another question is, In this order theres no lag or quality drop, So I know I`ll keep them in this order, But I am aware of an optimum setup, what could that be?

Thanks

p.s I have a channel foot switch plugged into the back as-well.

There are no rules here, whatever sounds best to you.

However, the general rule of thumb that works in most cases is to have distortion, boosts, overdrives and wahs in front of the amp.

Any modulation, delays and reverbs normally sound best in the loop.

This is based on the fact that most that most people agree their delay pedals sound best after their distortion pedals.

If you set your amp to clean and use pedals for distortion then you won't see a massive benefit in using the loop. The loop comes into it's own if you use preamp distortion on you amp.

I've had the "pleasure" of using the Loop in the DFX head and it's terrible*


*That's just my opinion, everything else here is fact.

Thornography

Cheers for the advice

Yup, I use the clean setting only, The od on the DFX isn't exactly worth mentioning tbh since it sounds like sludge.

So i`m not really missing out since I don't really have that many effects other then distortion, od, compressor, and the acoustic simulator?

BSOM

Im not 100% sure but i dont think you can put the AC3 at the end of the line because it blocks the rest of the.... think thats what happened last time i had one out....

rcaz

Thornography wrote: »

Another question is, In this order theres no lag or quality drop, So I know I`ll keep them in this order, But I am aware of an optimum setup, what could that be?

Boss pedals all have a pretty good buffer in them, so since you're using mostly Boss pedals, you won't suffer any signal drop no matter what order they're in (signal drop only comes into effect when you're running a lot of true bypass pedals). As for lag, shouldn't be a problem. I get a little lag with my Digitech Whammy, but only when it's actually shifting the signal, and it's only noticeable when I'm doing finger picking stuff, and it's only noticeable to me (anyone who wasn't actually playing the guitar wouldn't notice the slightest of delay between picking and hearing a note).

The optimum setup is the one that sounds best to you!

rcaz

Oh, it should be pointed out that there's no such thing as a stupid question

demanufactured

Wah should usually go first in your chain...

-=al=-

tuner>wah > overdrives n shizzle > modulation/other shizzle

thats the normal jazz prob but anything can be done, and usually if your using the effects loop its for the modulation type pedals

rcaz

I don't understand the wah-goes-first thing, if it goes after distortion, the filter would have a much richer spectrum to work on, so it'd be more... effective, surely?

Paolo_M

El Pr0n wrote: »

I don't understand the wah-goes-first thing, if it goes after distortion, the filter would have a much richer spectrum to work on, so it'd be more... effective, surely?

Try it out by all means.

Wah circuits are not designed to be overdriven, they're designed to wah.
If it sounds good to you that way that's great, but the designers didn't intend to a signal hotter than instrument level.
In fact Vox intended them as an effect for their electric organs and someone used on a guitar for the crack late one night, so the story goes anyway...

I've accidentally hooked my Dunlop Cry Baby that wah and it just sounded weird to me. The wah didn't have a full sweep and the tone was real nasally and thin.

rcaz

Paolo_M wrote: »

Try it out by all means.

Wah circuits are not designed to be overdriven, they're designed to wah.
If it sounds good to you that way that's great, but the designers didn't intend to a signal hotter than instrument level.
In fact Vox intended them as an effect for their electric organs and someone used on a guitar for the crack late one night, so the story goes anyway...

I've accidentally hooked my Dunlop Cry Baby that wah and it just sounded weird to me. The wah didn't have a full sweep and the tone was real nasally and thin.

Interesting. My favourite thing about pedals is how they interact with one another. I actually don't have a wah pedal, I was just comparing it in my mind to any other sort of band pass filter.

-=al=-

yeah try whatever works, i know in my case from experience, i just like it before, after an od or something i find i completly filters an f's up the overdrive/distortion

Giblet

-=al=- wrote: »

yeah try whatever works, i know in my case from experience, i just like it before, after an od or something i find i completly filters an f's up the overdrive/distortion

Same here. OD enhances tone, harmonics and frequencies, Wah filters them. Having the wah afterwards can choke these frequencies, whereas having OD after the wah enhances them. It's a more subtle and toneful effect.