this might sound realy stupid but what is an effect loop. Does that mean it runs good with effects, or it has built in effects or what. Thanks
A serial FX loop is just a "gap" in the signal path of a preamp or between preamp and poweramp section of an amp. You put your effects in there. With a serial loop, 100% of the signal are routed through the loop - this is for effects like compression etc. You can also "abuse" the FX send as a line/preamp out and the FX return as a line/poweramp in. A parallel loop has a mix pot that allows you to mix the original signal (dry) with the effects signal (wet), this is handy for chorus, because it avoids a muddy sound. Hope that helps.
I dunno JMX, but... that was pretty technical, don't you think? I don't mean to under-estimate you Bassist519, but - to be on the safe side - here's a more basic approach (imagine this comes before JMX's post): It's when an amp has one FX (effects) "send" and one FX "return" input (they may be named differently on some amps). You can then hook up an external effect unit like this: Amp "send" -> effect input - effect output -> amp "return". The signal from the effect unit will blend with the original amp signal. Now re-read JMX's post for elaboration.
the most common way to use effects is method one in this picture: the effects 'loop' version is method 2 i love primitave drawings
