Running direct into power amp (fx return)

[jaywalker]

I know this is gonna sound funny, but I was helping a friend out with his pedalboard layout the other day. He has an old orange 120 head (no drive) and orange 2 x 12 cab and was experimenting with OD stacking.
Nothing sounded good, everything was compressed and noisy.
I plugged his guitar into the FX return just to get an idea of the power amp's charachteristics and BOOM - a fantastic clean sound, beyond anything we'd ever got out of the orange before.
I started stacking the pedals one by one until we created a monster drive sound.
I then put everything back into the regular input and once again it sounded like crap.
He decided to ad an MXR micro amp as a master vulume, plus an EQ and run everything into the FX loop return (echo return on the orange).
The marshall drivemaster sounded dead on like a marshall, the mega distortion made it sound like a Mesa etc.

Anyone else tried this trick?????

[never-enough]

sounds like the front end of the amp was way over loaded, and possibly has a bad preamp tube.

[Lance]

Or it just doesn't take pedals well. I've never had an Orange, so I don't know. But some amps just don't dig pedals in the front end.

[never-enough]

my friend has an old orange and it eats pedals up.....

also, he said the clean sound was great with the guitar plugged into the return......
i don't see how an instrument level output would be enough signal to drive a power section???

[jaywalker]

EQ on full whack with the micro amp too.

[DougDoppler]

Great way to use an amp. I toured Europe as support for Gilby Clarke - with a Gt-6, two guitars, and a suitcase. Ran the GT-6 into the return on every amp and it worked great, the idea of course IS to bypass the preamp. And yes, in theory the loop is running at line level, but the tone is much more accurate than running through the main input. Anybody doing Praise and Worship out there with an X3Live knows that the output options include amp return. The only time I had a problem was in Dublin, Ireland. On the Marshall MGX heads if you don't have a cable on input, the power doesn't function. Worked great at soundcheck, got up to play my set and ZIP. Out of desparation I thought to myself, you don't suppose... and sure enough an cable on the input jack brought the loop to life...

Almost forgot - Orange amps (I have a Tiny Terror Combo, AD30HTC, and Thunderverb 200) LOVE pedals...

[taco-man]

Originally Posted by DougDoppler

Great way to use an amp. I toured Europe as support for Gilby Clarke - with a Gt-6, two guitars, and a suitcase. Ran the GT-6 into the return on every amp and it worked great, the idea of course IS to bypass the preamp. And yes, in theory the loop is running at line level, but the tone is much more accurate than running through the main input. Anybody doing Praise and Worship out there with an X3Live knows that the output options include amp return. ...

I have no idea what it has to do with praise and worship but I used to do that same thing with a Boss GT-8 into the return of an amplifier. But I was using the preamp models in the GT-8. It also has the amp return output option.

[jaywalker]

I'm having a bunch of amps delivered next week for me to pick from for the grammies where I live next month, so I'll try filming the 2 days I get with the gear to see just how many amps sound better this way!
Got tons of pedals for that gig and the last thing I need is bad preamp compression....
We'll see........

[TheGigPig]

One of my clients runs the outputs from his board into a mesa stereo power amp. I was very sceptical but with the right pedals it sounds massive. Very defined and articulate and with a cornish P2 plugged straight in it it rocks. A very interesting option for pedal based rigs