How to Run Some Pedals in Front and Some in Effects Loop

[Pablow]

Rookie question - how do I set up a pedal board and some pedal in front of preamp and other in FX loop at the same time?

Thanks for the help.

 

[lhama]

Guitar->

Pedals pre preamp->

Amp ->

Amp send ->

Pedals post preamp->

Amp return->

Power stage->

Cabinet!

 

[jnepo1]

You will want a simple, passive pedalboard interface that will allow you to easily set up the 4 cable method. This will also allow you to use an amp without an FX Loop where all your effects in the loop will reroute to the front of the amp.

 

[Jess 1971]

Best to use a junction box, which will allow you to place pedals either in front of the amp or in the loop. And if you find yourself playing with an amp that doesn't have an effects loop, it's easy enough to route everything to the front of the amp with just a simple patch cable.

You could also get some cable sockets like those pictured below, which fit neatly beneath a Pedaltrain board:

 

[Gmanchefboy]

Think of it as two pedal boards. One, say with your drives, goes right into the front of the amp.

For the second, think of the "Send" as a substitute for you your guitar. The cable from the "Send" will plug into the input of, say your reverb, the output will go into the "Return".

 

[Pablow]

Thanks all for the help. My plan is to get a Dr. Z Jetta. This will be my first amp with an effect loop. I'm pretty sure that amp will be a good choice, but I'm open to suggestions - has to weigh less than 40 lbs.

 

[stargazer747]

4-cable method is the definition of what you seek which splits the signal chain into 2x inputs and outputs. There are 2 ways to go about it depending on the size of the pedalboard you’re intending to setup; a single row flat board with the pedals properly oriented like the 2 I have built or if its going to be a board with several rows of pedals. Also depends if the pedals that will be the first and the last on each signal path have their input/output jacks on the sides or top mounted.

A single row: for the FX pedals I use which are the classic brands; Boss, MXR, EHX, Ibanez that have side jacks, I purchased 90 deg jack adapters by Hosa on amazon.com. Insert and keep them in the pedals at the moment you mount the FX to the board, this allows the cables to connect right up to the pedal’s side, obviously if you plan to use pedals with top mounted jacks such as most boutiques have, you wouldn’t needed this…


Multi row board: you can use a 4-way junction box, also known as a quad patch bay, a model made by Temple Audio also found on amazon.com. This would be mounted at the front top of the board, underneath if its a slanted boards, or to the side where the 4-cables would go…

 

[Pablow]

4-cable method is the definition of what you seek which splits the signal chain into 2x inputs and outputs. There are 2 ways to go about it depending on the size of the pedalboard you’re intending to setup; a single row flat board with the pedals properly oriented like the 2 I have built or if its going to be a board with several rows of pedals. Also depends if the pedals that will be the first and the last on each signal path have their input/output jacks on the sides or top mounted.

A single row: for the FX pedals I use which are the classic brands; Boss, MXR, EHX, Ibanez that have side jacks, I purchased 90 deg jack adapters by Hosa on amazon.com. Insert and keep them in the pedals at the moment you mount the FX to the board, this allows the cables to connect right up to the pedal’s side, obviously if you plan to use pedals with top mounted jacks such as most boutiques have, you wouldn’t needed this…


Multi row board: you can use a 4-way junction box, also known as a quad patch bay, a model made by Temple Audio also found on amazon.com. This would be mounted at the front top of the board, underneath if its a slanted boards, or to the side where the 4-cables would go…

Thanks - very helpful. I'm going to have two rows.

 

[rumbletone]

I like to use a loop switcher, and think of the amp’s preamp as one loop.

The ‘pre’ FX boxes go in the first section of loops, the guitar preamp goes in the next loop (send of loop to amp in, fx send of amp to loop’s return), then the ‘post’ FX boxes go in the remaining loops.

A bonus with this approach is that you can skip the preamp when desired - like if you want one of the pre FX to be a tube preamp to add a different flavor or if you use something like an EHX 9 series pedal that you want to go straight into the power amp and skip the preamp altogether.

Here’s my small board that works like this (the tube preamp in the upper left covers BF, tweed, and voxy tones from its 3 channels, and my head covers Marshall tones …):