The Effects Loop

[357mag]

I don't have an effects loop on the back of my X3 Bean, but the X3 Pro does. Has anyone tried putting a stomp box in the effects loop of one of these PODs? Like even the HD or the Helix?

 

Just wondering if it sounds quite good or quite bad.

[silverhead]

It sounds good. That’s what it’s designed for. The FX Loop, with stomp boxes in it, works best for stomps that you want to position after the amp in your signal chain. If you want FX before the amp you don’t need an FX Loop; you just put the FX between your guitar and the amp. So it’s really designed for time-based FX (chorus, delays, etc,) that work well after the preamp section of the amp.

[357mag]

So if a person wanted to try a DOD YJM 308 Overdrive Pedal, are you saying they would plug their guitar into the pedal first and then go from the output of the pedal to the input of the POD?

[357mag]

When you say amp do you mean the amp block in the POD? Or are you talking about using the POD with a real amp?

[silverhead]

For an overdrive pedal, typically yes. Using a real amp that’s usually what one would do - plug the guitar into the overdrive pedal and then the pedal into the amp’s Guitar input. 

[silverhead]

On 3/19/2023 at 1:37 PM, 357mag said:

When you say amp do you mean the amp block in the POD? Or are you talking about using the POD with a real amp?

I mean the amp block in the POD.

[silverhead]

On 3/19/2023 at 1:38 PM, silverhead said:

For an overdrive pedal, typically yes. Using a real amp that’s usually what one would do - plug the guitar into the overdrive pedal and then the pedal into the amp’s Guitar input. 

Let me elaborate a bit. There are really no rules here. When you want to incorporate your physical FX pedals into the signal chain of your POD you can do so in three ways: put the pedal(s) before the POD, in the POD’s FX Loop, or after the POD. You can choose any method, influenced by your own experience and preference in analog pedal placement. Typically players put OD pedals before the amp.
 

In your case I think the only reason you might put the external OD pedal in the POD’s FX Loop is if you wanted to use a POD FX model such as a compressor in front of the OD pedal. But you would still probably want both placed before the POD’s amp model. In that case the beginning of your signal flow would be Guitar -> POD Input -> POD Compressor block -> POD FX Loop Send -> external OD Pedal -> POD FX Loop Return -> POD Amp model, followed by other POD FX models.

 

You might also have a favorite delay or reverb pedal that you want to use. Typically you would put them in the POD FX Loop which would usually be placed after the POD amp model. But in the above situation, already using the OD pedal in the FX Loop before the amp…. What to do? Well, there I would experiment with placing the delay/reverb pedal after the POD’s output and before the speakers/monitors. That would also place them after the POD’s cab model. That may or may not sound good to you but, again,  no rules. Experiment and see what you like.