Am F/X Loop Question

Hi All,

I was watching this YT vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjEolSe71Jw

At the beginning of the vid, the guy explains his signal chain and says that he's "...hooked the POD directly into the power amp section of the Blues Deluxe bypassing the whole tone stack. The Pre Amp is gone and he can't even control the volume using the amp's controls...".

Can some of the more experienced folks tell me is this is the same as using an amp's F/X loop? And, if anyone has a BD, is this a typical "feature" of the amp or is it something that's most probably a post purchase mod?

Thanks!

Bill

Yes it is the FX loop, the Blues Deluxe along with many other amps has a series FX loop which interrupts the signal path between the preamp and power amp when anything is plugged in to it. On the Blues Deluxe I think the sockets are labelled "preamp out" and "power amp in", on a lot of other amps they are typically labelled "send" and "return" but they are the same thing. Plugging the Pod into the "power amp in" or "return" socket sends the output of the Pod direct to the power amp section of the amplifier bypassing the preamp.

Some amplifiers may have a different type of effects loop called a parallel effects loop which works in a different way, in this case the signal path is not interrupted and only part of the signal is routed through the effects loop, in this case there will usually be a mix control to vary the amount of signal that is sent through the effects loop. These are much less common on guitar amps though and the majority will be simple series effects loops as on the Blues Deluxe.