The idea of an on-board effects loop originated with Jerry Garcia (or, at least, he's the first I heard of). The idea was to easily replicate his stomp box settings in different venues as he toured around. Normally, the signal path is from the pickups, through the on-board volume and tone controls, then out to the effects. Thus, the signal going to the effects changes as the guitar's volume and tone pots are adjusted. Garcia's effects loop allows the signal to go straight from the pickups to the effects, then back to the guitar to be run through the guitar's volume and tone. The result is that the effects always see the same signal, so it's easier to replicate sounds. I basically accomplish this on all my guitars by keeping the on-board volume at 10 and running a volume pedal at the end of my effects chain. Admittedly, this isn't as effective as the on-board loop, as the signal still goes through my guitar's tone controls prior to the effects, but at least the volume setting the pedals see is always the same. With my method, I only have to be tethered by one cord, not two, and I can use a wireless. That's why I had Woody, my Custom Further, built without an effects loop.
Bill, tgo
(Message edited by lbpesq on January 03, 2010)
