Too many feet of cables?

Hi All:

I know this isn't strictly a stompbox question, but it is close:

I've been reading a bunch that suggests running delay and tremelo through the FX line. The literature for my new tech 21 DLA totally recommends it, and after reading a bunch about why one would want to do such a thing, I think i am convinced. But I am worried about how long the total cable length will be. The signal chain would be like this: 10' from guitar to dirt pedals (one of them is a bad monkey; another is soon to be a BYOC wah which has a high quality buffer); 10' from dirt pedals to amp; 10' out of FX loop to delay (which also has a high quality buffer) and tremelo; 10' back into amp. 40' of cabling in all, and add another 6 or so for patch cables between effects. Is this just too much? Would the signal loss from that long of a run cancel out any benefit from putting delay and tremelo in the FX loop?

Thanks so much.

Try it out in both configurations and see if you can tell the difference. If not (and remember you're listening for it) then likelihood is that in a gig situation no-one else will.

Hi All:

I know this isn't strictly a stompbox question, but it is close:

I've been reading a bunch that suggests running delay and tremelo through the FX line. The literature for my new tech 21 DLA totally recommends it, and after reading a bunch about why one would want to do such a thing, I think i am convinced. But I am worried about how long the total cable length will be. The signal chain would be like this: 10' from guitar to dirt pedals (one of them is a bad monkey; another is soon to be a BYOC wah which has a high quality buffer); 10' from dirt pedals to amp; 10' out of FX loop to delay (which also has a high quality buffer) and tremelo; 10' back into amp. 40' of cabling in all, and add another 6 or so for patch cables between effects. Is this just too much? Would the signal loss from that long of a run cancel out any benefit from putting delay and tremelo in the FX loop?

Thanks so much.


Hi Henry,

Generally, you don't need to worry too much about the cable length in FX Loops.

What you cannot do though, is run distortion, multiFX or wah pedals in the loop! They are designed to work between the guitar and amp and will be totally swamped by the huge signals in the loop!

You can run: Delays, chorus, phasers, and any other similar FX... but only if they're designed for FX Loop use. Many pedals work fine with 'some' FX Loops... but not always. Often Boss type pedals don't like the big signals in FX Loops and sound a bit screwed up!

BTW, some ' booootique' amps have tube driven FX Loops... most are a waste of time and don't work with many FX pedals at all. Especially not 'pro' rack type FX processors. Try to use amps with decent SS FX Loops. Most of the big names now have them for this reason. Don't listen to the 'It's gotta be all toooob' players.

Hope this is helpful.

If you're relying on your amp for any sort of breakup, crunch, or distortion, then yes I would definitely recommend trying any time-based effects (delay, chorus, phaser, reverb, etc.) in the effects loop. I'm not saying that they're not usable in front, but you should check it out to hear the difference. If you're just keeping your amp clean though, then you'll not tell much of a difference (if any) in putting them in front.

Thanks everyone:

Yeah, I've got a Peavey C30, so no worries about tube driven FX loop. I do use a bad monkey for od, but I get my distortion from a mix of the bad monkey and the amp's dirty channel. So I'll try the loop and see what happens...