How to Use the Effects Loop on a Pedal Board

An effects loop on a pedal board ensures your pedals don't suck your guitar tone.

Part of the fun of being an electric guitarist is the vast array of guitar effects pedals you can play with to shape your tone. Distortion, chorus, delay, reverb, flangers, wahs and loop pedals can be used to create a library of tones that you can call up for different songs, making your instrument sound different on each song. How you chain your pedals together will depend in part on the types of pedals you have; if your pedal board has an effects loop built in, it makes it easier.

Things You'll Need

• Guitar
• Pedal board with effects pedals mounted
• Patch cords
• 2 instrument cables

Instructions

1. Lay your pedals out on the pedal board in the preferred order. With an effects loop, you don't have to worry about pedals sucking tone so much. If your tuning pedal has a mute option, place it first in the chain. Follow with the wah, then distortion, compression, chorus and flange, and delay last.

2. Plug one instrument cable into your guitar and the other end of the cable into the input on the pedal board.

3. Run the first patch cable from the output jack of the effects loop on the pedalboard into the tuner. Use other patch cords to connect all the other pedals, running from the output of the tuner into the input of the wah, and so on.

4. Connect a patch cord from the output of the last effects pedal to the jack labeled input on your pedal board.

5. Connect the second instrument cable from the jack labeled amp output on the pedal board to the amplifier.

6. Connect the power cords on the pedal board to each pedal and plug in the main power supply for the board.

7. Turn on the guitar amplifier and play a cord, then stomp on each pedal with your foot and test to make sure that the signal is affected the way it should be. If the loop is not connected properly, the sound will not go to the amp.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish