Zoom B3 in effects loop or in front of amp?

[CletePurcel]

I am new to bass and now have a Rumble 500 and a Zoom B3. I am wondering whether to use the effects loop or not.

As a guitarist I was always told to stick boost style effects like overdrive in front of an amp and put modulation/reverb/delays etc. in the loop. I didn't use multi fx with my guitar, I always had separate pedals.

Now I am playing a bass with active pickups (an Ibanez SR500) and have a Zoom B3. It feels like I should use the B3 in front of the Rumble especially if I am using the compressors and distortion effects.

What do people generally do with multi fx units? And what if you use the amp's built in overdrive. Does this change things?

[elephantgrey]

I'd allways check a pedal before putting it in an amps effects loop as it can damage pedals that aren't designed for it.

As for pedal order, try out different ones. There is no correct order, just try things out and see what sounds best to you.

[Oopsdabassist]

I use a B3 and put it before the amp, sounds just fine to me

[lefrash]

B3 in the front for me. Always worked great.

[CletePurcel]

Thanks for the replies. I will persevere with it in front for the time being.

[Osiris]

I asked a similar question a few weeks ago too, [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/278725-bypassing-a-b3-in-the-fx-loop-will-it-mute-the-amp/"]the thread is here[/url].

In summary, I have run my B3 through the fx loop of my TC Electronics RH450 and it seemed happy enough. No nasty digital type distortion issues.

[quote name='elephantgrey' timestamp='1457735887' post='3001544']
I'd allways check a pedal before putting it in an amps effects loop as it can damage pedals that aren't designed for it.

[/quote]

According to one of the responses on my thread, the pedal will not get damaged by running it in the loop, it will just distort.

However, that's only what someone else has said, I do not claim to know if it will cause any damage or not, I'm just saying that there is more than one school of thought on this issue.

There's certainly no warning in the B3 manual. and, I have been running a Mark Bass super booster pedal in the fx loop for seevral years and that has never complained!

[elephantgrey]

[quote name='Osiris' timestamp='1457783423' post='3001743']
According to one of the responses on my thread, the pedal will not get damaged by running it in the loop, it will just distort.

However, that's only what someone else has said, I do not claim to know if it will cause any damage or not, I'm just saying that there is more than one school of thought on this issue.

There's certainly no warning in the B3 manual. and, I have been running a Mark Bass super booster pedal in the fx loop for seevral years and that has never complained!
[/quote]

I wasnt speaking specificaly about a pedal, and i didn't mean to say never put a pedal there, or scaremunger. Just wanted to warn that if you put some models of pedal in an amps effect loop then bad things could happen. Your basically putting a higher voltage through the circuit than its expecting.

Not to say that there are pedals that work better in effects loops. Its just i wouldn't want to spend money on a pedal and stick it into an effects loop without thinking about.

[Skybone]

If you're just using it for Modulation effects, then in the Effects Loop.

If you're using it for OD/Distortion/Fuzz and EQ, then in front of the amp.

Personally, I would put it in front of the amp.

[elephantgrey]

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1457796433' post='3001886']
If you're just using it for Modulation effects, then in the Effects Loop.

If you're using it for OD/Distortion/Fuzz and EQ, then in front of the amp.

Personally, I would put it in front of the amp.
[/quote]

I'm sure that there are modulation pedals designed to go before the amp, another in its loop.

[pete.young]

In front of the amp is the best place for it. Loops are intended for line level voltage. Rule of thumb is if it's a 19" form factor it can safely go in the loop, otherwise it might work OK but it's not guaranteed.

The other thing to think about is whether it is a parallel or serial effects loop. Serial modulates the whole of the signal. Parallel blends the effected sound with the clean signal. This means it doesn't go silent if the effects unit fails, but might not achieve the desired result for something like compression where you want to modulate the whole signal all of the time.

[tauzero]

[quote name='Osiris' timestamp='1457783423' post='3001743']
I asked a similar question a few weeks ago too, [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/278725-bypassing-a-b3-in-the-fx-loop-will-it-mute-the-amp/"]the thread is here[/url].

In summary, I have run my B3 through the fx loop of my TC Electronics RH450 and it seemed happy enough. No nasty digital type distortion issues.

According to one of the responses on my thread, the pedal will not get damaged by running it in the loop, it will just distort.
[/quote]

I mentioned having done it and got distortion, but thinking back, I believe it was actually my Korg AX3000B that did that, and I never repeated the experiment with the B3.

[TrevorR]

Isn't the guitarist thing of wah and OD in front of the amp and modulation in the effects loop mostly about how distortions interacts with modulation sounds, plus taking account of signal path gain structures... Do you distort chorus or chorus distortion? The philosophy being all the tone /EQ changing stuff comes first wash, OD, distortion and then distortion/overdrive from the preamp circuitry itself. Then you put the modulation and delay/reverb effects after the preamp and before the power amp to modulate the distorted sounds... Also minimising the amount of extra noose amplified through the various distortions and ODs.

If most of the tonal and effects processing is being done in the B3 and the Rumble is largely being a clean amplifier then there's no great benefit in having it in the effects loop and bass - efx - amp input should work just fine...

[Dood]

B3 before the amp. done.

[Swijn]

Theres no right or wrong way...

I have run my rig using both scenarios - however right now feed my multi-fx (not B3) through the fx loop - as I'm able to place the effects in the order of my choosing - so i can have my modulation effects after the pre-amp.

Have a play around and go for both what works and sounds best for you..

Edited March 16, 2016 by Swijn

[Musashimonkey]

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1458076527' post='3004560']
B3 before the amp. done.
[/quote]

This, (for me)

[The Jaywalker]

I use the B3 before the amp when I'm doing a BG gig. When using effects on DB (reverb, delay, looper, chorus and octave mostly) I decided to try it through the effects loop. My pickup requires P15 so needs a preamp - between the gain/master on the preamp then the B3, then gain etc on my amp I thought it might be the easier option to use the effects loop as my pickup and the B3 both have pretty hot outputs. Got distortion. It was only partial and occasional until I used an arco patch and there was a really bad digital distortion effect on some bowed notes. Switched over to regular setup and turned the main B3 volume down and not had any issues.