Binson Echorec... in Front of the Amp or in the Effects Loop?

Following more time to play with the Echorec, we now come to the topic of discussion for this post. Effects loops...

The picture below shows our investigations into the Binson's input circuitry.

To start... what is an effects loop?

An effects loop is a circuit within a amplifier that coverts the high impedance and high voltage signal of the amplified guitar signal into a lower voltage and lower impedance signal that is more suitable for driving effects units. The use of an effects loop allows the musician to place effects after the preamp and in most cases the tone stack of the amplifier; resulting in the desired effect working more cleanly and not impact the preamp of the amplifier. This is useful when using an overdrive channel, as the pre-amp is designed to heavily amplify, distort and saturate, running delays, echoes and other ambiance and time-based effects can but not always lead to an uncontrollably and very mushy sonic mess.

Therefore, having the ability to place effects post preamp is a very useful feature allows the effects to cleanly work with that distorted, searing guitar tone and not make a distorted and uncontrolable sonic mush.

Effects loops come in two varieties, series & parallel.

• Series effects loops are 100% wet, all of the preamp's signal passes through the effects unit.

• Parallel effects loops have two signal pathways that run in parallel to each other. One is the 'wet' path which is effected by the effects unit and the other that isn't 'dry'. You can then blend the mix/ balance of wet and dry signals to taste.

In the context of the Binson it has it's own preamp circuitry and is designed to receive instrument level signals, not the high level of signal seen with in a valve amplifier's preamp. Trying the Binson with a high signal effects loop resulted in the Binson being swamped and the signal distorting in an unpleasing and unmusical fashion. Trying the Binson in the effects loops of more modern amplifiers yielded successful results and the Binson worked fine, but it opened up another avenue of questions...

Given the musical qualities that the Binson imparts on the guitar tone, is it right to use it in the effects loop?

Yes, why wouldn't you? It's logically the best technical place to put a time based effect like the Binson (provided the effects loop can provide the suitable conditions for the Binson to work.)

No, in principle the effects loop is meant to be a non-musical and purely functional part of an amplifier's circuit, it's meant to be transparent and purely serve to modify the signal of a valve preamp to the desired level of an effect unit and then recover it to the same level with minimal losses in level and changes in tone. Given the unique and colourful musical additions that the Binson imparts on the amplifier's preamp, why use it where it can't impart its "magic" onto the core guitar tone?

As you can clearly see, there is no right or wrong answer, only more questions...