I’ve had nearly every piece of gear under the sun; racks and pedals. Some effects seem to work better (my opinion) in the loop, namely anything that would react differently if the preamp channel were changed. Delay is a clasic example – set it up to sound good clean and it sounds completely different on the lead channel. Rack/pedal is irrelevant; some effects need to be after the preamp and some before (my opinion).

One great solution was the GT-8 and GT-10 from BOSS. They have an insertable loop for an external preamp and all effects can be routed in any order. That way I could put delay (etc.) after the preamp and stick with a single programmable box. Other rack gear lacks the insert and/or effect routing flexibility (G_Major, G_System, etc.). The quality of the effects and other issues (signal levels, among others) pushed me back to pedals, so I need some pedals to work in the loop.

Not a big deal, and something that manufacturers need to consider.

BTW, this becomes a much bigger deal on multi-channel amps. If I used (e.g.) a Marshall Vintage Modern with a single channel, and used only pedals for gain, then this wouldn’t be such an issue because I could run the delay between the gain pedals and the amp. I use a Peavey JSX with 3 channels with totally differnt gain structures, and some effects MUST (my opinion) be after the preamp so that I can switch channels without having to adjust a bunch of effect parameters.

tc nova is like a non-programmable version of their top delay pedal. It’s pretty cheap and it has a lot of great features. I like a simple clean delay so most of the features are worthless to me, but here are the best ones that are a major improvement over any other pedal:

– Two inputs; one for instument level for those running it in front of an amp, and one for line level for those running it in the effect loop. Personally I can’t understand why anyone would run a delay in front of an amp since the delay will sound totally different depending on the amp channel, which leaves me wonedering why nearly every delay box cannot handle the signal level in the loop. This is the feature that sells the pedal, IMHO.

– Adjusting the delay level does not affect the dry level (see my issue with the #1 echo). The exception is if the delay level is at 100% – then the dry signal is killed and only the repeats are heard (good for reverse and other effects).

– Tempo is switchable between 1/4 notes and other tempos, including some double delays with interesting timing. This is pretty neat but I likely won’t use it much.

Anyway, for people who like the #1 echo, more power to you. I’m moving on though.