Is the whammy really in the loop?

[sKenDread]

Horns up!

I would imagine this question would've been asked already but i'm going to anyway.

I've listened to Steve's live shows and my ears tell me the whammy signal is pre-amp not post preamp(loop). Trialing with my own setup I find the whammy is way too defined in the loop which works nice for harmony's etc but not the hardcore +2 octave or octave whammy or even the 4/5 setting. It just doesn't sound the same.

But seeing Thomas Nordegg's mention that

"the whammy is in the loop too by the way"

Does this actually mean that the whammy is in the fx loop e.g preamp send -> whammy -> other stuff -> preamp return??

I mean I could understand if the whammy is in "a" loop of some sort allowing a pre/post preamp option.

Reason for this is that it just doesn't sound like its in the amps loop. Its too clean. I just thought i'd throw this out there. Does anyone have any proof that its actually configured that way?

Considerations:
This is slightly off topic but you should kind of get the point. When I was younger I absolutely hated the sound of a wah wah (what ever brand. Mine are cry baby and bad horsie) Post distortion/overdrive. It sounded horribly over wah'd to the point where there was no definition. It was'nt until I learnt that I sounded a lot better with far less gain and more tube volume. Then deciding to take the wah and place it post OD/DS again, It sounded very very nice indeed. More Wah to a broader band of frequencies and alot cleaner. Obviously Pre OD/DS the wah sounds nice anyway, but post... Killer.

So I dunno? Is it possible that the preamp could be set to a very low gain whilst the whammy is in the amp loop (if thats the case)

Now please no flaming. Thanks for your time

[dc27]

I always thought it was in the loop.. Purely because in Gravity Storm and Building the Church in particular you can hear the pitch shifting and the continuation of the original note. At first I thought it was Dave, but there were too many guitar sounds simultaneously for that explanation. If you see BTC from the Wild Things DVD you'll see what I mean. Its really prominent on that really long note with the sustainer just before the breakdown at the end where the album track ends.

[vinnie vincent]

no you need a effects loop!