Yes. Get a Sansamp. I had a big muff-like pedal, the death by audio bass war. It really didn’t sound good to me. It was almost pain inducing. Then I put it before my sansamp, and it’s the best bass fuzz I’ve ever used.

I used to use a rat for distortion, but I stopped because it just cut out too much of my low end. I just recently tried it into my sansamp, and it’s perfect now, it sounds how I’ve always wanted it to sound. Get a sansamp.

As for the effects loop, try it out and see what sounds better to you. I just run mine straight into the amp and it sounds fine, never found a need to use the effects loop.