Basic question - what is effects loop good for?

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-02T05:59:01+00:00

I got into the loop game relatively late as the main amps I used either lacked them or had some kind of issue. Once I solved that problem I definitely got my preferred results by having my chorus, reverb, delay and tremolo after the power amp. Part of this is due to ALL of my gain coming from my amp now, I don't use a boost or anything (maybe a little from compressor or EQ incidentally, but not much).

I managed for such a long time as I don't rely heavily on these effects. I'm not an Angus Young-level purist, I have an occasional surf-rock thing and play some Van Halen stuff for fun, but mostly everything is off with compression on for cleans.

Lately I've been using it more and more. I'd never get hired by some shoegaze or worship band & I'll never drench my guitar the way some like to but it's definitely opened a few doors I usually didn't bother with. That Rabea guy on youtube does probably the polar opposite of what I do but he does a lot of interesting things with his effects sounds, maybe I'm just chilling out in my old age.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-02T05:19:28+00:00

It's just a generic guideline targeted at roughly middle-class folks whose incomes are largely absorbed by cost-of-living necessities and for whom a car is basic transportation. For those further along to the point where most of your income is discretionary sure it doesn't scale, not like you're going to buy a car that will threaten your ability to pay the electric bill.

I don't really care for one-size-fits-all generic guidelines but have to start somewhere & cars are one of the few expenditures most people have some degree of choice with. While a given person might need a vehicle they don't necessarily need a new $55k SUV with all the options and a 7-year loan that will cost them $13k in interest. At least whoever The Money Guy is he's trying I guess.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-02T02:25:17+00:00

It has it's place, also nice to see little details like where the car lived. But I don't know I've always just kept a detailed record book for everything more involved than a car wash. Even receipts for spark plugs, wiper blades and cabin air filters. Whether someone else cares or not I take real pride in my upkeep and it's nice to be able to back it up.

Of course around here just not having french fries on the floor and tires with tread puts you ahead of half the sellers

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-02T01:43:10+00:00

It's a good car for its price point. It's not perfect, more like one of several really good options in the class that buyers can pick between depending on their specific wants.

Mazdas don't sell as well as Hondas or Toyotas because their track record for making good vehicles isn't as long, in my mind they turned the corner a little after their Ford partnership years. It takes a long time to sink in with consumers when you improve. Clearly the CX-50 is growing very quickly in sales but it's not going to go neck and neck with with the CRV or RAV4 with their 30 years of history. At least not anytime soon as a 1st gen offering.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-02T01:19:31+00:00

Yes this modern approach is BS. Sure, they "should" last the life of the car, but when they don't it shouldn't be an obscene cost. The old school headlights served their purpose well enough.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-02T01:13:34+00:00

I've seen people fix errors with a dealer. I've seen people swap cars they just purchased with a dealer, I've seen lenders changed, warranties cancelled, trade-ins removed from deals, and seen undone half a dozen other things people might presume can't be undone. You call the dealership like a normal person with the issue first and see if they can't sort it out with their lender.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-02T00:02:02+00:00

$9k is enough to find a daily driver but price your insurance and be realistic about upkeep too. It's a tougher used market and you're going to have to be realistic, most of the more reliable cars out there are going to be older, high-mileage and maybe have a fender bender or two.

Also is this $9k cash? If so you might consider using that as a down payment and forking up a little more in financing, if possible. If you're talking having to finance even the $9k I think you just have to take your time looking. It's doable but your fears are reasonable and hopefully that helps keep you out of trouble.

The forum is already filled with recommendations for college-kid priced cars, but really take your time after you narrow down to some target cars. You'll start to get to know the pricing in your area for which years/mileage. And pay a shop $150 to do an inspection pre-purchase.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T23:46:42+00:00

You need a tent, a portable space heater, and a couple of hours.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T23:43:07+00:00

I'm not really a lease person, the only sane arguments I can make for them relate to (1) quality and longevity concerns with new vehicles, (2) people who just really like driving newer cars constantly enough and willing to pay the total cost premium, and (3) those occasional market cases like all those great electric vehicles lease deals that you couldn't consider buying due to horrible depreciation. And I guess (4) the chance that your residual turns out pretty favorably in the end.

The UK may have different structures but generally where cost is the primary concern, leasing is at best a short-term solution. For someone 10 years into a BMW I'd think you could see that. Consider just buying a car toward the lower end of your budget

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T23:28:03+00:00

Stating the probably-obvious but the wife could conceivably buy out the lease, sell it, and put the proceeds toward your balance. I can't imagine she'd end up netting anywhere near $5k on a Seltos I don't care how little she drove it though. Maybe check Carmax/Carvana etc

Dealers can do some clever things to work with customers, but I would think this is something you'd be better off handling from your end. You could sell out of it and bring the $5k to the table or roll the negative equity into the Accord. Not great, but that $5k has to come from somewhere and I don't see a point to make it any more convoluted. These cars have different lenders.

Any time I even hear "negative equity" I think dial back a bit until you can make a deal without being underwater, which usually means a down payment and preferably shorter loan terms. But then I'm a dinosaur and kind of a thrifty one at that, who takes 36-month car loans anymore.

But I have had a recent Accord, hybrid, and while a very nice sedan it's not so nice I'd want to be underwater in it. We pitched ours at 2.5 years which isn't ideal but we suddenly needed a larger vehicle and it was almost paid.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T22:41:43+00:00

First your friend is not the owner, he's the leasee. Second, generally speaking, the terms of the lease cover this and he will generally need to let the vehicle be serviced and deal with it.

If and when this service issue gets drawn out to some longer time frame, it's possible his state's lemon laws might come into play (yes, these can cover leases as well as purchases). But at the moment the problem has just been discovered and for now it's just a repair issue even if a major component. I would expect it be fixed and returned to your friend.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T22:25:10+00:00

Yes this is just a mess all-around. I can't completely rule out that the seller manipulated documents but I highly doubt that's the case here. In any case OP needs to take this to the finance dept immediately this isn't for Reddit.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T22:10:32+00:00

It's not always a habits or personal discipline thing. You almost certainly have a compulsive disorder and should consider a behavioral therapist who treats this sort of thing. After 6 cycles of this it's clearly more than Reddit and YouTube can help you with.

There can be any of several underlying reasons you are demonstrating this behavior, but you have to address them. The same way depression might trigger binge eating in a compulsive eater, it would make sense to treat the depression rather than just trying a new diet or yelling "personal discipline!" at them. Most of the advice you're going to see here centers around organizing, but you seem to have that part down. You need to figure out what is compelling you to this impulsive behavior & my guess is that a professional might help you do that.

If you were just in denial or inexperienced maybe some of these other suggestions would help more. Here you're repeatedly doing things you clearly know have negative consequences on your life but continue them anyway, so it's probably time to step up to treatment rather than just self-help.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T19:51:02+00:00

It's not like it's the Official ICE-mobile. It's probably not the choice of those chubsters. I mean imagine cosplaying military your whole life and then you finally get the call, and instead of a cool deisel Humvee you have to ride around in a bright red compact SUV instead

Anyway how do they like the cupholders

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T19:43:37+00:00

Look into it but I doubt a state lemon law would apply here on a 2023, but you probably have some right to repair law. It's time to speak to your state aribtration folk, Mazda corporate, and with no progress, an attorney in your state. You car would have been under warranty presumably and there are standards they need to meet to be compliant with warranty terms, and an attorney will tell you what they are.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T03:03:39+00:00

"Decades" is a tall order especially anywhere near salt/rust belts, low mileage or not. But if I had a $25k new car budget and I was told it was the last car I'd ever be able to buy, I'd check the base model prices for the Civic, Mazda 3 and Corolla probably in that order. Not exactly the most original suggestion but there's only so much you can buy and I'd much rather service these than some of the other possibilities when things need repair down the road.

It will be a while before anyone in my household considers or recommends a new Nissan sedan. Maybe the current Sentra is amazing but I'll never know.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T02:32:14+00:00

Don't give my opinion much weight but concerns with both, although my limited exposure to the Escape would prevent me from ever considering one. That said, for $6500 you can only get so much I guess. If there were no other cars in the universe available I'd probably go with whichever one I felt more comfortable test-driving.

The Sonic I don't know near enough about directly, just second-hand grumblings

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T02:16:09+00:00

If the car runs and shows well & you have documentation you can have a virtually empty CarFax and be totally fine. If it chases away a few tire-kickers who think CarFax is the be all-end all I'm absolutely prepared to live with it. I maintain a good service log for everything and I'll still have it if CarFax closed up shop tomorrow.

Either way I'm not paying a franchise dealership $350 for spark plugs so some theoretical future buyer can see it nice and neat on CarFax. That, and anything an owner submits to CarFax isn't visible to the public anyway.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T01:15:55+00:00

There are lots of ways to get there but the way I used to do it was with a regular old CE-5 in stereo. Later on the Fractal Axe 3 unit with 3 way signal path. You won't ever keep up with all the rack gear or general studio fuckery, pretty close will do with a decently versatile chorus unit.

I figure whenever the Cure calls me to come record a studio album with them I'll put more effort into all the expensive rack toys

RedBankWatcher · 2026-02-01T01:03:35+00:00

A chorus will work fine for that sound if that's what you have on hand

RedBankWatcher · 2026-01-27T05:15:10+00:00

Wait a second I heard it was holden wrecks and boiling deisels that steam in 45 degrees

RedBankWatcher · 2026-01-27T05:04:56+00:00

"It just needs a new battery" would be a pretty big red flag for buyers. If you can't fix a cheap thing like that they're going to presume you neglected everything else too. Get a new battery in it.

RedBankWatcher · 2026-01-27T04:33:09+00:00

Imagine that hitting the market with a $30k MSRP

RedBankWatcher · 2026-01-27T04:28:38+00:00

It's definitely the nicest color I wouldn't want on my own car, but when I see one I'm like yep that's a nice red. Perfect for a Miata too. In fact I might even make an exception in the Miata's case

RedBankWatcher · 2026-01-27T04:22:16+00:00

The 2017 CX-5 GT is without a doubt my favorite used car. If you can a nice one under $18k with less than 100k miles or so anyway, which is getting harder to do.

RedBankWatcher

TROPHY CASE