Complete thinking about guitar processing extends beyond the guitar speaker, all the way to the final full-range monitors

Many guitarists only think about how to achieve great Tone at the guitar speakers. But for headphone-level cranked-tube-amp tone, and for recording and for PA systems, what really matters is the Tone achieved in the final full-range monitors - the studio monitor speakers, headphones, or PA speakers. Many guitarists think their options for effects placement are either before the guitar amp, or in the guitar amp's effects loop. But when you think in terms of the *complete* processing chain all the way from the guitar's output jack to the full-range monitor speakers, this reveals an additional place for processing: after the guitar amplifier, such as in the mixing board's effects loop. If microphones are involved, mic technique and mixer technique enter the Tone equation. In the control room of the professional recording studio, compression, equalization, and time-based effects are very often used -- all this processing happens *after* the guitar amplifier and cabinet, though many guitarists chronically forget to think about what happens *after* the guitar speaker. It might sound surprising that so much post-amp processing occurs so often, but even without explicitly running the signal through processors, conventional mixers and tape machines routinely support post-amp processing, as follows:

• Each channel of the mixing board has tone controls. And with multi-miking a guitar speaker cabinet, adjusting the levels of the separate mike channels effectively creates a form of equalization -- electronically manipulating the filtering, cancellation, and summation of frequencies.
• Each channel of the mixing board has an effects level knob, typically used for adding reverb. And with multi-miking a guitar speaker cabinet, adjusting the levels of the separate mike channels effectively creates a form of reverb -- controlling the amount of room resonance blended into the mix, from the far mic, vs. the dry, close mic.
• Tape saturation has very often been used, for compression (by running the level at +6 dB)

preamp and before-amp effects -> tube power amp -> guitar speakers and cabinet -> mikes -> post-amp processing -> final power amp and monitor speakers

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