Blender pot on effects?

[DaBreeze]

Hi, as I am contemplating my next build, as was wondering if anything has been done with a blender for effects loop. I have been using a reverb pedal with a tweed deluxe type head, 2 channel. By looping the 2 channels and putting the pedal in the loop I have been controlling the effect volume with the second volume pot, while maintaining a pure tube path on the first channel. I find this very desirable as I never liked having the total signal passing through a solid state pedal. I am now looking at building something similar to an Orange Graphic amp (1970's) which is single channel. I am looking for ideas or plans on using some type of blender pot in the effects loop so as to allow the original signal to also be present. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Also, and as a second question; I will have a busy front panel. I was thinking of using a DPDT center off switch as power and standby combined in order to save space. Has anyone done this? Any problem with this?

Again, many thanks to all

D

[UniPlank84's]

Mesa schematics show a FX I/O loop with a mix pot. I know it is in the Subway series and likely others.

[Chuck H]

It's just a parallel effects loop. You could use the effects units themselves to adjust the blend or include a blender knob as Mesa did. IMHO Mesa's system works very well and is about as eloquent and simple as it gets. The only rub is that with the Mesa circuit you actually effect the reverberated signal. If you think about it it's much better to reverberate the effected signal. I haven't done any outrageous heavily effected tones on a Subway to know if it will get real goofy (consider a long repeat delay or a heavy phase shift or chorus on a reverb ?!?) but with subtle effects it seems to work fine.

Chuck