Basic H90 hook up question

Congratulations on your new H90! The answer to your question depends on how clean you run your amp. If you do not rely on its preamp section for overdrive or distortion, then you can plug the pedalbalrd straight into the amp. However, any hint of break up, and I recommend what you suggested, to put your gain-based effects in the front and the time-based effects in the back. The easiest way to do that is to run the H90 in dual routing mode, which you can switch in the System Menu. Path 1 can be connected to the front of the amp and Path 2 to the effects loop. The QuickStart guide that came with the pedal has a diagram showing you how to do this.

Do you ever plan to have delay and/or reverb when you’re playing with the high-gain side? If the answer is no, then straight to the front works fine.

I recommend delay and reverbs be placed in the loop.

Truth is, some effects running in front of an overdriven preamp can sound good in the right context … filters, vibes, phasers, compression, flangers and others.  When you run delays and reverbs into the front of a dirty / overdriven preamp, the compression works almost the same as an extra “feedback” or “repeats” amplifying stage for the delay, meaning it amplifies the repeats, in some cases A LOT …

There may be situations where you want that, but if you prefer a more natural and easier to control decay to your reverb or delay, then definitely put those effects in the loop.

I’m running in Dual Mode, one path in front, the other path in the loop. I did this so I don’t have to chose either way, I can run both presets on either path in parallel or series, or put one on each. It hasn’t made me a superstar yet, but I’m still enjoying the flexibility. 🙂