"...allow the player to plug in the volume pedal and maintain a reverb or effect “tail” when the volume pedal was decreased."

This may be old news, I have not seen it explained like this before. I never noticed much difference practicing at very low volume, I may give it another try!

[This message was edited by John Lockney on 12 December 2005 at 07:46 PM.]

As you know, Peavey steel amps(with the exception of the older Session 400/LTD 400 amplifiers)feature a "PRE EQ PATCH" insert point that was intentionally designed as a volume pedal loop. Peavey is the only company that includes this "patch point" to insert your volume pedal. This circuit design is called "zero negative feedback" and what this allows you to do is to patch your volume pedal into the circuit after the first gain stage of the amp. Therefore, the signal coming from your guitar is not degradated by some devices before it reaches the input of the amp. In other words, by connecting directly from the output of your guitar straight to the amp input, no signal loss from the pickup occurs.
If you think about it, for years the steel guitarist has been patching from the output of the guitar to the input of the volume pedal. Then, a second cable is patched from the output of the volume pedal to the input of the amp. Keep in mind, that many players also patch through an various effects devices before they even reach the input of the amp.

Our suggestion is to use three shielded guitar cables for this patching procedure. Connect the first cable from the output of your guitar to the input of the amplifier. With a second shielded cable, connect from the "OUT" jack to the input of your volume pedal. With the third shielded cable, patch from the output of your volume pedal to the "IN" jack on the amp. Try this and let me know what you think.

Now, to your original question. The "IN" and "OUT" jacks are designed to accept a low level signal(less than 1/2 volt) and the "PRE AMP OUT" and "POWER AMP IN" are designed to operate with "line level" (1 volt nominal) devices.

My suggestion is to try both patch points. But, it really depends on what the input sensitivity and output levels are of your effects devices.