new be question: correct hookup 11R in Mesa express effects loop?

[dsearles]

I am new to electric guitars and amps and I have only had the 11R a few days. I want to make sure I hook it up correctly to my Mesa Express amp Effects loop without damaging either the 11R or the Mesa amp. The Mesa user manuals says,
on page 38,
"To use the EFFECTS LOOP;
1) Connect the SEND jack to your processor’s Input
2) Connect the RETURN jack to your processor’s Output
3) Adjust the processor’s Input/Output Level attenuator to achieve unity gain while plugging the RETURN cable in and out making fine adjustments at the processor until you here no level difference."

and the 11R user Manual says on page 40,
"Because Eleven Rack simulates various preamps
and tone circuits, you may want to bypass
your amp’s preamp and tone circuitry
by plugging into the amplifier’s effects return
jack(s), if available, rather than the
standard input(s). ..."

So my question is, if the 11R Output to Amp (looks like it would not matter if it is either 1 or 2 ?) goes into the Mesa Effects loop return what do I connect the Mesa amp "Effects Loop Send" to? Do I connect the Mesa "Effect Loop Send" to the 11R Guitar Input (that does not "feel" right) and connect guitar to Mesa input? ( I don't intuitively feel confident about this either).

Assuming I got the 11R hooked up correctly, what feature of the 11R would I use to 'Adjust the processor’s Input/Output Level attenuator to achieve unity gain'?

I am not a pro musician, my goal to have fun at home playing my guitars and get to try the many amp and cab sims in the 11R. For now, I just wanted to start with hooking it up to my Mesa Boogie without blowing anything up. I am considering buying studio monitors or something like the "Seismic Audio SAX-10M-PW - Active 10" 2-Way Coaxial Floor / Stage Monitor" so I can play around with the many amp and cab sims in 11R. Suggestions/recommendation on either welcome!

Thanks in advance!

[dsearles]

The answer is that for a Mesa Express you can simply plug either of the 11R Out to Amp outputs into the effects loops return of the amp and plug the guitar into the 11R. There is no need to plug anything into the Express effects send or front of amp input. This bypasses the pre-amp in the Mesa. I would suggest that you may want try the different setting for which signal is sent to the amp by going into 11R User Settings, hold Edit/back for a second or two then select Output to Amp and choose one of the settings , see pages 39, 40 of 11R user manual. You can also "Move" to a different place in the Rig.