The Great Pedal Chain Question

[highenuff]

The name says it all, what order do you put your effects in? Do you use the loop, or go straight in?

I think I have tried everyway possible, I am currently running--not in this order since I am toying with it: Phazer, Wah, Distortion, Boost, Tuner.

Thanks for the suggestions-

 

[Colin]

I always put my wah and dist pedal in front of the amp, and delay with volume pedal (to control the amount of delay) in the effects loop. You need an effects loop that will run in parallel not series to do this.

 

[robelinda2]

AL- TU2- Fulldrive II - Blue Boy Deluxe- Amp. Delay through effects loop, if no effects loop- delay before amp.

 

[Larry]

Tuner should always be first. Thats all I know.

 

[Colin]

Blue Boy Deluxe.

I think MI was broken into just recently...

 

[robelinda2]

Thats sad Colin, they make great pedals! I bought a Crunch Box recently, yet another excellent pedal from MI Audio. Blue Boy Deluxe is just great though.

 

[dannymusic]

guitar > rotovibe > chorus > tuner > amp

 

[roburado]

Robert Keeley's Answer

Here's Robert Keeley's answer to your question.

EFFECT PEDAL ORDER AND PLACEMENT

Q: Is there a specific order my effects should go in?

A: Yes and no. There are some guidelines that can be followed to make sure odd things don't happen. There have been times when a compressor after a delay pedal or reverb unit has caused some bad (good?) effects, there have been brilliant moves to place effects in certain orders that break most rules, but below is a guideline I came up with and was published in Musician's Hotline Magazine. Nice things is it gives you a way, a phrase to memorize so that when you're on the road, you can get it right if you pick up a new effect.
Placing effects in a logical order will help! This list of effects order is just a general guideline. Some of the best and most unique guitar tones have been created by breaking the rules! You guys need a head start at good tone right?! A way to make life easy right?! I came up with a little phrase to help remember the order because even I forget. Ask yourself this when you wonder about effects order or placement: Which Chain Of Effect Pedals Makes Life Easy? All you have to do is remember this phase and which letter corresponds to which type of effect. Wah -> Which, Compressor -> Chain, Overdrive -> Of, EQ -> Effect, Pitch -> Pedals, Modulation -> Make, Level -> Life, Echo -> Easy. I like to see wah pedals and sometimes even phasers as the first effect after the guitar. We�ll call these Wah effects (yes even the phaser). Wah pedals boost a frequency you sweep to with your foot and phasers cut or notch a frequency that is swept to electronically. Distortion pedals make interesting response changes to the boost or cut from these sweep pedals. Compressors typically go next although I like them after distortion pedals in many cases if the compressor is clean and transparent enough. Compression after distortion has two effects that I really like. First, the noise floor is lower because the noise from a compressor isn�t being amplified and distorted by the overdrive pedal. Second, there appears to be more sustain. There is one draw back that some people notice and that is a darker, warmer tone. Some folks might prefer a more conventional, brighter tone. Next comes Overdrive or distortion. Equalizer pedals can go next. They are commonly used for a boost pedal if they can be turned on and off, or used to shape the tone of the distortion pedal. Pitch changing pedals, Vibrato for example; go next for the simple reason that many distortion pedals can�t handle the many pitches at one time. Try strumming a complex chord with your distortion pedal on, say a C7#9#11. Modulation effects go next such as chorus and flanging go next. Level pedals that control the volume go next in many cases. This would include tremolo, volume pedals (great at this point in the effects chain because it cuts all the hiss going to your amp), noise gates and limiters. Since compression is a limiter in many cases and this is why it works post-distortion by the way. Echo effects go last. These include delay and reverb. A sample effects board might contain these effects: Guitar -> Wah, Compressor, Overdrive, EQ, Vibrato, Chorus, Tremolo, Volume Pedal, and Delay-> Amp.

 

[beej]

Lots of different opinions on this. For me, its:

Before the amp

Tuner -> Wah -> Compressor -> Booster -> Phase 90 -> Buffer

In the Parallel FX Loop

Chorus -> Delay -> Reverb -> Vol pedal (for blending wet signal)

 

[puppyonacid]

Some excellent food for thought here. For what it's worth I go straight into a Boss Noise Surpressor which is then straight into the the amp. All my effects ( aside from delay, which I might add is a Boss Giga delay DD-20 - an awesome pedal!) are looped through the noise gate. These are an EB Vpr Junior which has a tuner on the tuner output. This then goes to a Vox Wah and a DS1 which then returns back to the noise surpessor. Works for me. Very noiseless. The DD20 is on the effects loop.

I tried a few different configs as I wanted to get it nailed before i then stuck it all on a home made pedal bored. I had some guy ask me at a gig "why so many effects?" I showed him the board and pointed out that there really isn't that much going on effects wise. I'm not so much into chorus effects and the like in live situations.

Just my 2pennies worth (which is roughly .44 Mexican Pesos)

 

[JMB27]

Ball - patch-cord - amp

very ocassionally, there's room for a Wah-Compressor-J-Drive

anything else is just too dang complicated

 

[Astrofreq]

This seems to work for me.

 

[Junior]

I don't have any pedals, but occasionally I borrow some, and mainly I put wah and distortion before the amp (I haven't used anything else). Any time or modulation-based effects like reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, etc. I have in my effects loop. But right now I don't play live gigs, still only rehearsals and I play at home, so I really don't need anything, therefore - I don't have anything.

 

[Jimmyb]

I think I go..
Guitar>Buffer>Volume pedal>Wah>Compressor>Drive>Tremelo>Chorus>Delay.

Straight into the front end of the amp, with both channels jumpered.

It seems to change every time I play though.

 

[peedo_deedo]

My set up is the simplest there could be.

My Balls --> Boss GT-6 --> Amp

My Distortion Settings on the board is pretty simple too... 3 patches of Distortion with the gain anywhere between 60 - 95 (6 - 9.5) with just a little delay, little reverb, and light compression.

My Clean Settings are anywhere from pure clean tone, no chorus, reverb or delay and whatsoever (which brings out the great tone of the piezo of my JP!), to a little bit of chorus and delay.

 

[roburado]

The JP6 piezo sounds great dry, I think.

 

[leftyguitarblue]

How does this sound?

Guitar > Tuner > Wah > Distortion > Overdrive > Whammy > Talkbox > Amp

 

[dlloyd]

My new Axis SS
|
Vox Wah
|
Boss Compressor
|
MXR Wylde Overdrive
|
Marshall Shredmaster
|
EHX Small Clone
|
Boss DD5 Delay ---- Roland unlatched footswitch for tap tempo
|
Boss TU2 (?) tuner
|
Fender Twin

I have the tuner in that position to mute everything going into the amp. I'm going to play about with the setup a bit and try putting everything listed after the Shredmaster into the FX loop and the tuner at the front.

 

[mikeller]

Guitar - Barber Tone Press - Barber LTD - Barber Direct Drive - MI Audio Crunch Box - Boss DD20 - Amp

 

[Slingy]

Guitar - PodXTL - Volume Box - HRD effects return

But when I use my pedals I like wah and distortion up front and chorus, phase, delay, volume in the loop.