Pedal board signal chain question

[james.fusco]

Hi there,

I'm have a bit of trouble finding the best possible way to set out my pedal boards signal chain. Only thing I know really is to place the tuner at the start so it suffers no interference for the other pedals. Any help would be great my pedal board includes:

Ibanez TS9
MXR KFK 10 Band EQ
Crybaby 535Q
Boss NS-2
Boss Chromatic Tuner

Thanks,

James

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

You will probably find THIS very helpful!

 

[erksin]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

Hi there,

I'm have a bit of trouble finding the best possible way to set out my pedal boards signal chain. Only thing I know really is to place the tuner at the start so it suffers no interference for the other pedals. Any help would be great my pedal board includes:

Ibanez TS9
MXR KFK 10 Band EQ
Crybaby 535Q
Boss NS-2
Boss Chromatic Tuner

Thanks,

James

Crybaby 535Q
Ibanez TS9
MXR KFK 10 Band EQ
Boss NS-2
Boss Chromatic Tuner

That's what I'd do anyway.

 

[Securb]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

Boss Chromatic Tuner - I alway have my tuner first so it doesnt pick up anything from the other pedals.
Ibanez TS9
MXR KFK 10 Band EQ
Crybaby 535Q - I know a lot of player like their wah first in the chain, I like mine at the end.
Boss NS-2 - Last in chain so it can suppress noise from the whole signal chain

There is no "right" way to setup your pedals, play around with the chain until you get a sound YOU like.

 

[erksin]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

Tuner won't pick anything up if the rest are off. I'd rather have it at the end so the buffer doesn't screw with the wah or the clean up sensitivity of the drive pedals.

 

[Psykel]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

On a related note, I may pick up a Boss BD2 soonish. Planning to stick it after a boost and my Rat. Will the buffer affect my tone in any way?
My signal path will be shortish: Boost - Rat - BD2 - chorus - delay - amp. All pedals are true bypass except the BD2. My delay can be set to either true or buffered bypass.

 

[erksin]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

On a related note, I may pick up a Boss BD2 soonish. Planning to stick it after a boost and my Rat. Will the buffer affect my tone in any way?
My signal path will be shortish: Boost - Rat - BD2 - chorus - delay - amp. All pedals are true bypass except the BD2. My delay can be set to either true or buffered bypass.

It might, but IMO in probably a positive way - you should notice some high end coming back to your 100% bypassed sound. 4-5 true bypass pedals is about the limit where you start losing high end and need a buffer to bring them back.

 

[Psykel]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

It might, but IMO in probably a positive way - you should notice some high end coming back to your 100% bypassed sound. 4-5 true bypass pedals is about the limit where you start losing high end and need a buffer to bring them back.

Yeah, I just got a Vox AC30 and notice I lost loads of top end when my 3m guitar-to-board cable crapped out and I had to bring in my rarely used 9m cable instead (using a 6m board-to-amp cable).
Ah well, I'll probably just get that Bluesdriver and tweak my amp settings. If there's too much high-end, I guess I could just use the tone cut knob or something to dial it back to a nice tone. Cheers for the info!

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

Where are the pedals connected in your signal chain? Between the guitar and the amp or in the amp's Effects Loop?

 

[Psykel]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

Where are the pedals connected in your signal chain? Between the guitar and the amp or in the amp's Effects Loop?

Dunno if you meant me or the OP, but I'm going for an old school approach and plug them all between guitar and amp.

 

[LReese]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

I've found one pedal will often affect the other - for me it seems Chorus 1st, then Overdrive, compression, delay and reverb in that order works best but depends on the pedal used.

I'm trying to get more with less (The pedal equivalent to getting on the wagon - or drying up), so a lot of times a light reverb.

 

[scottish]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

The best way is just to play with it. As people have mentioned, there is no "right way". Its all about what sounds good to you and/or in your band setting. In general though, i like the NS-2 after most pedals except delay and id also have the EQ close to last so you can fine tune your sound before it hits the amp but after its gets changed through the other pedals.

 

[Securb]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

Planning to stick it after a boost and my Rat.

I have both of my boost pedals (BBE Freq Boost and a TWA TK-01) before my distortion. I love using them to kick the distortion pedal in the butt during my filthier leads. All comes down to preference.

 

[erksin]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

I wrote an article for work that explains some strategies you may find useful:

http://www.catalinbread.com/blog/pedalplumb

 

[GregJr]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

Is it a tube amp? Does your amp have an FX loop?

 

[Psykel]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

I wrote an article for work that explains some strategies you may find useful:

http://www.catalinbread.com/blog/pedalplumb

Coolio, cheers. Looks like my initial plan of boost - distortion - OD - chorus - delay should be the way to go. My reasoning to stick the distortion before the OD is so I can stack it on top of the OD in the same kind of way as the boost pedal (which I will run as flat and clean as possible for just a volume boost, even for clean tones).

 

[erksin]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

What I like to do if I'm stuck with running a clean amp and have to stack boosts or fuzzes or ODs or whatever is to have the dirt pedal with the most EQ flexibility last before it all hits the modulation - that way I can keep the widest possible freq spread and dynamics. I don't really stack more than two dirt pedals tops if the amp is clean as I find I get diminishing results with anything more than that.

 

[Sanford]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

Recently I've muddled around with the order of my pedals just to see if there were any pleasant surprises. And this order with what I've got and how I play is working nicely:

Guitar->Tuner-POG2-VS Angry Fuzz-GigFx Chopper-TC Vortex-GigFx VOD-Bad Horsie Wah-TC Flashback-TC Hall of Fame->amp.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

I always get confused when you say first or last...... Is first from the amp or is it last?

 

[erksin]

Re: Pedal board signal chain question

'First' for me is closest to the guitar - that's the way the signal flows.

Guitar -> pedals -> amp