pedal order

[thedrill]

yup , another one. i know it's all in the ear of the beholder, but i could use some starting point input from people more knowledgeable than i, for i am just a smuck with some fancy gear.
here is what i got in no particular order

1) pigtronix - philosopher's tone compressor
2) electroharmonix - big muff
3) red witch - famulus distortion
4) visual sound - h20 chorus/echo
5) blackout effectors - whetstone phaser
6) boss - rc-2 loop station
7) mxr - carbon copy
9) vox - big bad wah

playing a 2008 les paul standard , 1985 fender mia standard strat through a traynor ycs50 with effects loop( i just go through the front) and a vox ac4tv, if that helps
thanks ahead of time

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: pedal order

I always put compressors first, followed by distortions, followed by EQ, followed by chorus/flange/phase, followed by delay, followed by reverb, followed by a wah, with a volume pedal on the end, then into the amp.

That way you get compression on the cleans and the distortion (to give it some extra boost and smoothing), you can shape the distorted/clean tones with the EQ pedal, and your coloring effects (chorus, etc) are coloring the distorted tone, rather than the distortion distorting the coloring effects (sometimes makes a big, noticeable difference). Then the delay/reverb effect is doing its thang on the smoothed-out, distorted, tone-shaped, and colored sound, rather than everything overloading the delay/reverb, and the Wah does it's thing over all that. The volume pedal on the end shuts it all off in the event of a delay or reverb infinite loop/overload.

Though you can put the volume pedal before the delay/reverb to get interesting volume swells with effect trails.

 

[greatbob6]

Re: pedal order

and your coloring effects (chorus, etc) are coloring the distorted tone, rather than the distortion distorting the coloring effects (sometimes makes a big, noticeable difference).

I would say this is a good rule of thumb but play around with the ordering to try things out because you might like the sound you get out of a modulation before the distortion. Personally, I kind of like the sound of a Uni-vibe type pedal before the distortion rather than after.

 

[Morior]

Re: pedal order

As stated, play around with it. Personally, I prefer having a wah in front of the distortion effects rather than after, but it is all just a matter of taste. Heck, some people even prefer having their delays and similar in front of the distortion.

And I do second that a distorted univibe is a killer sound.

 

[trevorus]

Re: pedal order

As stated, play around with it. Personally, I prefer having a wah in front of the distortion effects rather than after, but it is all just a matter of taste. Heck, some people even prefer having their delays and similar in front of the distortion.

And I do second that a distorted univibe is a killer sound.

I do the same with my wah. It's in front of everything else, partially because it's a volume pedal too, but I tend to like it there better. It's not such a big dramatic wah when it's before everything else. Then I put my tuner at the end, which has some disadvantages, but it makes less noise in the chain.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: pedal order

After a lot of experimentation my preference is generally:
Fuzz -> Wah -> Compression -> Pitch Shifting -> Distortion -> Phaser -> Delay -> Chorus -> Tremolo -> Reverb


I've also moved the phaser around in front of the distortion:
Fuzz -> Wah -> Compression -> Pitch Shifting -> Phaser -> Distortion -> Delay -> Chorus -> Tremolo -> Reverb

One of these two setups will usually give me all the sounds/sound combinations that are needed. Don't really use flanging, but if it was on the board it would be either before or after the chorus. The beauty of this setup is the number of pedal combinations that sound great:

Fuzz -> Wah -> Compressor: Compressor evens out the wah a bit so you don't drop too much in volume when you're in different toe positions, the fuzz adds some wild sounds, and the wah seems to have a much greater effect on the fuzz when you put it afterwards. Good for funky leads.

Wah -> Compression: Great for funk rhythms.

Compression -> Pitch Shifting -> Distortion: Gives you a more flexible MXR blue box sound

Phaser -> Delay: This just gives an awesome, thick sound.

Distortion -> Phaser -> Delay -> Tremolo: Rage against the machine tones seem to live here.

Distortion -> Delay -> Chorus: A lot of cheesy 80s lead stuff lives here

Compression -> Distortion -> Delay: Can get some Santana-esq lead sounds pretty easily with this combo. If you crank the distortion and boost it with the compressor you can also get some pretty cool metal tones.