Specific order to pedal boards?

[Aborted]

Is there a specific order in which pedals should be setup?

For instance, I have a board with 7 pedals on it. The chain starts at my Wah and ends at my Boss enhancer pedal. In between I have fuzzes, distortions, flangers, delays, etc.

Does it make a difference if I have my delay before my OD pedals, etc?

[Muzoid]

Yes...it makes a huge difference what order they are in.

However there are no set rules so-to-speak.

Experiment!

[RickenBoogie]

+1 very dramatic difference depending on order, but no rules. In general, stuff like delays go last, but ultimately, it's up to you.

[andvari7]

I hate to sound like a broken record, but yeah, it does matter. However, I will opine contrary to everyone else here, and state that there are some rules.

What are these rules?

In no particular order:

1. The physical footprint of the pedals will always dictate location. In my case, my Tel-Ray Morley Power Wah Boost, which is about the same size as the General Lee, has to be on the left-hand edge of the board, and comprises about 1/3 of the total occupied space. Unfortunately, it can (but not necessarily) also have an effect on your pedal purchases. Or, in all probability, the pedalboard purchase.

2. Cable ties are your best friend, especially if you have a Pedaltrain. I don't use them myself, but that's because I'm currently unhappy with my cable (both power and signal) arrangement (I need another Snapjack).

3. If you don't plan on moving your pedals, consider that industrial/automotive-grade velcro. Well, it's not exactly Velcro - the stuff I like is 3M Dual-Lock.

4. The footswitches should be positioned in such a way as to prevent accidental bumping of the knobs. Not really a rule, per se, but it is a guideline I follow. No, I'm not an expert, and no, I'm not an endorsee of Pedaltrain, but I have pondered on this for some time (and am still working out the kinks, whose best album was Arthur, Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), and you asked for my opinion.

5. Pedal signal order is solely dependent on what you want them to do. Nothing else matters (coincidentally, not my favorite Metallica song).

6. You can use a bunch of wall-warts (crappy, inefficient power supplies), but you will need a power strip for them. This is messy, not energy-efficient, and a fire hazard. For these reasons, I would recommend something akin to a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus. This is a rule I have yet to implement on my board, because I'm too damn lazy to do so.

There are some sites (I think Beavis Audio Research is one of them) that declare a specific order to the pedals, citing science and logic for their answers. While both my scientific and logical personae would agree with them, I'm also a creature of mystery, and I maintain that voodoo kills science on this one.

[Juan Count]

Originally Posted by Aborted

Is there a specific order in which pedals should be setup?

For instance, I have a board with 7 pedals on it. The chain starts at my Wah and ends at my Boss enhancer pedal. In between I have fuzzes, distortions, flangers, delays, etc.

Does it make a difference if I have my delay before my OD pedals, etc?

People 'round these parts get mighty upset when 'newbies' ask these type of type of questions...

My advice... post a pic of your current board... with an explanation of the signal chain (assuming it's not 'fairly' obvious in the image) and ask for opinions... because as you've heard here already, there are no hard and fast rules...

IMHO... or, at least on my board it goes... Tuner - ODs/Dirt - Fuzz/s - Modulation/s - EQ - Pre Amps/Modelling...

... just my two cents...

[Snakeman1066]

this link has been posted before....a quick search probably would have pulled it up....but anyway here ya go

GM Arts - Guitar Effects

[My name is Mudd]

Some people start with...

- wah
- env. filter
- compression
- dirt
- echo/delay
- modulation/pitch
- level (boosters, volume pedal)
- EQ

...and now that I've put this here, the next nine or so people after me will pick it apart. And they're right. Me...I like my booster first up.

[kaputsport]

1. Filters - Auto wahs, envelope filters, ans other dynamically controlled filter effects respond to your attach, you don't want to limit dynamics with compressors and/or distortion pedals that reduce dynamic range. Most players put wah pedals first in the signal chain-mostly to come before distortion effects. (notable exception - Tom Morello)

2. Compressors - Compressors can raise the noise level of everything that comes before them, so they should as close to the beginning of the chain as possible.

3. Distortion/Overdrive - Distortion and overdrive pedals prefer to see an unmodulated signal and the harmonics generated by a distortion device bring richness to any chorus, phasers, or flanging effects that follow.

4. Modulation - Tremolo, chorus, phaser and flanger pedals fit nicely here, due to the aforementioned interaction with distortion boxes.

5. Volume pedal - In this position, the volume pedal allows you to maintain a consistent signal from your guitar to your distortion devices, and get full shred at low volume. However you'll likely want to place delay and reverb effects after the volume pedal to ensure their tails continue to decay after the volume is cut.

7. Delay and reverb - These effects come last in the chain, usually delay then reverb, because placing them before distortion pedals can trigger a jump in the ambient effect level whenever extra gain is engaged.

[dlenaghan]

Funny thing about rules (which are really just recommendations): Tech 21 advises that the Sansamp come after pedals that affect the character of the sound and before time-effect pedals. However... this has never worked for me, and so the Sansamp is right up front. I feel like that way the tone I really like is what's processed by the other pedals.

If you have pedals that add noise or alter fidelity, like a lot of analog pedals do, you might want those towards the end of the chain so that you can preserve as much of your signal as possible.

[Smurf-o-Deth]

Everything must be first!

[CHILDISHGAMBINO]

[Muzoid]

Bass first....amp second....done.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by andvari7

I hate to sound like a broken record, but yeah, it does matter. However, I will opine contrary to everyone else here, and state that there are some rules.

What are these rules?

In no particular order:

1. The physical footprint of the pedals will always dictate location. In my case, my Tel-Ray Morley Power Wah Boost, which is about the same size as the General Lee, has to be on the left-hand edge of the board, and comprises about 1/3 of the total occupied space. Unfortunately, it can (but not necessarily) also have an effect on your pedal purchases. Or, in all probability, the pedalboard purchase.

2. Cable ties are your best friend, especially if you have a Pedaltrain. I don't use them myself, but that's because I'm currently unhappy with my cable (both power and signal) arrangement (I need another Snapjack).

3. If you don't plan on moving your pedals, consider that industrial/automotive-grade velcro. Well, it's not exactly Velcro - the stuff I like is 3M Dual-Lock.

4. The footswitches should be positioned in such a way as to prevent accidental bumping of the knobs. Not really a rule, per se, but it is a guideline I follow. No, I'm not an expert, and no, I'm not an endorsee of Pedaltrain, but I have pondered on this for some time (and am still working out the kinks, whose best album was Arthur, Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), and you asked for my opinion.

5. Pedal signal order is solely dependent on what you want them to do. Nothing else matters (coincidentally, not my favorite Metallica song).

6. You can use a bunch of wall-warts (crappy, inefficient power supplies), but you will need a power strip for them. This is messy, not energy-efficient, and a fire hazard. For these reasons, I would recommend something akin to a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus. This is a rule I have yet to implement on my board, because I'm too damn lazy to do so.

There are some sites (I think Beavis Audio Research is one of them) that declare a specific order to the pedals, citing science and logic for their answers. While both my scientific and logical personae would agree with them, I'm also a creature of mystery, and I maintain that voodoo kills science on this one.

Tonally, there are no rules. If it sounds good, it is good. Logistically, you're right on the money.

That said, we all have our own user-logic to pedal placement. I know I always think about my tone in a textural sense when arranging the order of my pedals. Do I want my distorted signal to be flanged, for example, or do I want to apply distortion to my flanged signal?

Stuff like that.

[Muzoid]

Some of the coolest bass sounds ever were created by people experimenting & going outside the box.

Like the dude who put a bunch of amps in a Farm Silo, cranked 'em all, and mic'd/recorded it.

[ThorGodOfBass]

I'm tiring o find a decent fuzz/wah for bass. Any ideas? All I can find are out of production or guitar only.

[Downunderwonder]

Fuzz wah huh? I think you might need a digitech synth/wah pedal.

I just got a hold of my prunes and custard and it is kind of a distortion/fuzz with envelope modulation as well, but not mistakeable for a wah, hence it's tagline "Harmonic generator-intermodulator. Real neat. It laps up the m82 envelope and spits out all sorts of synthy fuzz.

Putting distortion before the envelope filter makes for yummy synth tones too, so that rule is easily busted by this newbie to pedals. Must try the P & C in front too.

[Vlad5]

Its less a question of 'what is the proper order of things?' and more a question of 'what will the signal sound like when you place effect-A in front of effect-B?', and so on...

How does an effect effect other effects in your effects chain? For instance, fuzz into wah sounds quacky (which may or may not work for you). Wah into fuzz sounds like you'd expect it to, fuzzed out wah effect.

I think I'm right on that at least...

[Bassmike62]

You had it pretty much the way I would've set it up:

BASS > Wah > Fuzzes > distortions > flanger > delays > Boss enhancer > AMP

[winterburn69]

Hmmm... so I guess I got mine kinda backwards, right?

Bass > wah > bassballs > flanger > delay > chorus > overdrive > tuner > amplifier.

That's how mine is.

[kevteop]

Originally Posted by Aborted

Is there a specific order in which pedals should be setup?

For instance, I have a board with 7 pedals on it. The chain starts at my Wah and ends at my Boss enhancer pedal. In between I have fuzzes, distortions, flangers, delays, etc.

Does it make a difference if I have my delay before my OD pedals, etc?

The most noticable difference would be moving the wah to after your distortion effects. Try it, see how you like it. TBH I think wahs always sound nicer after everything else - think of it as filtering the result of every other pedal you've got, it will breathe new life into all of them.

Whereas distortion after wah will mostly obliterate your wah effect, meaning you'll end up using just one or the other most of the time, instead of both at once.