Signal chain advice, please.

[Bass]

Does it make any difference if the HPF-pre comes before or after my tuner? If I put it before, I need to build a pedal board. If it comes after, I can set it on top of my amp. I don't really want to attach it to my tail piece, I have enough cords causing rattles. Here's a diagram:

Neck / Bridge pickup => Passive blender => Boss TU-2 => HPF-pre

[jtallent]

If you put the HPF-pre before the tuner, your tuner might possibly work a little better since your tuner isn't fighting the extreme LF junk that made you buy the HPF in the first place. This has a lot to do with the tuner itself and if it does a decent job of picking out the fundamental (or if it gets confused by noise, etc.). On the other hand, I don't feel as if putting it after the tuner will be a problem at all from an electrical and/or tone standpoint. If you haven't experienced problems with your tuner before and it's much easier to put the pre after the tuner, go for it. Good luck, the HPF-pre looks like a nice little box ... Simple and effective.

[drurb]

One of the advantages of the HPF/Pre is that it nicely loads the pickup. So, it would be ideal for you to place it in the chain directly following the pickup. If the passive blender already loads the pickup pretty optimally (> 1 Mohm for a piezo pickup), then it's not crucial but, as stated already, if the the HPF/Pre is last in the chain, every device before it might have to handle unwanted infrasonics. Depending on the actual pickup you use that could be no problem or a substantial one.

[mje]

Another thing to keep in mind when chaining effects is the amount of noise each adds. Every box you put in line is going to add some fixed amount of noise. Even a long cable run will add some noise, if imperceptibly.

By boosting the signal early on, before additional noise is added, you increase the signal to noise ratio. Putting the gain stage later in the chain boosts the signal and all the noise you added along the line.