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Pedal Order - Does it matter?

SamJ

SamJ

Founder - Fender MIA Club
Apr 22, 2006
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#1
I've been experimenting with the order in which I put my pedals... As I'm relatively new to having more than just a compression, I've found that it does seem to matter... not so much in tone, or noise as in my ability to control the tone, and the gain/volume. Though sometimes I find that they just seem to shift all on their own... if I turn off the pre-amp, suddenly my volume goes up! Even though I have not changed my input and output level on any pedals.

In theory, it seems like it should matter whether you have a pre-amp first, effects 2nd and a compression last, or the reverse... to my ears, I'm not hear it as much, but then I'm no recording engineer, nor am I the most amazing ear..

How are you guys arranging your effects/pedals? And how are you setting your input and output levels' on these pedals?

Main Categories I think are:

-Compression / Limiting or both
-Pre-amp
-Effects
-Other
 
#3
Well, there are *a lot* of "pedal order" threads, so maybe people are a bit unenthusiastic about one more ... if you have questions about specific pedals maybe you'll get an answer from someone with similar experiences, otherwise you could try searching the existing threads.

Generally speaking though, usually you don't get the volume shifts you describe as long as you have set all pedals in the chain to unity gain (i.e. the same volume when active as when bypassed) but sometimes pedals interact in weird ways, because of the gain staging, phase issues or even power/grounding problems. It's all a bit trial and error to sort out, and depending on which specific pedals you combine.

And, pedal order can matter, there are rules of thumb and traditional starting points (e.g tuner, compressor, filter, distortion, modulation, delay, reverb) and many exceptions to the rules. Ultimately the order or combination your ears like is the right one. :)
 
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#4
Church use only here.....I first go into my tuner, then compressor, then effects and then into my Tone Hammer.....I like to eq post effects but maybe I am doing this wrong?

I go from board into front of amp but wha I still have a hard time understanding is whether to use the effects out/ in on the back of the amp!!!

Yes there are a lot of threads about this subject ..... But then again there are a lot of duplicate type threads so I hope you get more responses!
 
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#5
Yes it matters.

If you're running more than one pedal at a time it's going to sound different if pedal A is going into pedal B vs pedal B going into pedal A.

If you only ever run one at a time it does not matter as much.

And yes, there are a lot of pedal order threads.
 
#6
JLY said:
what I still have a hard time understanding is whether to use the effects out/ in on the back of the amp!!!
Click to expand...

A good rule of thumb:

If you're running pedals, keep them in front
If you're running rack gear, put it in the loop

Loops are generally for line level gear and unless you're getting a ton of preamp distortion from your amp and running time based effects there is very little reason to use the loop.

I never use it on my bass amp, just guitar amps.
 
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#7
The devil is in the details.

Getting the details sorted is time-consuming.

Sorting out your board order and achieving unity gain throughout (or as and where desired) is a PITA, but ultimately WELL worth it.
Rules of thumb are good to go by, but don't cover every possible pedal type and combination.

No, I haven't sorted out my boards yet, I'm working on it... constantly.
 
#9
If it helps, I always put the envelope filter first, then compress that. This way compressor tames the crazy peaks an env filter can put out.

Then distortion, then modulation effects. This way the distortion is "effected" by the modulators (distortion always sounds good running thru a phaser, flanger, etc, but it has to be a distorted signal running thru the modulators).

Delay is last so it covers the whole array of pedals behind it.

I don't know if the above description is "right" or if I am breaking any "rules" but it always sounds best to me.
 
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#11
I put the preamp/amp emulator/DI last; I see it as an amp and the effects go before it. If it also has a DI it's natural to put it last so all effects are included in the sound that goes to FOH. That choice is made easier for me since I'm not using the distortion in that pedal, if it has it.
 
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#14
MGR said:
i have never used a dedicated preamp other then the one in my amp itself. I don't condemn anyone for using one, but I just don't see the point, unless you're only using a power amp for amplification or going DI, which I never do.
Click to expand...
The point is maybe clearer if you consider amp-less/in-ear setups, or if you like me regard the amp on stage only as a monitor and you send your sound to the PA from your pedalboard.

If your sound to PA comes from a DI in your amp or if you mic your cabinet then a preamp or DI on your pedalboard is less useful.
 

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