Comments on: How to Properly Order your Effects Pedals

By: Wal

Wal — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:06:13 +0000

I have a small set of pedals for bass… and i’ve tried several orders…. recommendations?

Tuner
Aguilar Tone Hammer
Aguilar TLC compressor
EHX bass big muff (distortion)
EHX Bass microsynth
Boss Flanger for bass and guitar..

Can anybody help me? thanks!!

By: another noob

another noob — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:48:51 +0000

I have a fender rumble 75 and it has 2 input jacks and a line out can I run the lineout to the input of my cybaby wah and its output to the second amp input and guitar on the first would .this work or just be a feedback loop any advice on this for this uber noob would be greatly apreciated thanks in advance

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:20:12 +0000

Seens like you can find any notion about pedal placement where ever you look. Some players do some really bad placements because there is too much of the “there are no rules” issue and “try it and see” Gets exasperating at times when you are really trying to figure something out. Often a bad or weird tone is mistaken for a great sound but it is often a one trick pony that has a weird sound that is really not so great as it is whacked.

There are some rules, not many but some rules of sonic frequency flow and matters of quality sound and fidelity. I also demand from my board a lot of options and tonal variants more so than something that has a novel tone perhaps sounds weird for one song. That is probably better served in a studio than a working pedal
board.

Hate to come off as a know-it-all, but seriously after more decades playing than most have lived I have learned a thing or two and have done some really wrong things myself.
Email me if you like for any special questions or puzzles on your chain (dark-horse-pa@hotmail.com) I’ll offer you what I know and if I do not know I can steer you to someone who does.

Just FYI, never run delays into dirt! Noise suppression should be last in chain preferably in your loop not in front of things that make noise but rather after them. 1st off what noise is in your signal, can it be fixed without a gate NR pedal, are you using way too much gate and clamping to kill the noise and likewise killing your true dynamics and response? Email me and I can help walk you through things I have done and solved as I am pedal board maven from long ago when magic filled the air.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:03:35 +0000

My new two level board I made.
Note positions they are well placed and considered. This is a no noise quite board with no loading or coloring of tone, often only 1-2 pedals may be on at a time. It is about options and colors to paint with.
Lower Level amp in chain:
-MXR/CAE dual inductor/boost wah (true bypass)
-Radial PB1 High end buffer w switchable class A clean boost. (buffer drops impedance to low)
-Electroharmonix Micro POG (true bypass)
-Electroharmonix Qtron Plus (true bypass)
-Wampler Esctasy Overdrive (true bypass)
-Wampler Pinnacle Distortion (true bypass)
-Hardwire PH-7 Phaser (true bypass)
-Fulltone DejaVibe (true bypass)
-Ibanez Tube King HT999TK Distortion (real tube buffer circuit)

Upper level shelf AMP LOOP chain:
TC Corona Chorus (true bypass)
TC Flashback Delay (true bypass)
Hardwire RV-7 Reverb (true bypass)
BBE Sonic Mazimizer (true bypass)

AMP is a slightly mod’ed Carvin V3 w their vintage load 4×12, amazing half stack, currently running 50 watt mode w Mullard EL34s and 7025s in preamps. 3 channel uber gain capability.

Power feed master from a Furman Power conditioner, VoodooLab2 and BBE Supracharger, plus a special wart strip for high voltage needs of some pedals a brick cannot do. 1 supply feeds 1 chain to avoid ground loop issues.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:51:24 +0000

Back again in the new year.
All new board again.
Problem I think some of you are having is too many buffer circuit pedals like BOSS. Too many buffers which are not so great in the Boss models can befuddle your true tone and often create noise in your chain. Other problems are daisy chaining power supplies which is not cool from a large pedal board perspective. You need either the VoodooLab2, or the BBE isolated filtered supplies.
Proper voltage is pretty much exact. If you have a pedal that needs 9.6v then your better use the wart it usually comes with. My MicroPOG is like that. Some effects like dirt you can often voltage starve for weird battery going dead oddness if you like that sort of low tech thing.
mA are a rule as well, you can give something more mA than it requires but not less. Power supplies are evrry bit as important as using good quality short and possible cables.
The best chain is not all true by pass not all buffered circuit pedals especially when their buffers are not so great. Optimal is high end buffer 1st in chain, true bypass pedals, and a final buffer end of chain. If you are getting hum or noise apart from normal high gain issues then you are crossing grounds or have bad power supply issues.

By: jonathan black

jonathan black — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:48:47 +0000

I have a comp, od, dist, wah, vol, 2 delays, whammy, noise reducer, tuner.

Suggestions???

By: AMB

AMB — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:26:19 +0000

Hi,

I have a Boss ML-2 Metalcore, Boss DD-7 Digital Delay & NS-2 Noise Suppressor and I was wondering how I should order them. The order I have placed them in up until now is:-

Amp – Delay – Suppressor – Distortion – Guitar

I’m told that it is wise to place the Suppressor in front of the Delay so that I am not killing any of the delays.

Is this correct? If not, how would you advise I go about fixing this?

Also, my ML-2 Metalcore pedal ‘hums’ rather loudly when I stomp on it; the Noise Suppressor does not have any effect on eliminating the ‘hum’. Please Help Me

Thanks
AmB

By: Skot

Skot — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:47:29 +0000

I appreciate all the suggestions for arranging pedals, I have tried long and hard to find the right sound as you can probably tell from my list of equipment. I am considering buying a Voodoo MIDI pedal and just putting my pedals into it unless someone can give me some suggestions. My amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and I use a Tele most of the time. Here are my pedals:
- Boss DS-1
- Roger Linn Adrenalinn 3
- Blackstar HT-Dual
- Boss Multi-Wah
- MXR Carbon Copy Delay
- Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Nano Reverb
- Roland GR-1 Guitar Synth
- Electro Harmonix Big Muff Soviet Version
- T.C. Electronic Poly Tune
I have considered using a line switcher and using the Adrenalinn on one line and the pedals on the second. Any help would be awesome.

By: AlexTheLion

AlexTheLion — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 19:27:15 +0000

I believe the wah pedal is preferred among players to come before the OD/Dist/Fuzz etc. I’ve read in other posts that many guitarists prefer their wah sound distorted rather than their distorted sound ‘wah-ed’. This means that they still get to keep the true sound from the OD/Dist/Fuzz pedal.
On the other hand, modulation is generally preferred after the drive for a more prominent modulated tone.

But nobody seems to agree on a single ‘right’ way to order effect chains.
So I guess you shouldn’t really believe anything you read until you’ve tried it and found what sound suits you.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 01:29:28 +0000

Please reply directly to my email.

I have 2 DD20′s Gigadelays and a DD3 delay. How should I order them? I use a pedal power Plus power supply. Also I notice one delay pedal had a louder crisper delay sound and the other doesn’t. I have played with the settings and feel its because I have 2 in the chain. The noise on my guitar also increases faster now as I raise the volume or treble.

Any tips.

Please reply to my email.
Adrian D’Souza