Pedalboards: order of things

samzadgan

So we all know the generally accepted way of ordering pedals on a board and a lot of us follow those guidelines with maybe some slight amendments to taste.

as reference the general guideline is the one that goes something like: comp, wah, phase, dirt, modulation, delay/reverb...etc

But has anyone ordered their in a completely different way? And what changed and what did you like about the new order?

I'm posting this as I will be almost reversing the order on my board in the next few days...based on seeing the board of another guitarist who I look up to a lot.

guitarfishbay

Tuner - Gate - Drive - Volume pedal.  Maybe not unorthodox but I do see a lot of people using gates later in chains and volume pedals earlier in chains.  Here is my reasoning -

• Tuner first as it is always on, never set to mute (I can mute using the volume pedal)
  
• Gate before drive and volume pedal so it always sees a consistent signal
  
• Therefore: all volume changes are made from the pedal, not my volume pot, to allow the gate to work correctly regardless of drive pedal setting

mike_l

Where's Drew?

I quite often move my phasers to before and after dirt, or put choris between 2 delays but never completely in the "wrong" order.

EricTheWeary

I read this in GuitarPlayer, I think - put the tuner at the end of the signal chain. You probably don't need to be someone who uses the tuner a lot. But you can then use it to trouble shoot any problems with your board - if the fuzz is on is the tuner still reading the note, if the delay is on is the,etc,etc. Although this assumes it isn't the tuner that is buggered.

I'm in two minds about any kind of boost into an OD, can be very waspish. A clean boost after an OD will make it louder without compressing the tone more. 

hubobulous

Fuzz before wah is the exception when thinking about dirt I suppose, but even then its a rule to be broken

Phase before and after dirt is a common decision to make

I use a volume pedal at the front of my chain to emulate the volume pot on the guitar for swells etc

Gassage

Re Volume pedal- disagree- this depends on what you want the vol to do. If it's just vol, at end of dirt. if it's vol, swells and gain clean up, at start of chain.

Generally:

Buffer, Vol, Wah/Filters/Pitch then Comp Dirt hi- to lo, vibe, other mods, delay, reverb.

Shark_Eyes

I have my modulation (Phaser) after my delay and reverb but before my Tremolo which is the last thing on my board. It allows me to create almost synth like beats using the fuzz, reverb and trem together.

My full chain is Comp > OD > Dist > Fuzz > Main Delay > Freeze > Second Delay > Reverb > Phaser > Trem

samzadgan

ok...so some food for thought...now that I've had some feedback...the chain I'm going to do is:

Tuner > comp > volume > wah > phaser > chorus > trem > reverb > delay > distortion > OD > Amp

the theory is that my distortion/OD pedals are being treated as if they were an overdiven amp...and if all pedals were going into the front, then this is how it would be...

Gassage

Shark_Eyes said:

I have my modulation (Phaser) after my delay and reverb but before my Tremolo which is the last thing on my board. It allows me to create almost synth like beats using the fuzz, reverb and trem together.

My full chain is Comp > OD > Dist > Fuzz > Main Delay > Freeze > Second Delay > Reverb > Phaser > Trem

I used to use a chorus as a splitter and also as my last pedal- set it very wet on one channel and dry on the other....some things work really well like that. Trem I'd shove before delays and reverb though as I believe it is before reverb on most amps.

Shark_Eyes

Gassage said:

Shark_Eyes said:

I have my modulation (Phaser) after my delay and reverb but before my Tremolo which is the last thing on my board. It allows me to create almost synth like beats using the fuzz, reverb and trem together.

My full chain is Comp > OD > Dist > Fuzz > Main Delay > Freeze > Second Delay > Reverb > Phaser > Trem

I used to use a chorus as a splitter and also as my last pedal- set it very wet on one channel and dry on the other....some things work really well like that. Trem I'd shove before delays and reverb though as I believe it is before reverb on most amps.

That sounds wicked, I'm thinking about experimenting with a stereo set up, not sure about chorus though.