So you’ve built an arsenal of Effects pedals, but are confused on how to best arrange them for maximum tone. Just follow these simple guidelines and you’ll be a pro in no time at getting the most out of effects. Believe it or not, the order in which you place your effect pedals will change your tone and the overall sound of the effects. We’re going to look at the most common types of effect pedals.
Compressors – Compressor pedals generally work best as the first pedal in your signal chain. The purpose of a compressor is to normalize the volume coming through by lowering the volume of louder, or harder played sections and boosting the volume of softer parts. The compressor does a more efficient job when it has a dry guitar signal coming in. If you put this pedal after other effects (like distortion), the compressor has to deal with any overtones created and can make the tone “muddy”. Many players don’t use compressors because they simply don’t know how to use them, but a properly set compressor can make the difference from an amateur sound to a professional sound.
Wah effects Pedals – Next I like to place the wah pedal. The levels are nice and even coming out of the compressor, so the wah can do it’s job properly. The wah acts like a frequency filter, so it’s best placed before distortion and modulation effects, as those tend to introduce extra frequencies and overtones.
Overdrive/Distortion – Now comes the pedal everyone is waiting for, the overdrive pedals. I find these sound better after the wah where they tend to make the dynamics of the wah stand out. Many players use multiple overdrive/distortion pedals, and as long as only 1 is used at a time, it makes no difference the order as long as they are between the wah and the EQ. However, if you like to combine multiple overdrives, make sure to experiment and see which order gives you the more desired tone (changing the order of 2 overdrive/distortion pedals does make a difference).
EQ Pedals Pedals – The equalizer pedals work great just after the overdrive area (just like on an amplifier, the EQ section is just after the gain stage). This way you can tame or boost any frequencies that get out of whack during the overdrive phase. And also it works good to setup out next pedal…
Modulation Pedals – Modulation effects are more commonly referred to as Chorus, Flanger, and Phaser (though there are more under specialty names like MOG, POG, Harmonizer, Whammy, etc.). These work by detuning the signal and mixing it back in with the uneffected original signal. chorus is the most subtle, flanger is more pronounced, and a phaser is the most extreme. I haven’t found an application to use more than one of these type effects at a time, but if you’d like to combine them, experiment on their placement like you would for stacking multiple overdrives. Modulation effects sound cleaner if you place them in your effects loop of your amplifier. That’s not to say they don’t work on the front end of your amp, but by placing them in your effects loop, they are now past the gain stage and EQ of your amp as well as the pedals.
Delay – Delay pedals work best at this point in the chain. It sounds cleaner to not have the delay repeated signal going through the earlier effects, so we place it here where it’s at the end of the cycle. Like modulation effects, the sound is cleaner if you can place delays in the effects loop of your amp (where it’s after the gain and EQ of your amplifier as well).
Reverb – Reverb is the last effect you want to go through. Reverb adds the room/hall sound to your overall tone, so naturally you want to include all your effects in this pedal, so it should be placed at the end to include all previous effects. Again, the efffects loop is the best placement for reverb effects.
Volume Pedals – Volume pedals are the “wildcard” in pedalboards. There’s a couple places where they work, but each one provides a different result. One place to place it is between the wah and the overdrive/distortion. Here, as you lower the volume, you can also lower the amount of distortion of your pedal (think of it as rolling back your volume on your guitar). The other place is just after your overdrive/distortion pedals. Here, as you lower the volume, your gain stays constant and only your overall volume will lower. And by placing it before your modulation and delay effects, those effects will react to the new volume and sound proportionate to the original signal.
Now with all this said, keep in mind the first rule of music…there are no rules! This is a good starting point, but sometimes something that shouldn’t work on paper, sounds perfect in the real world. Maybe placing the compressor after the distortion gives just the perfect sound a song needs. Or putting the chorus before the wah gives it a unique flavor for which you’ve been looking. Experiment and have fun, but at least you have some basic knowledge as to how pedals act together.
Chad Cooper's archive - Joyo Effect Pedals 