Pedal Board Madness
October 3, 2009 by Robert Browning
Filed under Gear Talk
Anyone having Pedal Board frustrations?…Check out this great article from Harmony Central…
See at:
http://www.harmony-central.com/articles/tips/guitar_effects_guide/
I have pasted an portion of the article below!…
“Most guitarists have an intuitive sense as to where basic effects should go in their signal chain. If you have two pedals, a distortion unit and a digital delay, you would naturally put the distortion before the delay (the guitar goes into the distortion, the distortion into the delay, and the delay into the amp). But the more pedals you use, the trickier it gets, and some truly bizarre gizmos—like a digital whammy pedal—might put you at a loss to explain just effects go where they do relative to others in the chain.
Additionally some processors (such as EQs and reverbs) can go in different places in the chain, depending on the desired effect. And in one very famous example, the debate is still raging about whether the wah-wah goes before or after the distortion (Hendrix put his before, though conventional wisdom says the wah should follow).
Now, you might be thinking, “Gee I know in which order the basic pedals should go, but I guess I don’t really know why. Before we discuss which categories of effects go where they do in the chain, take this pop quiz (I hear you groan) to determine your effect-ordering mettle. Order the effects below from 1 to 10, with 1 being the first effect the guitar plugs into, and 10 being the effect whose output goes into the amp. No text-messaging among yourselves for hints.
1. __ A. EQ
2. __ B. Distortion
3. __ C. Chorus/Flanger
4. __ D. Noise Gate
5. __ E. Digital Reverb
6. __ F. Volume Pedal
7. __ G. Preamp
8. __ H. Compressor
9. __ I. Delay
10.__ J. Wah-wah Pedal
Here are the answers, showing the “correct” order of the 10 effects above: 1) G, Preamp; 2) H, Compressor; 3) B, Distortion; 4) J, Wah-wah pedal; 5) C, Chorus/Flanger; 6) I, Delay; 7) A, EQ; 
D, Noise Gate; 9) F, Volume Pedal; 10) E, Digital Reverb. Don’t deduct any points if you had the delay before the chorus/flanger; that one’s a toss-up. Also acceptable is to put the EQ just after the compressor. And really, the EQ in any signal chain is sort of a “free space,” so it can go almost anywhere.
If you got more than four effects out of order, or if you realized in taking this quiz that you just got lucky with the placement, it may help to break the above effects into categories and then explore why certain categories come before others in a signal chain. Roughly speaking, I name the categories as follows, in the order that the guitar signal encounters them:
# Signal Conditioners
# Time-Based Effects
# Ambient Processors
# Other Effect”
this probably explains the NOISE I get when I click on my wah.
and you were right, the instruments ARE obtainable!
Hey Keith,
good article. Here is where I would add something though. Certain people like putting effects in the effects loop. I have my delay and Eventide Pitchfactor pedal in the loop because I believe the delays are better and like the effect the pitchfactor has while in the loop. Do you have any opinions on what someone should put in the loop and order while there? My board is Tuner>Wah>MXR Micro Amp>Phase 90>MXR Flanger>Line 6 9. Thanks for your thoughts…
Hi William,
I like to run everything through my loop except for overdrive or distortion effects. Time delay devices including chorus, flange, phase, delay, reverb, etc., generally work better through the effects loop. Also tuners. Wahs can be questionable. The order will remain the same going into the loop. I would experiment if I were you, but the general rule is no distortion through the loop. Thanks for commenting!
Hey Keith,
I’m getting a distorted hissy type trail from my delay, but it only happens when on the gain channel. Any idea what would cause this, and how I could fix the problem?
Here is my setup:
Guitar –> Planet Waves strobe tuner –> Boss NS-2 –> Voodoo Lab GCX Audio switcher –> rear feed thru –> loop 1 –> into Mesa Dual Rec (2 channel rack mount) –> loop 2 – BBE Sonic Maximizer (channel A) –> loop 3 – BBE SM (channel B) –> loop 4 – Boss CE-5 –> loop 5 – EH Electric Mistress –> loop 6 – Boss DD-3 –> loop 7 Channel Switching for Mesa
Loops 2 – 6 all run through the effects loop and are controlled by the Voodoo Lab Ground Control Pro.
I just got this Voodoo Lab setup a few weeks ago, and everything works great except my delay. I’ve never had any issues with this delay prior to setting it up in this configuration.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Thanks,
Mike