Effects chain

[Kevin Deschwazi]

I have the following pedals and I'd like a few ideas as to the order I should place them in my chain:

Cry Baby Wah Wah
Marshall Shredmaster distortion
Boss BF 2 Flanger
Boss CE 1 Super Chorus
Boss CS 3 Compression/sustain

I use a Boss PSM-5 power supply/master switch and I'm thinking of putting in a tuner and an acoustic simulator for when I play lap steel and want a nice rootsy sound. I use a little orange crush 10 amp for practice and recording at home and a Vox AC 30 when I need a bit more welly. My guitars are a Tokai strat and Gibson SG (what an imagination)!

The type of music I play varies quite a lot but it's generally quite lo-fi blues type stuff.
I know there's no set layout for pedals and a lot depends on the sound you want but I'd really appreciate a few ideas, suggestions and opinions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Phyl]

It's a pretty subjective question, but here's where I would start out:

Boss CS 3 Compression/sustain
Marshall Shredmaster distortion
Cry Baby Wah Wah
Boss CE 1 Super Chorus -OR- Boss BF 2 Flanger

Caveats -

1) I don't know that I'd use chorus and flange together as a rule, but it's really a matter of taste.

2) I'd try the wah both before and after distortion to see which sounded best. I think putting wah before the distortion would soften the wah effect somewhat, not sure...

 

[Aaron Cheney]

The rule of thumb is:

first in the chain should come dynamic effects, i.e. compressors

next should come distortions

lastly should come time-based effects, i.e. chorus, delays, flanger


I've found that wah's generally sound best in the first slot though. I would order your effects like Phyl said, with the exception of putting the wah first.

My caveat is: the rules o' thumb don't mean squat if you prefer the sound you get by placing the effects in a different order. Experiment.


got mojo?
www.voodoovibe.com

 

[taylorfreak]

i'll go with the compressor->wah->shredmaster-> chorus and the flanger in the efx loop if u have one..if not before of after the chorus will do...

 

[dean666]

nice to see a local newbie,

the supposed correct way is:

dynamic/frequency altering effects or processors. this is your compressors and wah's. if you put these further down the chain they'll alter the sound of the pedals before them rather than just changing your guitar signal, so ideally go wah then compressor (unless your after a certain effect).

next is the distortions/overdrives. if using more than one at a time, put the one with the highest output last. if you put a pedal with a lower output later in the chain it will decrease the volume of the previous pedals.

next are the delays and modulaters. this is a personnel preference decision. although putting these through an FX loop can realy clean up your sound as it keeps the distortions seperate.


so in your case i'd go, (tuner)> wah> compressor> shredmaster> flanger> chorus (if you have an effects loop the last 2 would go through that)