FX Chain – What is the proper way to order my guitar pedals? PICs, VID & Reference here!!
The Tone King | Oct 16, 2009 | Comments 37
Boys & Girls – welcome back. Here you will find some useful info that you can print out for your reference … all in regards to ‘The proper way to order the guitar pedals & stomp boxes on your pedalboard’.
Beginning of Chain
Guitar -> Wah-> Compressor ->Overdrive
Overdrive Options
Overdrive into (A) front end of ‘clean’ amp for light overdrive.
Overdrive into (B) front end of a ‘distorted’ amp for searing leads.
Overdrive into (C) a ‘distortion’ pedal for searing leads.
This is what is typically found IN FRONT OF the amp (going into the INPUT of the amp).
Modulation & Time Based Effects
Modulation (Chorus, Flange, Phaser) and Time Based Effects (Reverb, Delay) typically come AFTER everthing above.
They can look like this :
On the pedalboard :
Guitar-> Wah-> Compressor-> Overdrive-> Chorus-> Delay-> Reverb
Or, can be in the Effects Loop of your amp :
FX SEND -> Chorus, Delay, Reverb -> FX RETURN
So, in an effects loop … it looks like this :
Guitar-> Wah-> Compressor-> Overdrive-> Amps preamp-> Chorus, Delay, Reverb-> Amps poweramp
Hopefully that helps everyone out!
Now – for the fun stuff :
More Pics for your viewing pleasure
Other Pedalboard References
In regards to Pedal Cases … Road Runner makes a killer gigbag / unpowered pedalboard for $19.99. If you need pedal ‘storage’, I highly recommend those bags.
The cases you see in this picture are CNB Pedal Board hard-shell cases. Great storage for pedals.
For Pedal Power : I highly recommend the Visual Sound 1-Spot or the VooDoo Lab Pedal Power (I own both of them).
On a budget? Check out this cross-reference chart of some of the greatest pedals made … http://thetoneking.com/wp/?p=419
I will leave you off with this goodie … A pic of my #1 - TTK JR. guarding the goodies 
If you want to see the VIDEO version of this article : you can watch right here :
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So glad you are willing to take the time and show how to set up different effects pedals… very few will or even tell you the right way! Thanks
The text here alone helped my noisy f/x loop problem significantly. Thanks TTK
i like the way you described the pedals,
do you have any suggestion for groovy metal playing ??
Please help me out,
thanks king
Hi,
great information, I’ve been setting mine up all wrong, I’m new to the whole electric guitar scene, just learning and this is how I have my small board set up left to right; blues pedal, chorus pedal, overdrive pedal… so you’re saying it should be right to left in this order; guitar into chorus, to overdrive, to blues, inot amp?
I also have one other question, since I’m new to this, I’m wondering if my next pedal should be a distortion or possibly a big muff ? what do you recommend? I play classic rock tunes from, springsteen, mellencamp, ccr, beatles, the Stones, the Eagles etc….
Thanks
Great information, very reassuring to see. I however have a question. I’m getting a Behringer VT999 Tube Monster to use on a small practice amp. Your line up wold suggest the OD near the front of the chain, but I would like to think I could place this particular unit at the end just before the amp. Kind of pretending the amp has a tube preamp stage built in. If you could respond with your opinion it would be helpful.
Also my favorite amp being a Marshall Class 5 I occasionally seem to have situations whereas getting the amp to drive where I want it then it’s too loud.
So knowing how ridiculous it is I’ll be considering the VT999 in front of the Class 5. The Class 5 sounds perfect just under half volume, but also cleans up nicely at a lower setting. Point being the amp has no channel switching and I get the feeling the VT999 could simulate a clean crunch and then more boost crunch when engaged. And of course a third tone with a distortion pedal. I promise I won’t go the 4th option and turn it all on at once. Maybe.
Great Video!!!! Helped Tremendously! But where do I put my ernie ball volume pedal?
Great Video!!! But where do I put my Ernie Ball Volume Pedal?
I have a small set of pedals for bass… and i’ve tried several orders…. recommendations?
Tuner (i don’t know the brand)
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!!
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!!
Your great toneking you save me tons of time money and work
good rockin
chaz vegas
Where would i put a pitch Shifter??
Is it after the Distortion pedals or together with the delay pedals in the effects loop??
Hi Tone King!
I’ve a few questions for you if you don’t mind answering them.
I’m really new into this whole thing about sounds and before watching your video, I’d absolutely no idea about the order of the pedals from the guitar to the amp. Thanks for teaching me that, I’ll come back to your video once I got more pedals to my guitar.
Well, here’re the questions.
I don’t have a pedal board yet. How useful is to have one?
And by now what I’ve got is this:
My guitar is a fender squier strat, amp is a prtable roland microcube. Now that amp has this effects: Tone, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, Delay and Reverb plus a custom effects like: Acoustic, jack clean, black panel, brit combo, stack classic, r-iffer and mick. For the custom effects in that order is going from less to more gain. I like to use up to the black panel and jack clean for a cleaner sound. Of course, I also have the option of having more gain from my amp, but I prefer to use my distortion pedal which is cleaner to my ear.
Now, about my pedals I’ve got a boss super octave oc-3 with 2 outputs, a direct output and a mono output. My other pedal is a deltalab md-1 metal distortion pedal. I’m thinking about buying a behringer graphic equalizer eq700. How reliable and good is that one?
And my last question, which order would you recommend me to use?
I always use from my guitar, the octaver, metal distortion, and I was thinking about using the graphic equalizer at the end right before my amp. Is it a good idea?
Thanks for your time and I hope to get an answer from you.
Regards, and take care.
where would you put the tuner?
Thank you. very nice job on the order of pedals.
Great video you made it simple !…Cheers
I have a high gain amp EVH 5150-3 with a effects loop….How does this sound for the chain..
Front of Amp : Tuner>Wah>Comp
Loop: Phazer>Flanger>Delay (Last)
Where to I put a noise gate and Axcess BS-2 Buffer ?
Thanks
Where would a whammy pedal go - before or after distortion? Right now, my set up is guitar – tuner – wah – compressor – overdrive – distortion – whammy – amp. I don’t have an effects loop on the amp (Blues Junior).
Thanks for being helpful! Very informative video.
Hi and thank you for all you do….
Where should i put my loop pedal on my pedal bord?,
did i have to forget the fx loop of my amp ?
Thanks
fabrice the french guy !!!!!!!!!!!!!
rock on dudes
Can I put a boss noise suppressor in the fx loop by itself to cut out the hum or do I need to hook it up to my entire pedalboard, which runs through my amps input?
What if I just put my noise suppressor in the fx loop and have everything else run through the gain circuit?
Alright, I have been thinking about this alot, and I would like to ask some questions. I play mostly black and death metal so I dont need a wah-pedal, but ive still got a few issues to crack my head upon. So following your line of thought I would go something like this: Guitar->Tuner->Boss NS2 Noisesupressor( now heres the thing, because this pedal has an extra return and send output built in, so according to my beliefs of the proper use of the pedal I would have to continue like this: Boss Noisegate send ->Overdrive->Octave->Distortion->Return of the Noise Supressor->Amp. And then plug the equalizers and reverb into the effex channel. (I included the distortion in my chain because I’m not fond of the gain channel on my current amp.) My question is, is this the correct useage of the noise supressor and is it placed in the correct spot. Because I believe that by plugging all the tone pedals into the send and receive line from the Noise Supressor, you will get alot less humming and hissing while keeping a nice tone.
If you have any comments on my way of thought or any suggestions on how to improve the positioning or usage of the Noise Supressor, please provide some feedback.
Regards
Sam
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Fantastic instruction, Thanks. {;o)
I totally agree with your different lineups.
However, one odd (2-pedal) combination that really kicks ass,
is using a FUZZ BEFORE a WAHPEDAL, that really gets an agressive howl.
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To answer any questions above…
Tuners: Place the tuner at the very front of your pedal board. You want to tune straight from your guitar without any effects. If you have a special output for a tuner on your volume pedal like the Ernie Ball vol. pedals do then run your tuner through that ONLY if you have your volume pedal at the front of your chain.
Volume Pedal: I place my volume pedal at the front of my chain directly after my guitar. Others place their vol. pedals in the middle directly after overdrive or distortion and directly before any modulation or time based effects. Both vol. pedal placements are sufficient. Placing it at the front (I feel) is more convenient and gives you control over the amount of gain with your foot. Placing it in the middle leaves the gain at the selected level and strictly controls volume fade in and out. Don’t place it at the end. There are NO tonal benefits to placing your volume at the end. There may be experimental benefits though… Who knows.
Tremolo or Vibrato: I would place a tremolo pedal before any other modulation or time based effects. It’s fine to experiment though because a tremolo effects the volume wave without distorting or modulating the actual sound. I place mine before my delays and reverb pedal and after my overdrive pedals.
To give you another example of a pedal board I will list mine in order from right to left.
Ernie Ball VP (with Boss TU-2 in the special output), Keeley compressor, Keeley Mod-ed Boss SD-1 (overdrive), Franklin Pro-Drive Overdrive, Cusack tap-a-whirl tremolo, T-Rex Reptile Modulation Delay, and a Boss DD-5 delay with external tap pedal.
I have an FX loop in my Orange Rockerverb 50 but don’t use it because of it’s inconvenience and I can’t tell much of a difference in tone when using it or not.
I hope that helps.
-Sean
Right now i have from my guitar, a tuner, noise suppressor (in the NS loop, mxr dyan comp, tubescreamer, Ds-1, mxr phase 90 and a ce-5 chorus) then leaving the loop i go to a ehx qtron, dd-3 delay, DL4 delay, and an RV-5 reverb. The whole board is in my effects loop on my marshall. Im looking for a new setup, any suggestions?
I have a boss tu-2 tuner. Where should that be placed?
Excellent and informative video! Thank you for taking the time and trouble to produce it. Two questions left unanswered by TTK, and one is addressed by another comment above, is, where to place the volume pedal? I do use mine extensively, and would like to know it’s best location, as well as where to place a tuner pedal, and whether or not to route the tuner out of the specified “tuner” jack in the typical volume pedal. Look forward to your answers.
[...] Here is a tutorial on ‘How to Order my FX Pedals’: http://thetoneking.com/wp/?p=681 [...]
[...] Here is a tutorial on ‘How to Order my FX Pedals’: http://thetoneking.com/wp/?p=681 [...]
[...] Here is a tutorial on ‘How to Order my FX Pedals’: http://thetoneking.com/wp/?p=681 [...]
Jasper Eads
Posted October 18, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Tone King,
I love the way you discribed the order of the effects chain in the vid.
I am still unsure where I should put my volume ped though…. I have a Boss GT-10 and from what I have noticed they have put it ( for the majority ) at the end of the effects chain. Im not sure that this is the best place for it. LoL It kind of makes me want to ask you if you could do a vid on the GT-10 to explain some things. Anyways thank you for dedicating your time to tone and sharing your results.
Jasper, vol pedal at end of the signal chain is not good, IF you want your other effects to die off naturally, otherwise THEY will be chomped off its attenuation.
Better to place it AFTER any drive/dist pedals but B4 any time based/mod pedals, so the singal dies off leaving natural sounding trails on the effects.
IF you want to vary the gain on your pedals then place B4 the gain based pedals. (But I wouldnt)
TTK might have other ideas, but I think he may agree for the most part with my suggestions.
Thanks Toneking for explaining pedal order. I used to only have a DS-1 and an Ibanez Chorus/Flanger pedal fed into a crate powerblock amp.Which I was contented with. My friend left for Australia and left me a “plethora” of pedals. Can you give me any tips on how to use them in the proper order? 1)Morley bad horsey wah 2)Digitech EX-7 Which i will only use for octave 3) Digitech DF-7 4)line 6 Dr.Distorto (which I will only use for feedback) 5)Digitech Compressor/sustainer 6)Boss BF-3 flanger 7)digitech multi-chorus 8)boss GE-7 equalizer 9)digitech digidelay and 10) Boss noise suppressor. Wheeew! I just think it would be fun to play with all these pedals. Thank you very much for any suggestions you could offer me.
hi Tone King
what about the vibrato pedals where they shoud be, i have a electro harmonixs stereo pulsar and when its on it always low my signal, where should i put on the fx chain??
Tone King,
I love the way you discribed the order of the effects chain in the vid.
I am still unsure where I should put my volume ped though…. I have a Boss GT-10 and from what I have noticed they have put it ( for the majority ) at the end of the effects chain. Im not sure that this is the best place for it. LoL It kind of makes me want to ask you if you could do a vid on the GT-10 to explain some things. Anyways thank you for dedicating your time to tone and sharing your results.
Nice vid on the organization of the pedalboard. incredibly helpful