PenguinMan Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Hey, I'm working on building my own pedal board or am going to buy a pro one, but I'm not exactly how to arrange them. I know that you get a certain sound if you put a distortion before a wah, and another if you put one after. So I'm wondering what the typical away to arrange common effects on a pedal board are. Any help with this would be graet thanks! Also, my set up includes a Flanger, Phaser, Chorus, Delay, Volume Pedal, Wah Pedal, Tuner, Noise Suppressor, Compression/Sustainer, Equalizer, Reverb, and Distortion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Hey, I'm working on building my own pedal board or am going to buy a pro one, but I'm not exactly how to arrange them. I know that you get a certain sound if you put a distortion before a wah, and another if you put one after. So I'm wondering what the typical away to arrange common effects on a pedal board are. Any help with this would be graet thanks! Also, my set up includes a Flanger, Phaser, Chorus, Delay, Volume Pedal, Wah Pedal, Tuner, Noise Suppressor, Compression/Sustainer, Equalizer, Reverb, and Distortion. Well, there's no "right" or "wrong" order, just what sounds good to you! That said, there's some basics - do a google search - there's a few articles out there, this being the one I sort of go by now. Noise suppressor is almost always going to be very last (to suppress any noise picked up along the signal path before the amp, of course) although in a few occasions where I knew the line noise was coming from one place, I have put it between that pedal and the Distortion pedal I had following it, to keep the noise from being amplified. Delay/Echo and Reverb is generally the last pedal in the chain (besides the noise gate) as you generally want the entire signal to be "echoed" to sound natural. That said, I have put delays before heavy flangers for kind of an interesting sound with some legato parts I play. I usually like my volume pedal towards the end of my chain as well, as I like to use it to control the signal hitting the amp. I usually have it just before my delay, because volume swells sound pretty cool through the delay (rather than volume swelling the whole delayed signal) and my delay is a little fussy if I feed it really hot signals. Some people prefer their volume pedal earlier in the chain - some distortion pedals sound cool as you roll the level back some) I usually put my Tuner first in the chain simply because it's a stomp-able type and I can use it to cut off all signal there, which works well, and I have enough weird effects in my chain that I can't tune very well wit the tuner after them unless I turn a bunch of them off. That article I linked touches on more, and gives good explanations as to the "whys" involved. It's a good read. Of particular note, I'd try playing with the EQ on both sides of the distortion (particularly if you use a lot of distortion) as EQ before and after distortion can give some radically different tones, depending on the distortion. I've gotten some funky sounds putting a 7 band EQ on both sides of he distortion, tweaking both whats going into the pedal and what comes out of it. (Particularly helpful with one DIY box I own that has a funky sound, but ear-piercing highs) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PenguinMan Posted July 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Thanks for the help with that, the site is great and explained everything to me. I now know how I want to set up my pedal board, but does anyone know if it is better to run something like this through an effects loop or just straight from my guitar to my amp? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_the_damned Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 My current set up (all over my floor as I'm building my pedal board this summer) is : Acoustic simulator, Distortions, Chrous, flanger Octaver (or would be if it wasn't broken!), then EQ. I find having the EQ pedal last of all in the chain VERY useful as it allows me to vary the sound of all my pedals and also controll how hard I'm hitting my amp (with the level control). I'm going to be adding a noise gate on after it when I recive it (ordered a few nights ago) as my system is a little noisy when I'm on full gain (mainly due to a the really bad ocilations of my Line 6 flanger, which I normally completely disconect, and NOT my cheep ass behringer pedals!). The choice of effects loop or straight in is mainly personal preferance. If you have it in your effects loop your guitar signal will go through the amp's pre-amp and then the effects so it'll sound differant than having your effects before the amp. It seems to me a lot of people like to put delays, reverb and modulation type effects in an effects loop rather than infront of the amp because it gives a more pleasing natural sound. I'd say keep distortion and the like out of the effects loop but again I think its mainly personal preferance. hope my ramble has been of some help Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marossy Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 FWIW, I have always liked the effects straight into the input jack vs. using an effects loop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted July 4, 2006 Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 Also depends on the effects loop - my cheap amp has an effects loop that works great with studio and rackmount gear that's expecting a line-level signal, but doesn't play nice with all of my pedals. But assuming your effects loop plays nice with with the FX you want to use with it, just consider the preamp on the amplifier as another effect in the chain - if you're getting amp distortion from the amp before it hits the FX loop, then think of your amp as a distortion box. Or think of it as another EQ if you use it to really shape your tone. Consider whether things like your amps reverb are applied before or after the effects loop, and then figure them into the same ideas for the signal chain you want. (Of course, there are no set "rules" here) But this is why many folks like their delay and modulation effects in the effects loop - it's basically like putting them after a distortion box, rather than before them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKO Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 I have amassed a large number of pedals now, all of which run on 9v .... and those square batteries are too expensive to buy. Last night i left the jacks in my new delay pedal and it ran a £5 battery flat overnight. What do you guys with boards do? would it be a good idea to get a large adaptor with power to all of them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksound Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 I use the 1Spot thing. MF has a package deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKO Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 cherz do they make them with english plugs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sambo Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Effects pedal arrangement for me always goes: Guitar --> Volume --> Wah --> pitch shifting (ie whammy)--> distortions (lowest gain to highest gain) --> any other stuff you want Effects loops: Series: whack in your EQ's, boosts (microamps blah blah) Parallel: Delays (smallest delay to highest, so chorus then delay...) There's always a matter of taste with some pedals like phasers and flangers, some like em in the 'loops, some like in front of amp, but try it out and see. But please don't do what i've seen some certain (remain unnamed!!) bands try and do and put a tube screamer in the effects loop of a 5150 S Oh and pedal board power supplies... Powerall UK version from wwww.guitareffectspedals.com bout 30 quid i think it was. 1.7amp jobby ha ha ha S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sambo Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Oh and pedal board power supplies... Powerall UK version from wwww.guitareffectspedals.com bout 30 quid i think it was. 1.7amp jobby ha ha ha S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Marossy Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 I power my whole pedalboard via a daisy chain with a 200mA Boss PSA120 power supply. I like going straight into the amp input because the effects loop in amps usually sound like crap to me. But, that's me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PenguinMan Posted July 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2006 personally i use daisy chains and appropriate adapters for all of my effects. i only use boss, line 6, and then my dunlop crybaby, so thats three adapters and the rest to be daisy chained. as for euro plugs, they sell adapters online for about 2 dollars, or just buy a european one. and it seems like everyone agrees that putting the effects between the gutiar and amp sounds better then the effects loop. so thank you everyone for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKO Posted July 7, 2006 Report Share Posted July 7, 2006 (edited) heres mine: wah > ovrd > vol pedal > delay think its worth making a board for this few?... i might be getting a few more Edited July 7, 2006 by EKO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PenguinMan Posted July 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 i would invest a small ammount of money in a pedal board if you're adding a few more pedals in there. it'd probably even be cheaper just to make your own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j. pierce Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 I had some problems with line noise in my rig using daisy a daisy chain. (Boss wall-wart into a TU-2 pedal tuner, with the daisy chain coming off the power output from that) Never really realised that was the cause until I picked up a Gator G-Bus power supply at the music store (which I picked up mostly because I had gotten to the point where I was starting to have too many pedals for my power supply) It's got like 8 isolated power outputs, plus I think two 18v outputs as well. There's a wallwart that plugs into the outlet, and they have them for various countries, and then the wallwart plugs into this small power brick thing (which can be screwed into the bottom of your pedalboard to hide it out of the way if you've got enough clearance) and you run all the little power cables off of that. I love the thing, it's handy, especially when I break out all the pedals and start playing space jams. I'm sure part of the line noise was from my shoddy wiring jobs on the DIY pedals I've made, but my rig is now as quiet as I could ask of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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