effects pedal order

[delb]

I am building an effects board, I have decided to put all the pedals I have collected over the years, I am using all the best stuff includeing tru bypass looping, custom made high end hook up cables, good power supplies and all the rest, my delema is what order to put everything on the board, I have some direction but any suggestions would be helpful, here are some of the pedal types i have- wah,compressor, boosters, overdrives, distortions, clear boost,tremelo,chorus echo, old boss CE-1, tube tape echo all going into 60's fenders, thanks, jeff,(delb)

[txstrat]

I would avoid to put the overdrive/distortion after a modulating effect like chorus or phase shift, casue IMHO that'll distort the modulated sound to the worse. But generally it's a matter of taste.
My setup is: Wah - tuner - TS808 - phase shift - chorus - amp. I'm pleased how it sounds.
The wah is not necessarily before the tuner, but for convenience (I find it easier to reach at the end of the board).

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Yeah,
putting time/modulation effects before compressors/boosters/overdrives and the like muddies and pollutes the sound to a high degree; I find the order Matt connected his stompboxes to be correct, no wonder it sounds good to him.

You' ll probably find that putting the wah first, then the compressor, then the OD section ( fuzzes, distortions, overdrives ), then the "modulation" section ( choruses, phasers, flangers and the like ) and "time" effects ( delay, reverb ) at the end of the chain is the combination that works best; you only need to care about the output level/input sensitivity of the effects with respect to each other to keep you from getting unwanted "ugly" distortions.

FWIW I've tried to alter the chain order many times, both with stompboxes and programmable effect processors, and always returned to a scenario similar to the one I described above.

Hope this helps

Best regards

Bob

[Brad1]

You' ll probably find that putting the wah first, then the compressor, then the OD section ( fuzzes, distortions, overdrives ), then the "modulation" section ( choruses, phasers, flangers and the like ) and "time" effects ( delay, reverb ) at the end of the chain is the combination that works best

They are both correct. You want wah, comp, and distortion before mod effects, with delay/reverb at the end.

The only thing is the order of the wah, comp and distortion. Switching those three around in any possible order will make things a bit different, if you can imagine how they work. Try them all...just for fun. They ALL sound different.

1) Wah>comp>distortion= the wah will be tamed in its volume swing by going through the comp, and then the distortion will react less to the wah. The distortion might also boost any low-level noise picked up and brought up by the compressor from itself, or anything before it.

2) Wah>distortion>comp= the wah may have a more dynamic effect on the distortion. If the distortion has tone controls, this may be used to an advantage, because as the wah sweeps, certain frequencies may be accentuated or reduced, depending on how everything is set (more so than a compressor before the distortion...as above). Then those going through a compressor will tame "spikiness", etc. But, the compressor, again, may bring up any noise in itself or anything before it, but a noise boost AFTERWARD won't appear, because that boost is now before the comp.

3) Distortion>wah>comp= The wah will be sweeping an already distorted signal, which will likely cause less "definition" of the wah's character. A lot of people like it that way. Wah>dist....dist>wah...either is valid, it's personal preference and what you are after. The comp at the end....same as before.

4) Distortion>comp>wah= Try it. I'd bet, if you can imagine this, that it would be the LEAST useful of all. But, it may work for something.

5) Comp>wah>distortion= The initial guitar signal will get squeezed giving the wah less to work with, and the same for the distortion. Could be cool....could get ugly. Ain't wrong...just...well...try it. It may be basically the same as #2, but probably less pronounced.

6) Comp>distortion>wah= Same kind of differences between #5 & #2, but compare this to #3.

I'm betting that once you try all the combinations, you'll know what works best for you. If you have more than one of any of these three types, you MAY even experiment by doing a "hybrid" chain. Wah>dist>comp>wah>overdrive>comp>....have a bunch of choices there!

Have fun.

Brad1