What is the correct order for placing effect pedals on A pedalboard?
Optimizing Your Guitar Effects Chain
Every guitarist enjoys experimenting with multiple guitar effects. The key question is always, what is the correct and/or best order for these effect pedals on your pedalboard? While there are some basic guidelines, there is no single order that guarantees the best result; in other words, this is not an exact science.
The order of effect pedals affects the guitar sound and is also very personal. To get started, you can follow the directions below, but feel free to experiment with different orders. For example, placing a Wahwah pedal before or after a Distortion pedal creates a significant difference in sound. Try it yourself and discover what works best for you!
- Tuner: The tuner must be the first in your effects chain to ensure accurate tuning. Any interference or signal deviation (even from additional cables) can lead to less accurate tuning. Note that a true bypass tuner often mutes the signal when activated. If you prefer continuous tuning, such as while playing, you can connect your tuner in parallel via a Morley Tripler instead of in series. This setup allows my TC Electronic Polytune to function effectively.
- Wahwah: Wah, WahWah, CryBaby, AutoWah, MultiWah, NovaWah… in short, Wah-pedals. These pedals alter the tone and frequencies of the signal to create a distinctive “wah” sound.
- Compressor: A compressor pedal provides a more compact sound, particularly useful for funky rhythms and taps. It levels the signal by reducing the volume of loud peaks and boosting quieter passages, making the overall sound more consistent. The degree of compression is a matter of personal preference and can affect the dynamics of your playing.
- Distortion / Overdrive / Fuzz: This category includes gain, crunch, distortion, fuzz, overdrive, etc. These pedals alter the signal to create varying degrees of clipping and sustain, adding grit and sustain to your sound.
- EQ: An equalizer (EQ) adjusts specific frequency ranges of the signal, enhancing or reducing certain frequencies to shape the overall tone.
- Modulation: Modulation effects include chorus, phaser, flanger, vibrato, and others. These effects modulate the signal in various ways to create different textures and movements in the sound.
- Ambience: This category includes echo, delay, and reverb, which create spatial and atmospheric effects. Reverb is often built into combo guitar amps and should be the last in your effects chain when using the amp’s built-in reverb.
THERE ARE (ALMOST) NO RULES !
Experimentation is the message, but there are a few rules you should keep. For example, there is no point in placing a guitar tuner or tuner behind a chorus or pitch shifter – the pointer of your tuner will then do nothing but swing back and forth crazy. This above pedal order is considered standard. For example, many guitarists choose to place the volume pedal behind the overdrive pedal, but just as many put their volume pedal in front of the overdrive. In the first case, you control the volume of your guitar sound without losing the distortion. A volume pedal for overdrive has the same effect as the volume knob on your guitar: at a lower volume, less distortion occurs.
So you can create those typical swell or fade-in expression effects – for example, listen to Brothers In Arms by Mark Knopfler / Dire Straits. He uses this technique very often to produceren.is an expressive guitar sound to the message, but there are a few rules you should observe. For example, there is no point in placing a guitar tuner or tuner behind a chorus or pitch shifter – the pointer of your tuner will then do nothing but swing back and forth crazy. This above pedal order is considered standard.
In general, effect pedals that produce noise are placed at the beginning of the effect chain. We are talking about overdrive/distortion/gain effects, compressors and wah pedals. If these are later placed in the signal chain, they will amplify the noise of all previous effects. After these producing pedals, come the effect pedals that modify or modulate the signal. Logical, because you first want to produce a basic sound, and only then adjust this signal with all kinds of effects. This means, for example, that chorus effects are only placed after overdrive effects.
Think about what natural sound effects you want to create with your pedalboard. Distortion pedals have been developed to simulate a sound effect that takes place in the amplifier. A reverb or delay pedal, on the other hand, simulates an effect that occurs under the influence of the physical environment. A reverb pedal should therefore be placed at the end, usually after the delay.
Buffer Effect Pedals and Signal Integrity
Buffer effect pedals have a minimal impact on the signal, even when they are turned off. This feature becomes especially noticeable when using multiple inexpensive effects pedals in a chain. True bypass pedals, while not affecting the signal when they are off, often have high impedance outputs. This can lead to signal degradation, particularly when using long cables or complex effect loops. As you add more true bypass pedals, you may experience a loss of treble and clarity in your sound.
A commonly used solution is to incorporate one or two buffered bypass pedals into your setup. These are typically placed either at the beginning or the end of the effects chain. Buffered pedals help maintain signal quality and counteract the loss of treble and clarity caused by multiple true bypass pedals. The general guideline is to use buffered pedals strategically and rely on true bypass pedals for the rest of your setup.
In theory, it’s recommended to keep the total length of your cable runs under 6 meters to avoid signal loss. However, this can be challenging in practice. For instance, on stage, you might have a 6-meter cable from your guitar to the pedalboard, 10 pedals connected with 20cm cables each, and another 6-meter cable from the pedalboard to your amp, totaling 14 meters. While this is a theoretical guideline, actual setups can vary. I’ll cover more on cable types and their effects in a future article.