Most effect pedals offer guitarists a cheap and easy means of personalizing their guitar tone, and even the expensive boutique products favored by the most discriminating pros (or the most insufferable...
Most effect pedals offer guitarists a cheap and easy means of personalizing their guitar tone, and even the expensive boutique products favored by the most discriminating pros (or the most insufferable internet forum dweebs) usually cost less than a new guitar or amp.
If you’ve been playing for a while, chances are pretty good that you’ve probably already built up a collection of four, five or 10 stomp boxes, which now leaves you with the question of how to hook them all up and use them in your rig. Or perhaps you’ve hooked everything up and wondered why you get howling feedback, excess white noise, hum or silence whenever you engage two or more pedals at once.
Like most things involved with creative pursuits like making music, there isn’t a steadfast right or wrong way to do things, but if you encountered any of the problems above you’re definitely doing things wrong (unless you play in a German nihilist industrial noise band, in which case, go nuts). This article will help you avoid those scenarios by describing some of the basic rules and suggestions for placing different effects in the ideal order in your rig’s signal chain and how to achieve the best possible tones when using several stomp boxes together. If you’ve ever wondered how to put together your own pedal board, this info will give you a good start toward obtaining the best sound and most versatility out of your rig.
Touch and Go
As a general rule of thumb, it’s ideal to place the “broad stroke” effects that have the most dramatic or dominant impact on your sound toward the front of the signal chain while placing the “narrow stroke” effects that refine details toward the end, although there are many exceptions to this concept. For the