Order in the Court
Which Pedal Goes Where?
By Peter Swiadon
Did the chicken come first, or was it the egg? In BOSS speak, was it the overdrive or the chorus? Ever since guitar stompboxes were invented, guitar players have been trying to figure out their proper order. The product support team at BOSS gets tons of calls about this: “Should my compressor go after my EQ?” “Where does the wah go?” “If I have a phaser and a chorus, which goes first?” The list is almost endless, and every question is valid. Even the math is daunting: If you have just five pedals, for example, it’s possible to have them in 120 different combinations, and your sound will be drastically different depending on the order your effects are in. And it gets more complicated. Why?
Frankly, there isn’t really a true “right” way. Some have advantages, but when it comes to tone, there are no rules. Whatever works is what you should do. It’s anarchy in Pedal-land. Perhaps the strange, technoid sound of an unusual sequence of pedals is just the sound you’re after. However, some ways are certainly better for a large majority of guitar sounds than others, and there are some valid technical reasons for certain sequences of pedals: reducing noise is an obvious result of good pedal order. So while first admitting that ultimately the choice is yours, and the old expression “if it works, don’t fix it” can be sage advice, let’s explore some typical pedal arrays, and why they are recommended.
Who's on First?
Let’s assume that we have a fairly complete lineup of BOSS pedals: a CS-3 compressor, a distortion (say, the famous MT-2 Metal Zone), a CH-1 chorus, a DD-6 stereo delay, a GE-7 graphic equalizer, and the killer PW-10 V-Wah. Such a lineup could produce lots of cool guitar sounds, and, depending on their order in the signal path, could sound either really great or pretty dreadful. What goes where, and why?
Here’s the basic concept: Dynamics pedals and wahs usually come first, distortions/overdrives and pedals that modify the tone are next, and finally are pedals that process or add ambience to the tone. What does this mean for our pedals? Here are our configurations (fig. 1)
Wah
The PW-10 wah, like most wahs, works best if it gets an uneffected signal directly from the guitar. A wah is simply an active tone control with a pedal instead of a knob. It wants to work on the basic tone of your guitar. If it was after the compressor, the boosted signal from the compressor could overdrive the input of the wah, making it sound unpleasantly distorted. And since a compressor is an amp, and a wah boosts certain frequencies, the noise level could get considerably higher before it even gets to the overdrive, where noise can really get to be an issue.
Putting the wah before the overdrive can increase the sustain and fatness from the overdrive, giving it a more singing lead tone. If the wah is after the distortion, it won’t hear all the frequencies it might need to work well, since overdrives work by altering the harmonic content of the signal. (However, since this can sometimes be a cool sound, try it. Remember: Ultimately there are no rules.) Generally speaking, the wah works best if it’s first.
Compressor
The compressor is next for similar reasons. Compressors are amplifiers; that means they can increase the content of whatever is before them in the signal path. If they are placed after noisy things like overdrives, they will add even more noise. Plus, a compressor placed before an overdrive can fatten up the distortion by increasing the signal going into the overdrive pedal. Many players use compressors just to compensate for the low output of single coil pickups.
Overdrive
Next is the distortion. Overdrive and distortion pedals change the harmonic content of what comes before them, and can amplify the sound a lot, so you usually want pedals with a clean output before them, and pedals that don’t further increase the level — and the noise — after them.
EQ
The previous pedals are for creating your basic tone. Now you want to use equalization to dial it in. Maybe you need more highs in certain parts of your song, or more bottom. The EQ will process the sound of the pedals before it and boost or cut frequencies to get you the sound you want. Place the EQ after the wahs, compressors, and overdrives. However, sometimes it can be used like a compressor to hit your distortion harder for more sustain, or to compensate for low output pickups, so it can be used right before the overdrives. In theory, however, the EQ is most effective right after the Metal Zone in our pedal chain.
Chorus/Phase/Flange
All the pedals up to this point are creating and fine-tuning the basic tone. Now you want to process that tone by adding modulation (chorus/flange/phase), delay, etc. The CH-1 is a stereo chorus with an unusually fat sound. Choruses like to work on the entire tone; if you put it before the overdrive, for example, you would end up distorting its sound. Do you want to do that? Maybe, but for theoretical purposes, put the chorus after the amplifying and equalizing tools. If you’re using phasers or flangers, this is also true for them.
Ambience
In the physical world, if you were in a cave or, say, the Grand Canyon, any sound you made would bounce off the walls and come back at you as delay or reverb. This delay or reverb would be a repeat of the entire sound. In a series of pedals, you would put the delay or reverb last in the chain, to add some ambience, and to simulate the reality of actual reflected sound. Until recently, we would suggest that the chorus be the last in line; this is because the chorus was the only stereo pedal, and, by having it last, you could then go out to two amps in true stereo. However, the DD-6 digital delay is true stereo; in fact, it has two inputs, enabling the chorus or other stereo effects to be before it. So to be true to how sound is made in the physical world, put the delay last.
Amps
Now that you have your pedal array worked out, how should you set your amp? In general, you want the amp to make the complex tones created by the pedals louder, but not necessarily alter or distort this sound. The way to achieve this is to set the amp for a clean sound, and use it almost like a PA. Of course if you like the way your amp affects the tones from your pedals, crank the channel on your amp. You might be distorting the sound you made with your pedals, but that might be just the sound you’re after.
The Final Rules
Frankly, we could have made this article much shorter by simply saying: There are no rules; whatever makes the sound you’re after is how to do it. But if you use these guidelines, you’ll keep noise to a minimum, and give your pedals the optimum signal characteristics they need to work their best. So try these rules (or suggestions if rules are not your thing) and see how they work for you. Tone is king!