Experimenting With Pedal Chain Order: Unconventional Pedal Pairings

When it comes to the order of pedals, there are some conventional best-practices, but there are many creative combinations you can explore. Today Andy Martin starts with a standard pedal order and from there moves stompboxes in and out for a variety of new tones.
Watch Andy discuss the best pedals & practices for great clean tone: • What Are The Best Peda...
Read more on Reverb : bit.ly/2ELJMsX
0:00 Comp-Drive-Chorus-Reverb
1:45 Chorus-Reverb-Drive-Comp
3:13 Drive-Phaser
4:15 Phaser-Drive
4:50 Distortion-Flanger
5:22 Flanger-Distortion
5:59 Reverb-Delay
6:52 Delay-Reverb
7:26 Fuzz-Buffer
8:20 Buffer-Fuzz (Yuck)
8:54 Delay-EQ-Trem
9:54 EQ-Trem-Delay
Pedals Used: DryBell Unit 67 Comp, Dunlop FFM2 Fuzz, Hamstead Ascent Boost, StoneDeaf PDF-1X EQ, Farm Pedals Fly Agaric Phaser, Boss Dimension C Chorus, EQD Plumes Overdrive, Jam Rattler Distortion, SolidGoldFX Oblivion Flanger, Alexander Radical Delay DX, Crazy Tube Circuits Splash MK IV, DBA Rooms Reverb, Hamstead Signature Tremolo, Cooper FX Arcades

[@nataroonytrontime3976]

I absolutely love the sound of delay into fuzz. It's perfect. Especially when you have almost infinate delay repeats and it almost lööps what you are playing infinitely. I do have drives either side of my delay just in case I need this though as It does sometimes get muddy if I want to play more quickly but great for ambient stuff

[@GitShiddy]

I put a drive at the end of the chain. After the ambient effects & everything so no matter your sound you have a "boosted" version of that sound. Love it for when you want to go shoegazey, or ary, or even just to have a gloriously over the top reverb to swamp up some blues licks. Oh and if you have a stereo reverb, but a mono setup try putting effects in the "loop" of the reverb.

[@goatman3057]

Me too! That’s what I do for all my Gran Hechicero stuff!

[@Xxmeca421xX]

I've never tried that. I really need to swap pedals around more

[@markhammer643]

Optimal pedal order is generally a matter of minimizing cumulative noise, and maximizing availability of dynamics. So you don't want to stick a high-gain pedal in front of a compressor because the compressor will simply boost the residual hiss when you stop playing, as if it was a soft passage in need of assistance, and so on. But now and then, offbeat orders can do some interesting and useful things. In my band days in the late '70s, well before the current crop of digital delays made reverse-tape effects as simple as turning a knob, I would mimic reverse-tape this way. My Univox compressor fed my MXR Envelope Filter, which was set for slowest possible attack time. That, in turn fed my MXR 6-Band EQ, which had the three lower bands set to minimum and the three higher bands set to maximum. Normally you wouldn't want to have a compressor feed an envelope filter (autowah) because you'd be losing the dynamics that make the wah sweep. In this case, however, the compressor served to stretch out the upward sweep time. And with the Threshold on the filter set just right, the sweep didn't sound so pronounced as to be a "wah". Because the 3 lowest bands on the EQ were set to min, and the filter sweeps from low to high, the net effect was that the signal appeared to get louder over time; a sort of ersatz "swell" effect. Since guitar signals are dynamic and have their greatest harmonic content at the pick attack, an effective emulation of reverse tape is that the signal not only swells in volume, but that it get brighter, and even a little more distorted at the end. Because the MXR 6-Band aims for more boost than it can cleanly achieve with a 9V battery, and because the 3 highest bands were dimed, that's exactly what it did. I followed that trio of pedals with my MXR Noise Gate, that would cut off the signal as it died out, resulting in about as good an analog emulation of reverse-tape as you could get at the time.

[@TenisDimants]

Got to try this on Zoom MS-70cdr, thank you!

[@markhammer643]

@@TenisDimants In the early days of recording, Thomas Edison would go around to county fairs with his wax cylinder recorders, and you could pay a fee to record your voice. Reporters couldn't get over how *indistinguishable* those wax cylinders were from the "real thing". Well, our standards have changed a little over the years. Keep in mind my experiment with those pedals in that order was a little over 40 years ago. I've re-acquired all those same pedals in the last year or so, but haven't attempted that combination again...yet (too busy building other pedals and responding to KZbin!). It may not sound as close to reverse-tape as I remember, but I'm sure it will sound interesting. The one caveat I will offer is that the Univox Unicomp is an odd little beast of an optical compressor, with a longish gain recovery time, that dickered with the sweep of the Envelope Filter in what I'm sure were idiosyncratic ways. So set your compression for long release if your set-up permits.

[@tompoynton]

Mark Hammer sick

[@brodykrafka]

Lately been loving this combo: Fender Guitar > Vibrato > Envelope Filter/Auto-Wah > Compressor > Tube Screamer > Chorus > Fender Tube Amp w/ Reverb & Tremolo

[@arturocabrera2435]

Man I love that guitar! Awesome playing as always. I see Andy and I click immediately! 👍

[@paulweyer4339]

Had a bandmate who asked why i kept an extra dirt pedal at the end my reverb. I said "dirt before reverb is lighting a fire in a house. Dirt after reverb is lighting the house on fire." Great swap when you need something extra chaotic at the end of your set/song. Unrelated, but will you play depeche mode songs at my wedding andy?

[@recyclingonly5743]

Tremendous as usual. Thanks! !!

[@masmachina803]

Thank you Andy. And this is my Labor Day weekend now (as he frantically disassembles pedal board on dining room table)

[@PedalExperiments]

This was great! 😃 As you can probably tell, my channel is dedicated to this kinda thing, so I'm loving the sounds you got in this video. Especially the phaser -> drive! The delay trick at the end was cool, too. Although you can achieve a similar effect by using pedals in the effects loop of a delay - if it has one!

[@kosmicwizard]

That unit 67 is awesome! And the Rooms pedal by DBA is, as always, over the top.

[@joermnyc]

Fun fact, David Gilmore accidentally plugged a wah in backwards one day... and that’s where the “screaming whales” section of “Echos” of the Meddle album was born.

[@neoaureus]

Joe R M ...oh is that possible ?

[@neoaureus]

...turn input into output or is there a dip switch or something

[@joermnyc]

@@neoaureushow to do it : kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6W9daawoJiGabs

[@broseph421]

u mean screaming seagulls

[@kcapkcans]

@@broseph421 I'm going with albatross

[@faunaflage]

This is definitely inspiring. Gonna start switching things up to see what happens!

[@adrianohorn2639]

Awsome videos. Thanks for sharing

[@rickanderson1151]

That Reverend King Club 290 is killer! Love to see the new tonal options with the pedal order. I tend to mount them on my pedalboard conventionally and am missing out!

[@marknason4572]

Dang! Love the opener there Andy!

[@legoharry100]

Apparently, Deafheaven runs a reverb into a 6505 for a massive tone.

[@LucasAlvesMusic]

the delay song was really cool. Also shows how tight of a player andy is

[@alangreenway6695]

I just got an AC-15 with 2 jack inputs, so I split my guitar signal- clean on one side, then overdrive into a volume pedal into a delay on the other. That way I can have a kind of variable distortion pedal. It can give a pulse overdrive affect. The delay allows the boosted signal to hang around a bit after I’ve turned it down. I like it a lot!

[@AddysLugo]

As always, chapeau bas!👏👏👏

[@hermitfaerie]

Awesome video was really surprised by the difference with reverb before delay

[@bluebook2681]

Chris Isaak plays Depeche Mode. Nice intro, Andy, an interesting combination!

[@KevinSmith-wb4ju]

Hey Andy. So get it. It may take awhile but well worth the trip!!! Thanks.

[@Luxsound67]

👍 ! In the end creative freedom is EVERYTHING .

[@Bilsuburbians]

Thanks andy! Thats really changed how i set my current signal chain ! Awesome

[@AndyDemos]

Bill Muhammad Great, happy to help!

[@darkforest3333]

Excellent!

[@robhead22]

That was great!! Thank you Andy!! Im already shifting pedals

[@mrfrontranger7911]

Creativity is what its all about.thinking outside the box. Thats what Andy has been doing since 2007🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@ivannovotny4552]

Andy, i love your videos. What's your take on grand master of clean sound - no pedals - Hank Marvin of The Shadows and his Fender Axe? Thanks.

[@mypal1990]

Boost then a clean overdrive is great just to bring a loud signal more gritty.

[@mcedwar1]

Great video! Hey Andy or KZbin, do you normally run your pedals from right to left every time? My most common setup is L > R: Marshall amp > EHX Soulfood overdrive > Earthquaker Dispatch Master reverb/delay > Strat. Sometimes I'll mess with stacking my Avalanche Run or older pedals. If I reverse my order: reverb/delay > OD it can become this huge western, Red Dead Redemption type sound w/the reverb cranked!

[@muh2k4]

Really enjoy the Reverb before delay. Have to try it

[@Mr.Steve-O]

I've always thought an entire series of unconventional pairings could be very cool. Last night I ran my BD-2 > Joyo D-Seed II Digital Delay > Oceans 11 > MXR Analog Chorus and had a blast with this setup

[@michaelseale3672]

Awesome, thx for sharing ~~~

[@MrTDembinski]

Great use of the PDF

[@masonianbund]

I’ve always put modulation before drive. My Jedi guitar mentor always ribbed me about it, but I stand by that order to this day. 😇

[@JoeyLevenson]

Just like running any mod pedal into a dirty amp. Personally I like tremolo and flanger first in line. Lee Hazelwood called reverb into delay “the voice of god.” It is fun.

[@davidcarroll8401]

Depeche Mode sounds great on any instrument

[@rpm9693]

love you andy

[@ryanwhitley5427]

You had me with the first note...

[@alannedelec2714]

I have a conventionnal order for my pedals. Yet I have an Earthquaker Devices Interstellar Orbiter (double filter with an LFO that can produce sounds from fixed or auto-wha to phasing effect but definetely a modulation effect) before my fuzz (Fig Fumb).. I have some hiss but the sound is great. And at the end delay into reverb into tremolo so that tremolo is far much acurate.

[@zachary963]

Lol some of these, like the delay/reverb and the delay/weird effects combos, sound awesome, but for several of these, I thought, ah yes, THAT’S why that is the unusual order.

[@nickklok4955]

It's the man with the invisable pick!

[@rypatmackrock]

The fuzz face arrangements was definitely the most drastic change in sound to my ear.

[@alphanumeric1529]

And maybe the worst sounding.

[@norwegiansniper9713]

@reverb can you do a tutorial on headphone amps, or in general how one can record with multiple people and get everybody to hear themselves and the metronome? I know there are a lot of options but the connectivity is what I am struggling with.

[@arthurveldhoen3932]

Very nice, thanks. But I was hoping there would be an example of different placings of compression as well.

[@AndyDemos]

The Unit67 has compression, so we started with compression first and then showed compression last.

[@danielcastillo5525]

So in the signal chain order Chorus>Reverb>Drive>Comp, where would you put the phaser?

[@roumpinismortis354]

guys im buying my first pedals in some days (chorous and reverb) but the distortion pedal is not at the stock of the shop, will i have problems if i use my amps gain AFTER the pedals? will sound be bad? please tell me

[@daemonblack6188]

Hey Andy, what's that telecaster hanging in the background ?!)

[@HeadfirstHumanity]

I can always count on you to sneak in a bit of Rush in these demonstrations! :D

[@brucebaldy]

I been enjoying a phaser after the delay for that spiral tail.

[@Robertthewren]

Put two synced up delays in front and behind a phaser and it sounds huge

[@Mrbigtimber7]

That opening jam really pulls you in

[@Bossmetalzone]

Depeche Mode baby

[@arnandhoharra4878]

Enjoy the Andy...

[@MarcGasch]

whats that red p90 Tele-ish on the background? pretty cool

[@AndyDemos]

Nik Huber Twangmeister- it certainly lives up to its name!

[@moonvals]

I have the blue fuzz face mini. It has to be first in the line. Otherwise it sounds totally different

[@samrotschild]

Delay before distortion or overdrive to play Dead Kennedys

[@beroberoberoberobero852]

you should allign the texto to the right when showing the pedal order, or leave it centered, alligning to the left seems a bit weird bc you read them left to right but signal goes right to left just my 2 cents here

[@adrianohorn2639]

First in my chain i put a buffered on, the slow gear, and them a fuzz. I try fuzz before and it does not work. Can you tell me some?

[@adrianohorn2639]

I run vibrato first off all sometimes. It use to work fine. Phaser, univibe and wha in in the final of chain. Put my tube overdrine at lest today. I run in a solid state amp

[@eljefe0123]

What's the song at 6:29 ?

[@muserhead22]

Enjoy the clean tone

[@sweepersmusic]

Depeche Mode? Nicee

[@HenritheHorse]

Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm

[@joycesanders4898]

..mY feelings exactly.😶

[@fngsrck]

Thank you haha. I couldn't place the lick and it was killing me.

[@ragnid]

5:24 for a second sounds like opening sound of Killing in the name

[@marlin2131]

put a heavy fuzz after literally any modulation effect and you will get a different Shoegaze band’s iconic tone low rate, medium-high depth vibrato before an HM-2 usually sounds very Belinda Butcher Loveless but if you put a whammy pedal with an expression before a fuzz you sound more Kevin Shields Loveless

[@mattgilbert7347]

Visual Sound H20 V1: Delay>Chorus Heavenly. I want a treble booster I can place after gain.

[@Stratking01]

That phaser in front of the Plumes sounds like straight up Jimi

[@gabrielledebourg2487]

Jimi did run his Univibe into his Fuzz!

[@markhammer643]

@@gabrielledebourg2487 Uni-Vibes ARE phase-shifters. Because of the staggered capacitor values, it produces broad shallow dips in the spectrum, rather than the focused and more obvious steep notches that a phaser produces. When a vibe is placed ahead of a fuzz or other distorting pedal, it moves large portions of the guitar signal closer to, and away from, the clipping threshold, yielding a more "animated" than filtered sound. That said, it is surprising just how much a UNi-Vibe is not absolutely essential to attain that same sound. Stick pretty much any 4-stage phaser in front of a distortion, fuzz, or overdrive, making sure to keep the feedback control on the phaser (assuming it has one) set to minimum, and keeping the sweep width moderate, and you'll get that milky Jimi/Gilmour tone, or VERY close to it.

[@louisndupuis]

I want the Rooms so bad!

[@delivrance3961]

ah toi aussi!!!

[@iiivanoeee651]

pareil

[@masmachina803]

yes you do. priceless. gong alone is worth it.

[@whatwedointheshadows3349]

i love that depeche mode song.

[@NoUploadJustComment]

Is that a Strokes song? Machu Piccu

[@VuotoPneumaNN]

03:49 Helios Creed kinda tone

[@Meandmythirdleg]

Buffer into fuzz sounded like you threw a blanket over the amp

[@masmachina803]

you say that like that's a bad sound. i know a couple bands where thats the signature tone.

[@joermnyc]

It sounds like a bad fuzz pedal... but I’ve heard better bad fuzz pedals.

[@JoeyLevenson]

Joe R M bad fuzz pedals are great! Boost and/or eq them! No sound is a bad sound is what he’s saying.

[@corsiglian]

The perfect pedal order is a palindrome, same backwards and forwards. Everything sounds good before and after everything else, it’s the only way.

[@markferguson3745]

Keep in mind that the exact choices of effect type are greatly going to impact the result.This is where the circuit type and headroom come into play, and where an inexpensive, mass produced circuit, - like the EHX Oceans 11 , versus say, a Strymon or Red Panda design, - is going to rapidly lose definition and clarity. Likewise, much is needlessly made of analog versus( modern) digital , yet sometimes what is a negative quality in one application is superior in another.Listen with your own ears, and follow your own direction.

[@CappyRev]

Fuzz before wah is all you need to know.

[@AndyDemos]

There are lots of dirt combinations that I like to flip often-fuzz before wah is Maggot Brain and wah before fuzz is Star Spangled Banner ✌️

[@CappyRev]

@@AndyDemos For me the ultimate fuzz wah combo is that sweeping wah buildup J Mascis does right before the solo in Kracked.

[@AndyDemos]

captainreverb Oh yeah, that’s certainly fuzz before wahhhhh!🔥

[@jamesjoyce465]

Hey reverb, why did you raise your seller fees on the middle of a pandemic? Was it because you knew people would be selling their gear more to make ends meet during hard times?

[@thepuppethead1188]

because the massive increase to the site from people wanting to buy instruments (Fender had their highest sales of any year ever this year) requires more money for site upkeep. Not to mention the uptick in people selling instruments they didn't bother to learn or gear they bought with their stimulus check (tons and tons of used pedals with cheeky descriptions like "bought with my gov'ment money and didn't care much for it" are already popping up). It's not like their cheating people out of money because at the end of the day it's still cheaper than ebays listing and selling fees.

[@jamesjoyce465]

​@@thepuppethead1188 It doesn't make any difference why the seller bought the gear, or as to why the gear is being sold in the first place so your justification for Reverb raising their fees is invalid Mr Puppet. The more people are selling gear, the more money Reverb is pocketing while just kicking back and and doing the bare minimum by simply providing a platform and hosting listings (such as Craigslist - which only charges $ for automobile sales - thanks to scammers). And for the record eBay is still cheaper to sell used Guitars and basses at only a 3.5% cut.

[@thepuppethead1188]

@@jamesjoyce465 3.5% is just the ebay selling fee,the listing fee makes it amount to 10%. Also running a website isn't just "kicking back and doing the bare minimum" running servers costs money,running customer service (which Reverb has pretty good customer service) costs money,designing a website and making sure it's features work all cost money. Besides I don't think the increase in seller fees has anything to do at all with the pandemic (even my point is moot) because Reverb was bought out by Etsy at the beginning of the year well before the pandemic was a pandemic. I think it was inevitably coming this year. Even that aside,there's worse companies exploiting people during the pandemic than Reverb's 1.5% increase in selling fee because if ebay and craigslist are cheaper like you said then you're more than able to use those,companies gouging prices on basic essential goods are likely more worthwhile to complain about than the comment section of a pedal demo.

[@iskariot3180]

@@thepuppethead1188 i might add that upscaling server capacity is one of the most costly factors for these big platforms. That's why most sites crash during peak moments for example. Having 10x the capacity to handle increased load once in a while is just not cost effective. I think it's very likely the pandemic is part of the reason, not for money grabbing purposes, but to keep the platform stable and profitable under increased workload.

[@tompoynton]

First! Is where I like to put my reverb

[@TheCameronGlenn]

Before I saw which pedals he had, I thought it was just a Walrus Slo.

[@Apophis392]

Instant click 😩

[@htuem]

rush freewill

[@melblann1970]

Enjoy the Silence??

[@Kuztomshop]

shoegaze goodness

[@user-yf2lk5gi7q]

I love the sound of a 3.5% seller fee. You know, vintage seller fees.

[@johndrowe5281]

Since you do not seem to age, I wonder if you will (please) keep this “welcome-to-my-pedal-and-guitar-revelations” show for Life or until God closes Shop for good to Eternal locations 😊👍(not proselytising, simply stating my opinion); also, in an Oscar Wilde way, I wonder if you have a disintegrating, degenerating, transmogrifying painting in your attic? Just curious. (Obviously, I should’ve gone to sleep hours ago; however, due to circumstances beyond my control, my loquacity invades your space once again…). Please, take care of yourself and your family and continue doing the great work that you do. You help me avoid so much windowshopping - but then, you inspire… or, push me into far more woodshedding in my studio 🤷🏼‍♂️👍😎🤓. Thank you and God bless you.😊. 🎸👨🏼‍⚕️🎸🫶✌️♾️.

[@jackbenson8228]

if you cant make these mega $$$$$$$$$$ pedals sound good, quit playing today.

[@abiegreyvenstein5427]

sounds horrible