Why Pedal Order Matters & How To Break the Rules | Effects Pedals 101: EP1

Learn more about pedal chain order: bit.ly/3IeUPZl
Get cookin' with our Sound Recipes: bit.ly/3SPY5xI
"Which order should these effects go in?" is a common question that pops up on guitar forums fairly regularly. While our pedal content here on Reverb tends to get into the weeds for the established gearheads among us, we thought it would be worthwhile to zoom out and tackle this topic for those in the nascent stages of their pedal journey.
#reverb

[@soul-bot]

Just an idea, feel free to just move right along past my comment, but after you sort of get through the foundational episodes where you sort of run through the basics, would love to see you all look at some famous guitarists' pedalboards and kind of dissect how that is all working together, especially ones where they make up their own rules for order.

[@BrenQ99]

Joe, I have learned so much from you over the years that I couldn’t fit even the briefest synopsis here. A profound ***Thank You*** for you expertise, easy manner, generosity and beautiful, tasteful playing!

[@ryancrosby5]

Reverb into dirt is wall of sound goodness. Have a reverb at beginning of my chain just for that reason

[@SfordRog]

Use an EHX Switchblade Pro to series/parallel two entire effect chains. It's also fun to switch pedal order and/or mix in dry volume (or pre-Switchblade pedals). For example: you can reverse the order of your delay+reverb with your dirt just by running the Switchblade in series mode and clicking the A/B button to change which loop comes first. Classic rock on one tune, shoe-gaze on the next without rewiring your board.

[@tenkarabadger5244]

Joe, that was outstanding. My chain is 100% in the “correct “ order, but your “breaking the rules” segment was some next level stuff.

[@mab2112]

What a great video. Short, easy to understand, very comprehensive with sound examples for each pedal/configuration. Thank you!

[@thebreakfastmenu]

I like to use pitch shift before compressor personally. I think the compressor will highlight the pitch shifted notes a bit more, which I like.

[@CarlosCotalloSolares]

Great video! Just one thing: depending on the fuzz, you might need to place it first in the chain, even before the tuner.

[@LiamBrightman]

I always place fuzz first, someone told me years back putting it anywhere else is why fuzz gets lost in live mixes, since then always first, makes the wah tastier too I think

[@evolman123]

@@LiamBrightmanThat’s not the reason fuzzzes sometimes get lost in the mix. And most don’t need to be first.

[@RiffHarvester]

I can't wait for episode 2!

[@FriendlyNeighborhoodBallsack]

good series idea, love it already

[@CantStopScreaming]

Thanks for this awesome, logical primer. This is similar to my current setup, but one important thing to keep in mind is that any fuzz/boost/distortion that responds to touch like a tube amp (Klones, etc.) work better before the compressor (otherwise you narrow the dynamic range), and a delay before those is also cool because the delayed signals clean up as they get quieter... a trick I learned from East Bay Ray. Also, I personally prefer delay into flangers/phasers/etc so that the delayed signals aren't replicating the same part of the "sweep". I have two delays for different purposes, one before my Tumnus, and one between my Fuzz and Flanger.

[@johnw5734]

My latest board is very simple, tuner, compression, overdrive, modulation, and timeline. I could have everything running at the same time and it wouldn't sound bad. I like to hear the guitar tone through pretty much transparent subtle effect. More to enhance than anything else. Then run the signal into one or two hundred watt stacks for tons of headroom and organ like fullness.

[@roguesevendelta8773]

Hope there will be an Effects Pedals 201 vid to cover buffers, noise gates, EQ pedals, and EFX loops

[@nickreesyt]

Great video gang. I especially like verb and delay before fuzz at times for that washed out shoegaze sorta sound

[@gustavoberocan]

oh, boy! i though that the fuzz 101 was to put it right in the beggining of the chain to avoid problems with buffers and impedance.

[@bnz70]

Yep, they got that completely wrong for most Fuzz pedals.

[@zrobertez]

Some fuzzes are picky so just experiment and go with what sounds best, there are no real rules.

[@zachary963]

Fuzz faces and 60s style fuzzes want to be first. Big Muffs and modern fuzzes can go wherever. I have a JHS 3 fuzz at the beginning of my chain, and a few pedals later a JRR Ram Triangle Dual Big Muff. Both sound great.

[@adamnesbitt11]

@@bnz70 it's really not most fuzzes. It's more or less the fuzz face, its derivatives and other 2 transistor fuzzes.

[@Sd12sx23]

My understanding is germanium fuzzes definitely need to go first to work correctly, even before a tuner or wah in some cases, but this isn't as relevant with silicon fuzz.

[@metallicaspiker16]

My pedal setup is pretty simple. Line 6 Relay G50 > MXR GT-OD > MXR Smart Gate > MXR Carbon Copy. I have a dedicated footswitch to my 5150 Iconic to control switching from clean to dirty that sits right next to my Carbon Copy. Love it, but I’m debating on where the noise gate should go, before or after the OD. I can’t really seem to decide.

[@jadedevitt24]

Great video Joe

[@VinceWhitacre]

As has been said, fuzz sometimes needs to go first - but a lot of old pedals, not just fuzz (it's just that 50 yrs ago that's all there was lol) need to go first. Their low input impedance was designed to see the guitar, not to see the extremely low output impedance of modern effects - they weren't concerned with "2023 best practices," they were impedance matching based on what they thought at the time would be a guitar, plugged into one pedal, plugged into an amp. And the whole design is based around that: while you can build, say, a Fuzz Face, with a 1M input impedance so it can go anywhere, it doesn't clean up as well with your volume control. Btw it has nothing to do with germanium transistors - that's just what they had at the time - it's all about input impedance. Hell, the earliest solid state amps had Ge transistors, and it's not like you could put the amp first... it's just a coincidence of history that they figured out using pedal chains at the same time that cheap silicon became available. So what do you do when you have a bunch of vintage stompboxes with terrible specs (by contemporary standards)? You experiment. Move 'em around. Figure out what sounds best to you. After all... that's how we got the "sandard" pedal order guidelines we have today.

[@loganressler9173]

I really like this video and I'm very glad that the series exists, but I do want to mention something that I ran into myself that I think this video doesn't address re: running multiple effects at the same time. If you're trying to use both the Gamechanger and the Keeley Comp at the same time the compression will "flatten" out the volume differences of the fade in/ out by attempting to normalize the volume- ran into that issue with the Keeley Synth-1's autoswell circuit into the mini comp. If the envelope is an effect happening after the input it would be better to feed the Gamechanger a nice compressed signal which it then artificially creates dynamics for versus compressing the dynamic range after the output. But as mentioned rules are meant to be broken, this is just something I had personal experience reducing the milage of both pedals.

[@daerganguy7504]

Thanks for good content

[@incrediblestepsProd]

Good stuff.....I tend to go with tradition setup and break the rules afterwards !

[@yohanonshine4664]

Learning how to set the rate to your picking speed will improve your dynamics. My bandmates cringe at any underwater or out of phase stuff like this

[@drewsleyy3836]

The Boss PS-6 harmonizer (pitch pedal) sounds WAY better after distortion!! It tracks much much better. Just fyi, the “conventional rules” do not always apply

[@DocBanjo]

Anyone have any idea where the rule of "modulation after overdrives" comes from? I can only think it must be something to do with the push for FX loops and wanting the effect to really be present. Putting your modulation before drives is much more 'natural' or whatever if you like that, especially if you think about guys back in the day running these things into cranked amps. More than anything else on my board modulations are the ones I have to move around to find the right spot for each one.

[@lucasgoncalvesdefaria7121]

I agree and I prefer them before dirt. But dirt pedals have been around for a long while too, more specifically and importantly, Hendrix used a Fuzz Face first (naturally) and THEN a uni-vibe. I think most players using pedals for their main gain after that took as gospel that modulations go after dirt.

[@dougferrell7047]

Phase and flange before OD/Dist, chorus and rotary after. Having a delay before OD/Dist and one near the end is also fun. Very different dynamics/feel.

[@Cluefan]

I love it ❤🤘

[@joek81981]

What about a Deja Vibe, but NOT the square, grey one, a gen1 blue kind that looks like an expression pedal. Modulation, right?

[@joermnyc]

I’ve heard if you have an octave fuzz that should go before the compressor, but after a wah (make sure your wah doesn’t hate that fuzz (FoxRox makes a buffer/amp mod that goes into the wah to keep it happy with fuzz).

[@micPfleAmig]

Thank so bro Really cool It helps me doin Ambient Music Green from Tambobo bay to

[@rydeentokio]

2 things to correct: First, place the pitch shifter after the dirt, because the harmony you get becomes messy in your setup. Second, many prefer the phaser to put before the distortion to get the EVH effect.

[@adamnesbitt11]

If you run a pitch shifter after dirt it's not going to track your signal well enough. Have you actually tried this before giving terrible advice?

[@rydeentokio]

@@adamnesbitt11 No way! It applies only on analog octavers and synths, which shouldn't need unnecessary overtones. Did you try the harmonizer with the 3rd interval? You can't hear the harmony well.

[@bnz70]

I prefer my Wah at the very end and keeping modulation pedals in the effects loop of the amp.

[@danielcastillo5525]

Is Potente Pairings series coming back?

[@gbbruno596]

Nice video. I still think, though, that (1) here is no reason to compress a Wah and thus compressors should go before Wahs (Massimo Varini approved); and (2) phasers (just like univibes) are not modulation pedals at all. They are rphase shifters (a bit like wahwah pedals) and therefore they sound best before dirt, just after the wahwah pedal.

[@adamnesbitt11]

Phasers are absolutely modulation. They can also go before or after drive. Pure personal preference. Incidentally, wah can also go after drive.

[@hairxjoe]

Does anyone know what kind of patch cables those are?

[@adamnesbitt11]

EBS

[@HeyItsMarteeen]

What are the patch cables for the pedals called? I see a lot of guitar players on KZbin use them, but I can’t figure it out Help, anyone? Thank you!

[@adamnesbitt11]

EBS

[@darioconstain]

When the rules are broken unique sounds appear

[@subjectt.change6599]

Way to not demo the pedals in the thumbnail. Well done!

[@josecubanosantiago4724]

Fuzz before wah

[@JohnSpo]

I put the compressor before anything else except a tuner.

[@nicknickson3650]

put it before the tuner too to minimize noise. There's no reason for it to be after the tuner. all pedals give off a slight sound wave, so anything before the compressor will be compressed, therefore the compressor should be before every pedal.

[@subjectt.change6599]

Even Reverb can’t figure out how to use the Zombee.

[@lifethroughthecamera8531]

does anyone have an id on joe's dr martens? they look great

[@jugobugo]

wah-wah should be placed after distortion/fuzz. there I said it, sue me

[@Niteblub]

*knock knock* FBI open up!

[@anthonyfox1436]

@Niteblub should have said "its the Fuzz"

[@Niteblub]

@@anthonyfox1436 😄

[@joelmajors7084]

Clicked on this because of the microcosm in the thumbnail. No microcosm.

[@treeoflife6337]

Doesn't even talk about an effects loop wow

[@micktheman6]

This video is filled with so many inaccuracies and problems. If you’re a beginner please go watch some other videoes that can better describe this. Also buffers in tuners do not go before a fuzz.

[@andyfielding56]

You could always, if you wanted to, hone your skills as a musician and play something interesting. If you're doing that you won't need to mince your sound through a string of cheap chinese microprocessers in order to be noticed.

[@entropybentwhistle]

You may have self-assessed your playing skills as decent, but your social skills still need work.

[@xzavior21]

This is a video on how to sound terrible....