I agree, and it’s a question that gets asked over and over again..

what I tend to do it start with my ‘main sound’ dirt pedal, then I take another pedal, try it before and after, then take the next one and repeat…until I have them all done…it’s quite a slow process but it’s worth it and probably quicker than setting them up how you think they ‘should’ be ordered and then moving them all around until you find the order that works.

I suppose I go for the slow methodical approach and use my ears more than anything.

I think it was MING who mentioned a suggestion via the Harmony Central forums — we should consider posting “blank” pedal images, basically just the product screens — and folks could then print those, and jot down specific settings, and add whatever notes. Seems handy to me…

I’m always re-arranging my pedal order, sometimes I find interesting sounds that way.

Even though there are no “rules” i think it could be helpful to beginners to provide an order in which to connect their effects if they are completely lost.

So here’s my attempt at a rough guideline:

Noise Reduction
Volume
Wah
Compression
Overdrive
Distortion
Fuzz
Boost
EQ
Phaser
Flanger
Chorus
Delay
Reverb

I’m sure someone else will have a different guideline which if anything just goes to prove that there is no right or wrong order to put your effects and just place them in whatever order sounds best to you

I always run my phaser before dirt…actually more specifically before high gain fuzz or distortion, I like it after low gain overdrives, but before high gain, so it usually ends up the filling in a dirt sandwich in my set ups.

cool, at the end of the day only you will know what sounds right for the music you play….

my small stone sounds really nasty and grungy before my big muff, that suits me well…but i’m sure other people would hear it and just think….. :freak:

Here’s my signal path:

HOG (pitch shifter, don’t want anything before it to screw up tracking)
->
Frequency Analyzer (I think it sounds best before anything else with the exception of the HOG really- I don’t want it to ring modulate any additional sounds that are made by other pedals- resonance, grit, etc.)
->
Korg DT-10 (so I can tune my frequency analyzer if need be)
->
stereo pulsar (before my envelope filter so it can futz with it)
->
Subdecay Prometheus envelope filter/sample + hold filter- (after my HOG and my pulsar so they can futz with it, but before my fuzz so it can’t futz with it)
->
Little Big Muff- after everything that I want before it
->
DOD-250- after my LBM because it sounds better that way
->
Stereo Clone Theory- after my dirt mainly so it can split the signal. Otherwise I might put it before, because with dirt and chorus on I find that the signal is more dirty less chorusy with it before, which is how I prefer it. Or I could put it in my SMMH’s “loop”
->
So one out goes to my amp’s instrument channel
->
other out goes to my SMMH
->
SMMH- where it is so I can run it full wet and use a volume pedal to control the mix
->
DOD FX-17- after the SMMH to control loop volume (also if I put FX in between I basically have an FX loop for my SMMH)
->
that goes to my bass channel

I want to build a pedal location switcher so that I can swap the order of my FX-17 and SMMH so then I can open and close the delay and have it trail naturally.