Hi Richard.

My two cents here:

Compressors right after the guitar and before your other pedals. (Maybe after the wah, but definetly before GAIN/OD/DIST pedals)

Muff should be (MY OPINION HERE) last distortion in the chain. This means that all other distortions come before the muff.

The volume drop can have so many different causes:
– Could be that the muff doesn’t like some of the buffers used on other pedals
– Could be because the MUFF is mid-scooped, so it “feels” like you have a volume drop and you can get really lost in the middle of a band.
– The room where you are playing at the moment, associated with the mid-scoop. So that the sound that comes from the speakers doesn’t resonate as you expected. Try your setup in different places, put your amp on a table, than at the floor, etc, etc. See what happens.

And finally, don’t put your gainy pedals (compression, overdrives, distortions, etc) in the amp’s loop. You could even fry the power section of your amp!!!!

Modulation and delays should be OK.

What do you mean with “- Could be that the muff doesn’t like some of the buffers used on other pedals” ? I´m sorry if this is a stupid question but I´m a total newbie with this. I really appreciate your help. Thanx.

If you have dirtortion in the pre-amp (e.g.: A 12AX7 tube in the pre-amp being “pushed”) it’s kinda good practice to have the modulation after the saturation. It really depends on personal taste but if you apply reverb on a saturated sound it sounds cleaner than distorting a “reverbed” sound. The latter would sound quite messy in my opinion.

I have a phaser before my distortion/OD. I like it that way. Gives a sort of a univibey sound, or almost like an oscillating filter when before the gain section.

But I keep delays, reverbs and choruses in the end of the signal chain. I think It sounds cleaner. But really… it’s more a matter of personal taste and “tradition”than anything else.

Just try different configurations and see what it sounds like. You might discover that breaking some rules gives you what you like better…

Hi! I’m looking for suggestions or recommendations on dialing in my pedal board. I’m kind of a noob of course. Here’s my current signal chain (semi-haphazard) powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2+.

Guitar (Heavily modified ’93 Ibanez SV470)>

Boss TU-2
Ibanez Tube King (the old beige one)
Keeley Compressor
EHX Neo Clone
EHX Holy Grail Nano
Digitech Digidelay
EHX POG2
Boss SL-20 Slicer
EHX Freeze
Boomerang 2+
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr.

>Amp (Mesa Boogie Mark III)

I deliberately opted for the “compressed distortion” versus “distorted compression” option.
The Keeley stays on all the time though. I didn’t really think too much about where to put everything else other than the fact that I want everything in front of the looper (for obvious reasons). My biggest issue has been with the VP Jr., as it had to be at the end of the chain or else it did not seem to work very well (volume was too low)…now the thing is acting up and I think it needs to be repaired. Other than that…what does (anyone) think I should do as far as shifting the order of the POG2/Neo-Clone/Holy Grail/Delay?

Also, I’m thinking I need to replace the Ibanez Tube King I really like how it sounds: it’s a beast size wise and takes up two outputs on the Pedal Power. I need to get a smaller/newer distortion unit that is versatile and takes up less room. I play in one band where I need gut punching metal distortion and one that needs a little bit of a lighter touch.

Thanks for the tips! I’ll try moving the HG back and getting an active Volume Pedal. Yes, size is kind of an issue for me. I have the 32″ LYT Pedalboard but it’s pretty crammed because of the Boomerang being so big. What to people think of the Morley Mini? I’m also pondering checking out the TC Electronics Dark Matter as an option for distortion (is that sacrilege for the EHX forum?)

Hi all!
A lot of setups vary upon taste and how you like it to sound. But it does matter if you don’t want to hear a lot of noise coming out of your amp or amps! there are slight differences when you put one in front of another or vice versa. I set tuner, volume pedal, then modulation pedals, then noise suppressor. then echoes and delays, finally my loopers. out to two amps. I do not use distortion, I like my sound clean, as I like to create soundscapes. I use an acoustic electric violin, a Gibson 1989 standard acoustic with a spring load martin pick-up, a 1984 Fender Stratocaster candy apple red, a 2000 Fender Stratocaster Mexican (Rewired of coarse to what it is supposed to be!!) 7pc. a-g harmonicas, a Roland polyphonic Synthesizer, and a Casio standard keyboard, and of coarse a drum machine. I am a bit of a pedal hoarder, don’t want to take them off, love to add!! I take my most favorite pedal and set the volume level to what I really like, then I set all the other pedal volumes as close as I can to that one, so when I close and open I do not get any louder or quieter sound but pretty even. You have to work at this because of all the other settings. I find it is worth the time. You may have to adjust the loopers from time to time, but overall the setup works well. It really depends on what you like. I think the most important, are well placed noise gates or suppressors, and remember, noise suppressors tend to cut down your delays.
After all it is your signature sound that you want!! This is just what works for me! Have fun!!