Setup pedals

It tames the peaks in volume, raising any quiet notes by adding gain or reducing the volume of louder notes to smoothen the dynamics. Another general rule is that in most cases reverb and delay pedals are positioned after distortion-based pedals, such as fuzz or overdrive. Delays and reverbs create their desired effect by making a copy of the original signal and varying certain elements such as an attack, timing, decay, and color. Distortion pedals simply add gain to the signal, which causes it to saturate and clip, resulting in a gritty tone.

If distortion is applied to a guitar signal after reverb and delay, things tend to get a little messy. Adding gain to the duplicated signal causes the tone to become muddy, whereas positioning the distortion pedal before reverb and delay improve the clarity of the repeated signals.

Another useful tip for assembling your pedals in the signal chain is to position your gain pedals so lower-gain devices run into higher-gain devices. This ensures that the signal is as clean as possible before it enters the pedals which increases the gain the most.

In most cases, fuzz pedals add the most gain to your signal, followed by distortion, then overdrive which adds the least gain. In this case, positioning your overdrive first, then the distortion, and finally the fuzz pedal would mean that you could engage more than one of your gain-based pedals simultaneously and have the cleanest signal possible. If you started with the fuzz pedal, it would be very difficult for the overdrive pedal to create the headroom required for both effects to be used together.

The result would be a highly saturated, chaotic tone. Over the years, many innovative guitarists have used pedals in their own unique ways to create their signature tones.

Certain pedals may have been designed for a specific purpose, but through experimentation, it may have been discovered that they are capable of playing different roles within the signal chain. These innovations lead to new artists being inspired to build upon the discoveries of their idols, and as some pedals are passed through the generations they gain a reputation for their unconventional capabilities. Popularized by legendary blues guitarist Jack White of The White Stripes, the DigiTech Whammy pedal is one of the most unique pedals to ever be created.

Its main effect is pitch shifting, but this is no ordinary pitch shifter pedal! With a large rocker plate installed in the center of the pedal, the guitarist controls the number of steps that the pitch is shifted either up or down. If it is placed after distortion in the signal chain, it can be used to create red-hot wails which sound incredible and unique.

You can use the Whammy to shift up or down by a whole octave, or any interval of steps in between. The Fuzz Face distortion is one of the most iconic pedals in history. It was used by Jimi Hendrix to create his signature red-hot tone, and when coupled with a wah pedal, it sounds incredible. The reason that the Fuzz Face is a true rule breaker amongst regular fuzz pedals, is that no matter where you position it in the signal chain, it produces a roaring tone that merges beautifully with modulation, reverb, and delay.

A popular position for the Fuzz Face, which was used by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, is toward the beginning of the signal chain. This means that when reverb is added later in the chain, the tone that is produced is thick, dreamy, and psychedelic. First introduced in , the POG by Electro Harmonix is an incredibly unique effects pedal that creates layers of different octaves and plays them back simultaneously.

The reason this pedal is considered to be an exception to the general rule of octave-shifters is that it also thickens the tone of the guitar considerably. Placing the POG before distortion pedals in the signal chain makes things very interesting indeed.

The POG is also unique in that it can be used to make the electric guitar sound like a bass. There are many octave shifters on the market, but none have come close to the truly unique and strange sound of the EHX POG.

Connecting guitar pedals involves plugging a cable into the input of one pedal, and then into the output of the pedal which is positioned after it in the signal chain. However, guitar cables are too long to use for these connections, so smaller versions known as patch cables are preferred.

Patch cables are very short, and they are designed for the specific purpose of linking guitar pedals in your signal chain. Their short length helps to keep your pedalboard tidy and prevents excess cables from hanging over the pedals, which could potentially obstruct the controls or switches.

Another method that some guitarists use to connect their pedals to mains power is known as daisy-chaining.

This involves powering multiple pedals from one plug, with several power cables running from it. This is often overlooked, but using cable lengths that are too long can result in tonal degradation and signal-related problems. Guitar jack cables are classed as unbalanced, whereas microphone XLR cables fall into the balanced category.

There is a solution that can be used if you do need to use unbalanced guitar cables that stretch further than around 20ft. This involves converting the cables into balanced lines at the end which connects to your guitar, then converting them back to unbalanced at the end which connects to your amplifier.

These devices make it possible to create cable runs that stretch up to ft in length using standard XLR mic cables. It ensures that no tonal degradation occurs despite the extensive length of the guitar cables. When it comes to powering your pedals, you essentially have three options. Firstly, you can use individual power supplies or plugs for each effect. The second option would be to power your pedals using batteries. Most stomp boxes can be powered using 9-volt batteries, but larger pedals may not offer this possibility.

Batteries also run the risk of dying midway through a performance, rehearsal, or recording session. Consequently, relying solely on batteries is too risky. That brings us to the most effective and efficient method for powering your pedals in the signal chain, and this is the method that the vast majority of guitarists who use multiple pedals choose.

They are often designed in a brick shape and are plugged into the mains power. A PSU offers multiple outputs of varying voltages. Some offer a large number of outputs, combining 9 volts, 12 volts, 18 volts, and 24 volts.

I'd recommend using the volume knob on your electric guitar to manage the intensity of the fuzz, while keeping the tone and level or volume of your fuzz pedal a bit higher. Use the volume knob to manage the intensity of the fuzz pedal. The above demo isn't a great example, just because that particular fuzz pedal has a lot more control than most.

A typical fuzz pedal, like the DOD fuzz pictured below will only have three controls, volume, tone, and gain or "fuzz" in this case. Typical fuzz pedal controls include volume, tone, and gain or "fuzz" in this case.

Boost pedals are more complex and versatile than they seem. How you use one depends on where you want to increase volume. Unlike other gain and volume effects, you can actually put your boost pedal in an effects loop and often get a better result than you would if you had it in your main line. There are three main placement options to consider:. If you have an effects loop, it's a great place for your boost pedal and will give you a cleaner result.

If you want your boost pedal to function more like a volume knob on your guitar or a distortion source, you can put it in the front of your signal chain, before everything, as follows:. A pre-pedal boost will give you the volume bump before it can be impacted by more pedals. This creates what's called a pre-pedal boost, meaning you're boosting your signal before it's being run through any additional processes.

Depending on the pedals you're using, this can have a different effect when compared to a post-pedal boost which we'll look at next. Boost pedals can be placed at the back of your pedal chain to boost an already effected signal. In the above diagram the boost pedal is placed behind every other effect in the chain, right before it meets the amplifier. This - like the effects loop placement - will get you a cleaner boost in volume and will always boost an already processed signal from all your other effects pedals.

The particular method you choose will depend on the other pedals on your board and might require a bit of experimentation. The Spark Mini Booster pedal simply increases the decibel output of your signal. Modulation pedals are some of the easiest to use and the most straightforward to set up.

To be categorized as a modulation effect, a pedal needs to create its sound by manipulating the waveform of your signal. This can be done by an analog circuit or an algorithm in a digital signal processor. Per our earlier recommendation, modulation effects should be placed in the middle of your signal chain, right before your ambient effects.

Chorus pedals create several slightly off-pitch waveforms of your dry signal and then layer them over the original dry signal creating a slightly shifted sound that is usually adjustable by rate and depth. Phaser pedals create an out-of-phase sound that is layered back over the original waveform to create the swirling phase sound. Increasing speed on a phaser means the swirl effect will complete its circle between the peak and notch quicker. Increasing depth will usually causer a deeper distinction between the in-phase and out-of-phase wave.

Flangers are similar to phasers in that they're created by peaks and notches in the waveform, though a flanger processes the sound with a slight, gradually increasing delay between each peak. This creates a sound that's often compared to a jet flying over your head. Tremolo pedals are the simplest of the modulation effect. At a basic level, it's simply the rapid increase and decrease of your signal's volume in synchronized succession.

Most tremolo pedals will have at least a speed knob that allows you to control how fast the peaks and notches complete. We've already addressed placement in your signal chain. However, there are a few additional best practices that are helpful to keep in mind when it comes to modulation pedals in general.

In most cases, these will apply to all modulation effects because they're so similar. In fact, there are a lot of guitar players and musicians who would argue that there isn't a ton of difference between chorus, phaser, and flanger sounds at all.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that, but these best practices can be applied to all four of the modulation effects mentioned above. When you add a chorus or phaser pedal to your rig, its primary job will be to add a layer of nuance and decoration to your clean signal.

Use modulation pedals when you need some thickness or a little more substance behind a clean chord progression or melody line. Read the review: Boss BF-3 Flanger. All modulation pedals should have at least a rate and depth knob for control though some, like the MXR Phase 90, only have a speed control. It's a good practice with waveform effects to start with these settings at the 12 o'clock position or whatever the middle position would be. From there, you can adjust up or down as needed.

Along with ambient effects, modulation pedals are commonly put in an effects loop. The effects loop will also help modulation stay more consistent with your amp's volume. Chorus and phaser pedals - in particular - can sound too chaotic if you push settings too high. It depends on the pedal, but be careful not to over-saturate your clean sound with waveform manipulation. Ideally, you want modulation to flavor your clean tone but not to the point where it's distracting from it or covering up the clarity of your notes.

Here's an example of the settings I typically use on my Boss BF-3 flanger, which came from the above audio sample:. Settings example for a Boss flanger pedal. Though multiple modulation effects can be useful on a single pedalboard, using more than one at the same time isn't advisable. It will typically sound too chaotic and will quickly overpower your clean signal.

Ambient effects have a much shorter pedal roster, as they're limited to effects that manipulate time instead of volume or waveform. The only two significant pedal types in this category would include delay and reverb. Delay pedals record a sample of your original signal and then play it back with a certain number of repeats. Reverb plays back an ambient persistence of your dry signal after that signal is produced, meaning you'll hear a trail of sound after you play.

The other type of pedal you'll see is echo or tape echo, which is essentially the same as delay, albeit a more vintage flavor. All ambient pedals - delay, echo, and reverb - should be placed at the very end of your signal chain, whether in the main pedal line or an effects loop.

Delay can be a tricky effect to implement because it manipulates the timing of your signal. Like an echo, it repeats a certain segment a certain number of times. Thus, you have to think about the following properties:. Other controls on delay pedals might include frequency, EQ, modulation controls, and more depending on the pedal in question.

But the three things mentioned in the above list are going to be the most important. There is a way to calculate delay time based on timing subdivisions. First, let's look at the note durations we'd be using:. For example, the eighth note sub division means you repeat the note eight times within each beat. This is what that subdivision indicator on a delay pedal would mean, which is sometimes displayed on a pedal, like this version of the MXR Carbon Copy:.

Five different selectable subdivisions on the Strymon DIG delay pedal. In the Strymon example, you might notice the dots behind the quarter and eighth notes. This creates a dotted quarter note and dotted eighth note, which is worth three quarters of a beat. Read more here: Dotted Eighth Notes. Though reverb pedals can get somewhat complex take the Walrus Audio Descent for example most are far simpler to use than delay.

Instead of a rhythm repeat, reverb leaves a trail that is still based on time, but is a persistence of sound and more ethereal than rhythmic.

Many amplifiers, specifically Fender combo amps , have been known to include a reverb effect. If you have an amp with reverb and you're happy with the reverb tone, you may not need to add a pedal. However, if you want a reverb effect with more functionality and versatility, you can add reverb pedals that go extremely in-depth. Take the Strymon BigSky, for example:. The Strymon BigSky reverb pedal has a ton of versatility and multiple reverb algorithms.

Pedals like the BigSky give you access to different reverb algorithms, combined modulation, and multiple ways to mix and manipulate the reverb effect. You can even make changes to specific aspects of the reverb's trail. Within the ambient category, we'd recommend running a reverb pedal behind delay, right before your signal reaches your amplifier.

As you may recall from earlier, the wah pedal is considered a filter effect because it manipulates your tone, just like the tone knob on an electric guitar. However, wah pedals can do this a lot quicker and to a greater degree than your average tone knob, which gives you an almost vocal-like sound that is often used in a lead guitar context. For more detailed information, checkout our step-by-step guide on how to use a wah pedal. Most wah pedals will engage via a bypass switch, just like other guitar pedals.

The exception would be Morley's switchless pedal series, as they function simply by stepping on the pedal and moving it, without a bypass switch. Once you've hit the bypass button you can rock the foot pedal back and forth to move the tone from high to low. Once engaged, the wah pedal functions with a back and forth motion. In most pedalboards, a wah pedal is going to get the most active and frequent use, at least in terms of your foot actually touching a pedal.

To make these easier, put your wah pedal in the most accessible part of your board, which - as we mentioned earlier - is the lower right-hand corner of your pedalboard. The Morley wah pedal occupies the most accessible portion of this pedalboard.

Again, you find the wah pedal in the bottom right hand corner of the pedalboard. In most cases, this is going to be the most comfortable place for your wah pedal, since it's one of the only pedals that your foot stays on for extended periods of time. Otherwise, it's a fairly simple effect to setup and use.

Most wah pedals don't have settings some have what's called a contour knob , but if you make sure it's easy to get to and keep it in the front of your pedal chain as a filter effect, the rest is pretty straightforward.

Though it's not an unbreakable rule, most guitar players tend to use their wah pedal for solos and lead parts of a song. Godsmack's Tony Rombola does this a lot. A good example on the track "Greed" embedded below:.

If you have a tuner in your signal chain and a wah pedal, I'd still recommend putting the tuner before your wah pedal as your signal's first stop coming out of your guitar. As we mentioned in earlier sections, compressor pedals are a bit of an anomaly in terms of where they should be placed in a signal chain. They're one of the few pedals that we'd recommend putting before your filter effects, including your wah pedal. If you have a volume pedal, it should go in front of your wah for the same reason a compressor goes in front.

A volume pedal controls the ensuing output of your signal, just like the volume knob on your guitar. Flickr Commons image via Kuyabic. The positioning of your EQ pedal is harder to pin down since it doesn't necessarily have a default effects category. It's almost like a tiny amplifier, which means a good starting spot would be at the very end of your signal chain, right before your actual amplifier. Here's how that setup might look:.

However, there are a few different ways to use an EQ pedal, which will depend a lot on the style of music you play and the other effects in your rig. We'll cover a few options here. Tom Morello has been known to use a DOD EQ pedal with all the settings set to their mid point, but the decibel level control set higher to use as a signal boost.

The following is a diagram of Morello's board, which he strangely places between his phaser and delay pedal. The most conventional way to use an EQ pedal is to put it at the very end of your signal chain to mix the signal coming out of your effects before it goes into your preamp. This makes it a kind of preamp for your preamp, where you get one last chance to tweak your signal before the amplifier functionality takes over.

This is the arrangement we covered in the first example. Some guitarists will put an EQ pedal all the way at the front of their signal chain to tweak the signal coming out of their electric guitar. This gives you more control over the sound going into your pedals.

If you play with the amplifier always on the same settings, set it how you would like it. Set all the settings or frequencies low before activating the guitar pedal. You can alter these as you play. To activate various pedals, you need to step on a lever or a button under the control knobs on the pedal.

Usually, a green or red light will turn on, indicating that your pedal is activated. Explore the features of your pedal gently, turn on and off diverse effect knobs up when you are playing and get a feel of the tune.

Play around with different effect orientations and volumes. To switch various pedals off, you will step on the lever or button again, cutting the signal of the pedal and sending it through the amplifier.

Play around with activation and deactivation of the pedal to get the type of tune you would like. If you leave the pedal attached, the power would be drained, especially when you are using the batteries to turn on your pedal.

For rock, place the compressor at the beginning of the chain after the distortion. If you work in country music, try at the end of the pedal chain. In this category comes pedals like overdrive, distortion, or fuzz. These pedals are typically placed relatively at the beginning of the chain. This is done because you want to affect the tone from your guitar at the purest point with this pedal.

Otherwise, you will be distortion the sound of your guitar mixed with whatever pedal is before it. If you have multiple of these, you may want to add a boost pedal before the other, so you are getting a strong signal. A distortion pedal might be the first one you purchase, and you might find that you accumulate them faster than any others.

If you put distortion early in your chain, you are going to accomplish a couple of different things. To start, you will push a harder signal which is your ultimate goal since you want to do that as opposed to the signal from a phaser or chorus. The second accomplishment is that modulation pedals often have a thicker sound when overdrive is in front of them as opposed to behind. If you find that you have two gain pedals, you can really just put both on to get the maximum amount of distortion pushed through your amp.

That said, if the two pedals you have offer extremely different sounds, you will have to decide for yourself which you want to put first. In this category of pedal, you will find phasers, flanger, chorus, or vibrato effects. After the wah, these pedals gain a more vibrant tone with more complex sounds. Making sure that these pedals find just the right location in your pedal is crucial as if laced in the wrong place, you may find their effects to be limited. While some are gentler, others are bolder so you need to keep in mind that pedals will impact whatever comes after them.

That means you want to be particularly conscious of the bolder sounds you might be producing and think about how that will impact the rest of the pedals in the chain. If you are using several different modulation pedals, a good rule of thumb is to arrange in ascending order of aggressiveness. If that is the approach you take, you will likely find that you start with the chorus and then move to a flanger and finally phaser.

Delay and reverb live in this wheelhouse, and they are best at the end of the chain. This gives all the effects of a natural echo.