If you're one of those guitarists or bassists that insists on the only thing between your instrument and you amp should be a high quality cable, then you're excused for the next couple of weeks.
OK, now for the 75% of you guitarists and 40% of you bassists who have at least 2 or 3 pedals in your signal chain, welcome aboard. (By the way, did you know that 50% of all statistics are made up?)
Just to preface today's discussion, we're not here to debate the merits of one brand of pedal over another. If you like your 70's era Foxx Tone Machine and think that the modern Z-Vex stuff sucks, that's your business. In general, I've found that guitarists make their choices of pedals by one of two methods:
- "I'm in search of a very specific sound, and I'm willing to spend hundreds of dollars on handmade boutique pedals from companies no one besides me has ever heard of in my quest for tone nirvana."
- "Whatcha' got on sale?"
If you've only got a couple of pedals, and you're running them on batteries, then it's up to you if you want to mount them up on a board. But, if you've got 3 or more pedals, then it's definitely to your advantage to get them packaged and powered externally.
Alright...ready to go? This week is about laying things out. Next week, we'll hook things up and bolt 'em down.
Lay It...Out
Layout starts with one of two assumptions. Either:
- You want to fit all of yout pedals on one board and don't care how big it gets
- You have a target size for the board, and need to figure out what can go on there.
If it's the first case, then you just need to lay everything out on the floor and see how much space it takes up. Remember, you can't shove pedals right up next to each other...you've got to allow space for the input/output and power connections. How much space depends on how you're going to connect things together. You've got the choice of ready-made patch cables, cable kits (like Lava, Planet Waves, or George L), or making the cables yourself. We'll touch on that next week when we get into actually hooking this stuff up.
If you're trying to restrict your pedal board to a certain size (as the case would be if you're buying a ready-made board), then mark off an area on the floor equal to that size and starting putting things down. My favorite technique is to use poster board, because then I can draw around where the pedals are and use that as a reference when putting the board together.
Pedaltrain (my current favorite boards) have a great online resource that lets you plan things out electronically at http://pedalboardplanner.com/ . They've got a huge library of pedal templates, or you can draw in your own dimensions if needed. You can also plan the wire routes too. The template sizes are for their boards, but you're not locked into using them.
Can I Take Your Order
You want your pedal placement to follow the signal flow you want as much as you can. You don't want to come into the lower right corner of the board with your first effect, jump to the upper left corner, and then back unless you absolutely have to. Part of making a successful pedal board is keeping your interconnects between pedals short.
So, what order should the pedals go in? That's up to you....if you've got a combination that gives you the sounds you like, then rock on. "But what's the best way?" you may ask. OK...there are general guidelines for order of effects that I (and most other board builders) like to follow. Again they are only guidelines.
Pedals, in general can be divided into four categories:
Gain modifiers:
These are your distortion, overdrive, and fuzz boxes. Compressors and
noise gates loosely fall into this category as well, but get a little different treatment.
Tone Modifiers:
This family would include EQ's, wah pedals, envelope followers, and any other type of filters (like some of the Moog pedals).
Time Modifiers:
Here's where effects like reverb, chorus, delay, phasers, and flangers live. These effects are usually the best candidates for going into an effects loop on an amp as opposed to being on the front end (but again, that's just a guideline).
Frequency Manipulators:
Octave dividers and multipliers (like the Mayer Octavia) are in this group. Pitch benders and shifters like the Digitech Whammy Pedal definitely occupy this space as well. And if you're one of those brave souls that utilizes a ring modulator, then technically that's in this category. But in my book, if you're using one of those then you're into messing your signal up as much as possible...you can place it anywhere you want in the chain!
...And The Survey Says
OK...so what order do things go in? In general, I like to hook things up in this order:
[Input]--->[Compressor]--->[Frequency Manipulators]--->[Gain Modifiers]--->
[Tone Modifiers]--->[Noise Gating]--->[Time Based Effects]--->[Amp]
Notice that I called out the compressor and noise gate specifically. Yes, there is madness to the method. Here's the rationale behind this:
- A compressor is going to try to turn a signal up as it fades away (increasing apparent sustain). You want as quiet of a signal going into the compressor as you can get. Straight from the guitar is pretty quiet. If you put the compressor after a distortion box (which are noisy), then you're turning up the noise too. That's why they work best as the first device in the signal chain.
- Noise gates work like compressors in reverse. When there's no signal present, they turn everything down. That's why they're sometimes referred to as expanders (the opposite of "compressor"...get it). You want the noise gate after all of your noisy stuff, but before your time based stuff. Otherwise, your beautiful trailing echoes or monsterous reverb can get shut off abruptly.
I always put frequency manipulators early in the chain.
Frequency manipulators are trying to analyze the signals coming in and then do a bunch of math on them. These devices have a much better chance of locking on to the fundamental note and processing it correctly if you send them a clean, undistorted signal. If you send a harmonically rich (ie; distorted) signal to them, they can get confused as to what the fundamental tone is. That results in them glitching or jumping around. So keep it clean and simple here...you can distort the bejesus out of your signal further down the line.
Capital Gains
A lot of guys use more than one gain modifier. It can be a clean boost, overdrive, distortion, or fuzz box. I've done more than a few boards with a clean boost as the first "effect". They leave it on all the time, and it does a couple of important jobs:
- It provides a constant load for the guitar (important if you're using a cable, not so much if you're wireless)
- It helps overcome signal losses through the cables and pedals (you're going to get some loss regardless of how well you put this together).
As far as the other gain modifiers, I usually like to put them in order of gain low to high. Your overdrive would typically be first, followed by the distortion (which is essentially an overdrive with clipping diodes), and finally fuzz. If you like "stacking" your pedals (turning on more than one), this typically works pretty well. But try different combinations...you might hit on something you really like.
Watch Your Tone With Me Young Man...
Tone modifiers, while I've said I like them after the gain stuff, can actually go before as well. It's a different set of sounds. The only downside is that you're adding more electronics before the gain modifiers (which can make for a noisier signal), but a lot of times it's worth it.
The wah pedal usually sounds better before the gain boxes. If you're looking for that Michael Schenker/UFO or Kirk Hammett/Metallica kind of mid-rangy lead sound, this is what you want. But, if you're looking for an extreme filtered/distorted sound (like the end of "Californication" by the Chili Peppers), then put the wah after the distortion.
EQ...same thing. Want to know part of the secret to Tom Scholtz's guitar sound on the first Boston album? It was an MXR 6 band EQ with a major boost at 800Hz, and lesser boosts at 400Hz and 3200Hz before the distortion stages of the signal chain.
If you're looking to sculpt your signal, this is the way to go. But, if you put the EQ after the distortion then you could use it like a lead boost by gently pushing up the midrange a bit.
And it that wasn't enough exceptions, I'd better talk about the envelope follower. I know more bassists that use these than guitar players, but the functionality is the same. The envelope follower counts on having a dynamic signal in order to work. If you put it after distortion or a lot of compression...it's not going to sound right. If you use one of these (like the Electro-Harmonix Dr. Q, the Boss Auto-Wah, or a Mutron III), then you might want to put that right after the compressor, or even first in the chain. I'm not a fan of these things...just because more than a couple of minutes with one on turns any song into a porno sound track. But, to each his own.
Excuse Me, Do You Have The Time...
Like distortion boxes, time based effects tend to work best in ascending order of how much they're delaying or affecting the signal. And these effects work well with distorted signals. Want to mimic Ernie Isley's guitar sound in "Who's That Lady"...plug a fuzz box into a phaser and turn 'em both on. Yeah baby!!!!
Going from least amount of delay, you've got chorus, then phasers ("Leslie" type effects go here too), and flangers. Delay/echo and reverb are really kind of interchangeable as you can get several seconds of effect from either depending on what you've got on the board.
I've said that your time based stuff is candidate for going in an amp's effects loop, but of course there are always exceptions. If you run your amp pretty clean and get your distortion from a box, then don't worry about it. And of course, they will sound different depending on if they're in the loop or between the guitar and amp. Phase shifters really fall into this category, as a lot of guitarists use them in front of the amp for a slight filtering effect. You can really hear this on the guitar solos in "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" on the first Van Halen album. John Petrucci also used a phase shifter in front of a distorted Mesa Boogie amp for the solo in "Constant Motion" from Dream Theater's Systematic Chaos album. It's a really cool way to add another dimension to your tone without beating the listener over the head with the effect.
Speaking In Volumes
I suppose I should talk about volume pedals since they're not just for steel guitarists anymore. While they're technically a gain modifier you have to look at them differently because they take away gain. Yeah, there are active volume pedals out there that will give you a signal level increase, and that gives you the option of using them as a clean boost if you want. No, a volume pedal can pretty much go where you want it to. What it does to your effects depends completely on where you put it.
Put it before you distortion pedals, and the distortion will decrease as you back off of it. It's the same effect as if you turn down the volume on your guitar. Personally, I don't find this particularly useful since it does replicate controls I've already got.
Putting a volume pedal after distortion, however, lets you back off of the overall volume but still maintain the same distortion intensity. This is a far more useful position, at least for me.
You've also got considerations before and after a delay. Put it before the delay and you can kill the original signal while the echoes taper off. Put it last in line, and you can kill everything!
But Wait...What About My Tuner?
Oh yeah...we do like to tune up every now and then don't we? Where the tuner goes kind of depends on what kind you have.
If you've got something like a Boss TU-12 that doesn't have a foot switch (it's always on), then you're going to want to locate it before your volume pedal so you can kill the signal to the amp and while you tune up. Personally, I like to put a tuner right after the compressor or clean boost, but before any other kind of effects. The reason for that is that if you have a distortion box or time based effect like a flanger going, it can confuse the tuner. In that respect, tuners are just like the frequency manipulators in that they need a clean signal to work correctly.
If you have a pedal-type tuner like the Boss TU-3 or the Korg Pitch Black, then you can put it anywhere. Putting at the end of the signal chain gives you the option to mute your entire board (kind of nice during breaks). Slash uses one of the Korg's on his board for just that reason. If you do put it at the end of your signal chain, just remember to kill your effects before trying to tune up.
Rules...We Don't Need No Stinkin' Rules
With everything I've laid out here, feel free to chunk it out the window if you want. I've heard some really cool stuff by putting effects in an order you normally wouldn't. One guitarist I know puts a reverb pedal before a fuzz box. When he kicks 'em both on, it sounds like someone throwing an amp down a flight of stairs....freakin' genius!
Putting a delay pedal early in the chain gives you the option of applying an effect to the echoes. Want to hear something cool? Set a long delay with several repeats and then sent that to a flanger set to a slow sweep and medium feedback. You get a sound like you're pulling the echoes through a tube. I've used this one live at the end of "Business Of Life" with The Rhythm Dawgs.
There are dozens of other scenarios we haven't talked about here....but this covers probably 80% of what you're going to run across.
Next week, we'll talk about power options, cabling, and packaging things up. I'll have some pictures and diagrams of boards that I've built or consulted on, including an all analog bass board that I built in the late 80's (that's still kickin').
Until then, keep the meters out of the red!
A lot of guys use more than one gain modifier. It can be a clean boost, overdrive, distortion, or fuzz box. I've done more than a few boards with a clean boost as the first "effect". They leave it on all the time, and it does a couple of important jobs:
- It provides a constant load for the guitar (important if you're using a cable, not so much if you're wireless)
- It helps overcome signal losses through the cables and pedals (you're going to get some loss regardless of how well you put this together).
As far as the other gain modifiers, I usually like to put them in order of gain low to high. Your overdrive would typically be first, followed by the distortion (which is essentially an overdrive with clipping diodes), and finally fuzz. If you like "stacking" your pedals (turning on more than one), this typically works pretty well. But try different combinations...you might hit on something you really like.
Watch Your Tone With Me Young Man...
Tone modifiers, while I've said I like them after the gain stuff, can actually go before as well. It's a different set of sounds. The only downside is that you're adding more electronics before the gain modifiers (which can make for a noisier signal), but a lot of times it's worth it.
The wah pedal usually sounds better before the gain boxes. If you're looking for that Michael Schenker/UFO or Kirk Hammett/Metallica kind of mid-rangy lead sound, this is what you want. But, if you're looking for an extreme filtered/distorted sound (like the end of "Californication" by the Chili Peppers), then put the wah after the distortion.
EQ...same thing. Want to know part of the secret to Tom Scholtz's guitar sound on the first Boston album? It was an MXR 6 band EQ with a major boost at 800Hz, and lesser boosts at 400Hz and 3200Hz before the distortion stages of the signal chain.
If you're looking to sculpt your signal, this is the way to go. But, if you put the EQ after the distortion then you could use it like a lead boost by gently pushing up the midrange a bit.
And it that wasn't enough exceptions, I'd better talk about the envelope follower. I know more bassists that use these than guitar players, but the functionality is the same. The envelope follower counts on having a dynamic signal in order to work. If you put it after distortion or a lot of compression...it's not going to sound right. If you use one of these (like the Electro-Harmonix Dr. Q, the Boss Auto-Wah, or a Mutron III), then you might want to put that right after the compressor, or even first in the chain. I'm not a fan of these things...just because more than a couple of minutes with one on turns any song into a porno sound track. But, to each his own.
Excuse Me, Do You Have The Time...
Like distortion boxes, time based effects tend to work best in ascending order of how much they're delaying or affecting the signal. And these effects work well with distorted signals. Want to mimic Ernie Isley's guitar sound in "Who's That Lady"...plug a fuzz box into a phaser and turn 'em both on. Yeah baby!!!!
Going from least amount of delay, you've got chorus, then phasers ("Leslie" type effects go here too), and flangers. Delay/echo and reverb are really kind of interchangeable as you can get several seconds of effect from either depending on what you've got on the board.
I've said that your time based stuff is candidate for going in an amp's effects loop, but of course there are always exceptions. If you run your amp pretty clean and get your distortion from a box, then don't worry about it. And of course, they will sound different depending on if they're in the loop or between the guitar and amp. Phase shifters really fall into this category, as a lot of guitarists use them in front of the amp for a slight filtering effect. You can really hear this on the guitar solos in "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" on the first Van Halen album. John Petrucci also used a phase shifter in front of a distorted Mesa Boogie amp for the solo in "Constant Motion" from Dream Theater's Systematic Chaos album. It's a really cool way to add another dimension to your tone without beating the listener over the head with the effect.
Speaking In Volumes
I suppose I should talk about volume pedals since they're not just for steel guitarists anymore. While they're technically a gain modifier you have to look at them differently because they take away gain. Yeah, there are active volume pedals out there that will give you a signal level increase, and that gives you the option of using them as a clean boost if you want. No, a volume pedal can pretty much go where you want it to. What it does to your effects depends completely on where you put it.
Put it before you distortion pedals, and the distortion will decrease as you back off of it. It's the same effect as if you turn down the volume on your guitar. Personally, I don't find this particularly useful since it does replicate controls I've already got.
Putting a volume pedal after distortion, however, lets you back off of the overall volume but still maintain the same distortion intensity. This is a far more useful position, at least for me.
You've also got considerations before and after a delay. Put it before the delay and you can kill the original signal while the echoes taper off. Put it last in line, and you can kill everything!
But Wait...What About My Tuner?
Oh yeah...we do like to tune up every now and then don't we? Where the tuner goes kind of depends on what kind you have.
If you've got something like a Boss TU-12 that doesn't have a foot switch (it's always on), then you're going to want to locate it before your volume pedal so you can kill the signal to the amp and while you tune up. Personally, I like to put a tuner right after the compressor or clean boost, but before any other kind of effects. The reason for that is that if you have a distortion box or time based effect like a flanger going, it can confuse the tuner. In that respect, tuners are just like the frequency manipulators in that they need a clean signal to work correctly.
If you have a pedal-type tuner like the Boss TU-3 or the Korg Pitch Black, then you can put it anywhere. Putting at the end of the signal chain gives you the option to mute your entire board (kind of nice during breaks). Slash uses one of the Korg's on his board for just that reason. If you do put it at the end of your signal chain, just remember to kill your effects before trying to tune up.
Rules...We Don't Need No Stinkin' Rules
With everything I've laid out here, feel free to chunk it out the window if you want. I've heard some really cool stuff by putting effects in an order you normally wouldn't. One guitarist I know puts a reverb pedal before a fuzz box. When he kicks 'em both on, it sounds like someone throwing an amp down a flight of stairs....freakin' genius!
Putting a delay pedal early in the chain gives you the option of applying an effect to the echoes. Want to hear something cool? Set a long delay with several repeats and then sent that to a flanger set to a slow sweep and medium feedback. You get a sound like you're pulling the echoes through a tube. I've used this one live at the end of "Business Of Life" with The Rhythm Dawgs.
There are dozens of other scenarios we haven't talked about here....but this covers probably 80% of what you're going to run across.
Next week, we'll talk about power options, cabling, and packaging things up. I'll have some pictures and diagrams of boards that I've built or consulted on, including an all analog bass board that I built in the late 80's (that's still kickin').
Until then, keep the meters out of the red!
Ken Carver has been a musician and performer since the early 70's, and involved with live music production since the mid 70's. He worked for 15 years as a broadcast engineer, building numerous studios and transmitter sites around Texas. He's also worked in Critical Care Communications for the medical industry, R&D for an automated lighting manufacturer, and owned Project Lighting & Sound in the 80's. He currently heads up an R&D Hardware Technician Team at National Instruments in Austin, and still performs on the weekends in the Central Texas area. You can reach Ken at itsjustlogistics@gmail.com
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