Stomp Pedal Placement

[Wrightman]

Need assistance in setting up my effects pedal board. What is the order of placement for the pedals? I have all Boss pedal; Chromatic Tuner, Digital Delay DD-6, Overdrive SD-1 and SD-1,SD-2 Super Over Drive and Distortion, Metal Core Distortion MLL-, Soul Preacher Compressor and Sustainer. I was using the Boss GT-6 Process Board and not satisfied with the distortion sounds. I'm looking for a clean,high end, sweet, great, distortion that I hear everywhere else. Also, if anyone can recommend a better distortion pedal please do so. I'm playing a Fender American Srat with The Gilmore's EMG's set up, and either playing through a Fender Twin Reverb or Hughes & Kettner DuoTone amp.

May God Continue to Bless You Richly, The Wrightman

[jlynnb1]

man there are so many drive pedals, it's impossible to recommend one. i personally dislike Boss pedals period (except for the GREAT DD20 Delay), especially the drive ones. I honestly prefer amp drive to any pedal, and only use od pedals for a boost. That being said, the Fultone OCD is a great transparent drive that works great as a low-mid gain pedal or a boost for a drive channel. doesn't color your tone, just gives you more.

as for placement, it usually goes comp - drive - mod - delay - verb. I prefer all delays and verbs in the fx loop. there are no hard and fast rules, but those are the general ones.

[JayP5150]

jlynn, you ever see this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXxIp9CYnp8

Blew my mind lol. Those new Danos are pretty impressive. I've got the Transparent OD (it's the gold one), and it's a killer pedal for like $50... I can't build one for that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma6HjVb3doM

One thing he never takes into account is the fact that even with the same 2 pedals, putting the knobs in the same setting doesn't really mean they are the same due to tolerances, physical knob installation, etc. But, you get the idea.

[jlynnb1]

yeah those Dano pedals are cool, and get so close no one wouldknow the difference. the ocd model in my gsp1101 is amazingly accurate as well. the thing i love about the ocd and those like it is that there's no mid hump. it doesn't color your tone. if you put it in your clean channel it retains your amps character. if you boost a gain channel it just sounds like MORE of your amp. one of my fav tones from the Bogner is to have the drive channel with the gain at about half, then just use the ocd if i need more. it really just sounds like more of my amp.

[Wrightman]

Gentlemen, appreciate your input. It will provide me with strong foundation to work from. I got another question. Because the EMG's pickups have a pre amp built into them does that  make a difference on the pedal selection?

Bblessed

[JayP5150]

Gentlemen, appreciate your input. It will provide me with strong foundation to work from. I got another question. Because the EMG's pickups have a pre amp built into them does that  make a difference on the pedal selection?

Bblessed

It really depends on the input sensitivity of the pedal. Usually a drive pedal will respond very well, while it might put a phaser or tremolo into a bit of clipping under hard picking (which can be solved with a roll of the volume, or even by building a box with literally a volume control in it so you have an attenuated signal at the stomp of a switch, and it's the same setting every time--my cousin uses the same thing to level his volume between his strumming and fingerpicking when playing acoustic gigs).

Also, depending on the output impedance of the EMG's, you may see an adverse affect of something with a super-low impedance input, like a fuzz face (for instance, FF's HATE buffers, 9 times out of 10--although, I'm not really sure about EMG's... it might be a good thing).

Your best bet is to take your guitar with you when shopping.

[jivejong]

Something that is overlooked in getting a distortion sound is the speaker. Speakers break up differently. Some break up early with less gain, and some will break up late, requiring more gain. Some have a smoother break-up, while other sound more aggressive. Even with all the pedals, guitars, tubes, and amps out there, the sound you will be able to get will be limited by the speaker you have.