techniques for hooking pedals up

i recently switched from using a boss gt6 to using individual pedals. With my boss gt6 i could jump from my rhythm tone to my lead or to my clean tone with the press of 1 button. With these individual pedals it seams i have to turn off my distortion and then turn on my chorus and other pedals when switching. the majority of the time i'm the only guitarist and so i have to make fast changes when playing songs that go from distortion to clean and then later have a lead.

this is my set up: guitar- boss comp.- wah- boss dist.- boss chorus- boss delay- boss EQ- marshall half stack JCM 2000 TSL 100

so what do you want to know, you never really asked a question..

personally i would have guitar-EQ-WAH-COMP-DIST-Chorus-delay

i find that set up works good for me...as for switching pedals i have more than that...have to learn to play/sing/and tap dance...thats what i do

Im not to knowledgeable about the tech side of pedals and setups and stuff...but it seems to me you could run some of your pedals thru your effects loop and the others in a straight guitar-fx-amp...then you could turn some effects on/off just by turning your fx loop on/off.

Your right, you don't know much about pedals and such. You can't just put any pedal in the FX loop. For example, if you put an overdrive in the FX loop its gonna sound like ass!! The FX loop is for modulation FX. I don't seem to notice much difference in our out of the loop, so I keep any mod effects out of the loop because it's easier to set up this way.

I'm not sure but wouldn't getting an amp with 2 or 3 channels and a footswitch do the trick?

You could get one of those expensive Ground Control switching systems. Or even better, a custom Bradshaw system! [drool]

If you happen to use different pedals for your clean and distorted sound, a loop selector can be very useful.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--BOSLS2

I think that pedal does what you are looking for...

I use multiple distortion pedals, so I use A/b switches to go back and forth.
I always put the wah first in the chain(personal preference from experience). I would never use a compressor before any effect, but last in the chain as effects sometimes need some taming. Personally, I don't use compressors at all. Takes all the playability out of the rig. Just leaves with a dry, drab sound that cannot be nuanced with the fingers.

example setup:

Guitar to a wah, to Tube screamer, then split with an A/B switch. One side goes to dist 1 with matched effects(ie. mxr dist, delay, chorus, etc.) Other side goes to dist 2 with matched effects(ie. Big Muff, delay, chorus, etc.) then close the loops back together either with another switch or stereo pedal such as a passive volume pedal with both A and B, ins and outs. This is effective because you can rock the pedal back and forth between the two seperate chains to transition the two setups(as long as both channels are selected on the A/B switch). After the loop is closed, you can use more effects on the whole mix giving you yet even more control.

Drawbacks? You may get lots of noise from all the pedals in chain. You may also notice signal loss. Some pedals may need to be modded to reduce niose and boost output.


IMO: EQ pedals are worthless. That's what the amp is for.

EQ's are very useful. They can be used as boosts for solos or maybe a hard-rock chorus. They can be used to take the high end of something like a Tele or add lots of bottom to something thin like a Strat or Tele. EQ's on amps don't make huge differences. On an amp, say on the Treble setting, most people will not notice a difference between 2 and 3. However on an EQ pedal, such as MXR or BOSS, a slight change in the slider will make a noticeable difference.

Well, there isn't really a "right" answer. I think it comes down to personal taste and the effects/amp you use. Experiment. Some of the effects will sound better in the loop versus direct however. This is basically my set up and it sounds clean. I run through a DSL 100/1960A.
In the amp loop (in this order) MXR Comp>Boss 10 band EQ> MXR Phase90> Boss NR2(which I loop all effects through) > amp.
I run a dunlop Crybaby and Boss DD3 straight from my guitar, to the input.
I love the distortion on my Marshall, so I wouldn't even think of Drive or Distortion pedals...hope that helps.

I would never use a compressor before any effect, but last in the chain as effects sometimes need some taming

well if this is your preffecrence so be it but i seriously advise you not do put a compressor at the end of your chain, as a compresser evens out the volume (makes louder parts quester, queter parts louder). So as every pedal in the chain adds its own extravenous noise to the signal if you put the compressor at the end of the chain all of the noise added by the pedals in the chain will be amplified so you'll get a seriously noisy signal if you use lots of effects or high gain distortion units, i advise you put your compressor 1st in the chain as it will even out your signal direct from your guitar, then it will feed this signal through your chain, meaning a much clearer, less noisy and even tone.

I sometimes use a similar setup. I like the compressor after the wah as the wah can get a bit peakey !

I have also only had bad experiences with EQs in the fx chain.

In case my little diagram thing was not explained well, I do run the compresor first in the line, followed by the EQ, then the few others. I loop all of that around through a Boss Noise Reducer at the end of the chain. The wah and delay I keep on the outside of the loop, going directly to the input on the amp. I like the more "blended" sound that I get there for the wah. Hope that clears up any confussion.

It is not normal to put EQ and compressors in a loop because of the nature of the job they do.