BOSS Users Group - Order in the Court: Chaining Your Pedals Together for the Best Sound

Order in the Court

Chaining Your Pedals Together for the Best Sound
By Peter Swiadon
With more and more pedals out on the market, pedalboards are getting more and more complex. BOSS
Product Support has always received a large number of calls about how to connect pedals together in the
proper order, and with new kinds of pedals available, like loopers and slicers, the calls and questions
continue to pour in.
In this article, well put together a pedalboard from the different categories of BOSS stomps. As we go, well
discuss how to line up your pedals generically, and also specifically, with the goal of helping you get your rig
sounding just right.

Pedal Types
Pedals can be separated into groups based on their functions. Understanding the different pedal groups is the
key to getting the best sound when chaining them together.
The largest pedal group is probably overdrives and distortions, and BOSS currently makes
15 different pedals in this category. For our example pedalboard, well pick the ST-2 Power
Stack.

Another category with many choices is modulation. These are effects like flanger, phaser,
chorus, tremolo, and others. Lets use the most versatile of thesethe BF-3 Flanger.

Another group is ambience effects, such as delays and reverbs. Well use one of
each: a DD-7 Digital Delay and the FRV-1 63 Fender Reverb.

There are some pedal effects that can add notes or alter the pitch of what youre playing. For
want of a more esoteric name, well call these pitch-altering pedals. From this category,
lets throw in a BOSS OC-3 Octave.

BOSS also has a few pedals that make your instrument sound like some other instrument. The
AC-3 Acoustic Simulator will do the job here.

Some effects change your sound with filtering. This effect type can be used in
different places in the signal path, so well use two different ones: the GE-7
Graphic EQ and the PW-10 V-Wah (far and away the most advanced wah in
the world).

A few BOSS effects defy categorization, but are nevertheless very

useful in any signal path. The most common of these is the CS-3
Compression/Sustainer. Loopers fall into this category also, so

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BOSS Users Group - Order in the Court: Chaining Your Pedals Together for the Best Sound

lets add an RC-3 Loop Station to the mix. And you might want
the NS-2 Noise Suppressor to kill the noise in your rig, so lets
add that in, too.
What about a tuner? The TU-2 (the original stompbox tuner) and the new TU-3 are the most
popular pedals BOSS makes. You see them on pedalboards everywhere, so well include the TU3 as well.

Basic Connection Guidelines

So, where does each pedal go in the signal path? Here are some tips to keep in mind before you start plugging
pedals together:

Rule 1There are no rules. The sound youre after might not be made by what we could call the appropriate
or logical signal path, but thats not always the issue. The issue is this: what does it sound like? If it makes
the sound youre after, then its rightalthough, you may have to do something about the noise. Traditional
pedalboard arrangements were designed for certain reasons, and keeping the noise down is one biggie.
Following the principles of how sound is made in physical space is another (see Rule 4 coming up). But the
final choice is yours. As a very wise man said: if it works, dont fix it.
Rule 2Some pedal types work better in certain parts of the signal path than in others. Octave pedals or
tuners, for example, dont work as well with a distorted signal as with an undistorted signal, so they should be
placed before the distortion.
Rule 3Noise can be a problem, particularly with high-gain distortion sounds. Pedals that can add volume
such as compressors, wahs, EQs, and overdrive/distortionswill also amplify any noise created by the effects
placed before them.
Rule 4Taking sound-making devices like stompbox pedals out of the equation, theres an order to the way
sounds naturally occur in physical space. For example, guitar amp distortion is made in physical space by
turning an amp up enough to cause its circuits to overload, and any echo you might hear happens after the
distorted sound hits walls or ceilings and bounces back to your ears. Therefore, logic says that your reverb
and/or delay pedals should be last in the signal path, since that is how the sounds they produce actually occur
in three-dimensional space.
In keeping with these rulesokay, they arent really rules, so lets compromise and call them guidelines
here are some essential concepts for lining your pedals up:
Pedals that amplify or add noise should go near the beginning of the signal path. This includes
overdrive/distortion effects, compressors, and wah pedals. If theyre later in the signal path, they will
amplify the noise of everything before them, which can be difficult to control.
Pedals that produce tone go before things that modify tone. This is logical, because you want to create
your basic sound first, then tweak it with some kind of modifying effect. For example, this means that
overdrives go before chorus effects.
Pedals that create ambience go last. This goes back to the how does sound actually occur in physical
space idea. So, delay and reverb should go after all other effects.

Plugging In
Using our basic guidelines, lets connect our pedalboard together:

That is one rockin pedalboard! But why is this the suggested signal path? Follow along as we go pedal by
pedal.
The tuner goes first. This one is pretty easy. It doesnt want to hear an effected signal; it wants to see the

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BOSS Users Group - Order in the Court: Chaining Your Pedals Together for the Best Sound
direct input from the guitar. Another reason for putting the tuner first is that if youre using any true-bypass
pedals, the TU-3 will give them a buffered signal, which will protect your tone from loss of signal in the cables
when other pedals are off. This is another one of the reasons there as so many TU tuners in pedalboards
worldwide, even ones using nothing else but boutique true-bypass stompers.
The next three pedalsPW-10, AC-3, and OC-3change the basic tone of the guitar. For the most variety of
sound, you want all the other pedals to have a shot at the sound from these pedals, so its best to have them
as close to the guitar as possible.
After these is the overdrive/distortion, in this case our ST-2 Power Stack. The CS-3 Compression/Sustainer
(and the PW-10 V-Wah) can improve the ST-2s sustain and tone by increasing the signal to it, so theyre
placed before the ST-2. Many players use a compressor just for this reason, and the fixed wah sound, which
is a wah pedal turned on but not continuously swept, is very common in rock and metal lead tones.
The GE-7 Graphic Equalizer is good to have after the overdrive in case you want to use it to scoop mids or
bump certain frequencies for solos. (To show that these are not hard rules, it also works pretty well if the EQ
is after the compressor but before the overdrive. But this changes how the EQ sounds, since you would be
distorting it with the overdrive, so try it in the suggested position first.) Also, its good to have the EQ before
the noise suppressor, since EQs can add noise as they boost tone at various points in the frequency spectrum,
including any noise that is already there.
The NS-2 Noise Suppressor is best used in the middle, so it can take out the noise created by the amplifying
pedals before the signal moves into the modulation and ambience pedals.
Modulation pedals like our BF-3 Flanger should be after the tone-producing effects like distortion, wah, etc. so
they can process and modify the tone built by the pedals before it. If you put it before the distortion, then
you are distorting the sound of the flanger. Maybe that's what youre after, but in general, put the BF-3 and
other modulation effects after the tone-shaping (and noiseproducing) pedals.
And then there are the ambience effects: delay and reverb. As we discussed earlier, reverband sometimes
delay, depending on the spaceis the last thing that happens before the sound reaches your ears in a
physical space, so these go last. Delaying reverb can sound muddy, so its usually better to have the reverb
after the delay.
And last, but certainly not least, is the Loop Station. Loopers arent effectstheyre recorders. Normally, youll
want the looper to be able to record and playback any of your sounds. Of course, this means you should
place it at the very end of the chain so it can hear and record whatever pedal combinations you use.

Thats a Wrap
So there it is. To recap, while there are no rules for creating tones, these basic principles will help you achieve
tone nirvana. By following the guidelines weve laid out here, you will:
keep the noise to a minimum.
achieve the most tonal flexibility.
produce tone in the most natural, organic way, as close as possible to how tone is created without effects.
At the same time, experiment! Maybe the tone you seek is made by the wah after the distortionits noisy,
but sounds cool. Ultimately, the only rule is this: what sounds best is best, so get your BOSS pedals and grab
your tone. Its what we make them for!
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