Robben Ford Discussion

[JohnnyZ]

Ok, since this appears to be the official opinions topic...

I'd like opinions (or facts, if they exist) on the "priority" of effects pedals in a chain. Or, does it even matter where they're positioned?

Specifically, I have an Ibanez TS-7 Tubescreamer, a Visual Sound H2O (Liquid Chorus & Echo), and a Dunlop Crybaby 535Q Multi-Wah. Is any order better than another?

Thanks,
~JZ~
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[Aeolian]

Depends on what effects you want to have happen. If you look at the Tubescreamer as a distorting amp, you would put that last, so that everything before it, would sound like it was going into an amp on overdrive. But I happen to like the sound of distorted Leslies. To get that gurgle, the distortion has to be before the speaker, or in this case, the TS7 goes before the rotary effect. Depending on how much distortion you use, the effect of a wah can be swamped by it. But if you are using a lot of signal boost to overdrive the amp, putting effects after the boost (TS7) might lessen that effect, or cause the other effects to distort.

Another element is a volume pedal. Having the distortion after the volume pedal allows you to vary the amount of gain, or distortion using the volume pedal, a bit more natural of an effect. But if you put the TS7 before the volume pedal, you will have a fixed amount of distortion (for a given box setting and guitar volume setting) that you can turn up and down. This is useful in rock songs that use distorted rhythm parts to keep the level down and not swamp the singer (or contribute to that paradigm of guitarists being too loud )
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[JohnnyZ]

Thanks, A. I suspected it would be more on the individual preference side, and less on the scientific fact side...
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