The right guitar effects pedal order

The right pedal order.

Did you ever wonder where to put that specific pedal on the pedalboard?
It really matters where you place effects pedals in the signal chain.
In this blog we will talk about the best place for effects pedal in the guitar signal chain.

The answer is simple: there is no right or wrong!

With all the different types of effects for guitar players, it may be hard to place every pedal in the right order. You definitely want to get the sound you like best.

As said, there is no wrong way to connect your effects in your signal chain. Each method can provide you with different sonic results. Though, what works for one person may not work for another.

How to make your guitar sound better

Of course, it’s not only the order in guitar effects pedals that determines the quality of guitar sound.
There are so many variables that are due to guitar sound. Think of which kind of tube- or solid state amp, or if you prefer an open- or closed back cabinet and learn what headroom means in an amp.
And referring to this blog, it can be interesting to know how to dial in pedals like the Compressor for instance.
Check out many of our Guitar Essentials blogs which focus on knowledge for anyone new to the guitar.

Well, to explain the order of effects pedals in short, we’ll show you options in the “common guitar pedal order”.

Common guitar pedal order

Here are some common effect placement suggestions for pedalboard setups in general.

Tuner pedal at the beginning is preferred, so the signal from your guitar is clean from any effects whatsoever.
Dynamics (compressors), filters (wah), pitch shifters, and Volume pedals typically go at the beginning of the signal chain.
Gain based effects such as and overdrive/distortion pedals come next.
Modulation effects such as chorus, flangers, phasers typically come next in the chain.
Time based effects such as delays and reverbs work best at the end of the signal chain.
Volume pedals can go at the beginning or end of your signal chain. This provides slightly different functionality in different locations in your chain.

Check these setups used by most guitar players.

Set up 1

Volume pedal in the beginning of the chain

In set up 1 the volume pedal is placed near the beginning of the signal chain to control the volume level going to the other effects and the amplifier.
This can be useful to clean up your signal by rocking back the volume a bit if you have the overdrive (after your Volume pedal) engaged.

Set up 2

Volume pedal after overdrive

This setup is the same as the first one above. However, the volume pedal moved after the Overdrive, right before the delay and reverb effects. This allows you to have full control of the volume of your signal right before the delay and reverb effects. This is useful for fading in a fully overdriven signal without cleaning up the signal at lower volumes.

Effects Loops

Another way to set up your pedals is by placing (some of) them within the effects loop of your amplifier.

An effects loop is an audio input and output loop. It is placed after the preamp and before the power amp section of your amplifier.

Set up 3

Above only the delay and reverb effects are placed within the effects loop of the amplifier.
This setup allows the sound from your amplifier’s preamp section to feed into these effects.

Overdriven and distorted sounds generated by your amplifiers preamp, sound much clearer with delays and reverbs placed within the loop.

Set up 4

Now we have moved the volume pedal and modulation effects to the effects loop along with the time based effects. In this case the delay and reverb. Much like setup 1, you get a different sound from your modulation effects when placed after the amplifier’s preamp section.

Volume pedal vs volume knob on your guitar

It depends on where you put the Volume pedal. When putting it last in your chain before the amp, and turn it all the way up, you will get your full output as if the volume pedal was never there.

Does a Volume pedal clean up the signal?

Yes, but only when it has been placed before the overdrive pedals.

Time based effects, what does it mean?

Time-based in guitar pedals refers to effects that manipulate sound over a period of time. Typically delaying-, echoing-, or modulating the original signal in various ways.
These effects, including delay, reverb, chorus, and flanging, add depth, space, and movement to tracks.

True Bypass vs buffered guitar effects pedals

When a pedal is true bypass, the signal from your guitar passes directly through the pedal’s internal circuitry (i.e., the input and output are connected). It is not going through any part of the effect when the pedal is in off mode. This means the guitar signal remains clean and unaffected by the pedal when it’s off.
Buffered pedals have a buffered bypass, which basically means running the guitar signal through a tiny amplifier, often with no gain. The buffer may affect the tone a little bit.

To understand, please know that a guitar pickup output is a high impedance signal. That means capacitance in cables sucks tone out of a signal. The longer and shittier a lead is, the more capacitance it has.

What is the problem with True Bypass pedals

The problem comes when you use a lot of pedals (i.e. long cable runs): you connect pedal to pedal etc., and each pedal sucks a bit of tone even when the pedal is in off-mode (bypassed). Tone suck may be the problem. See the Tone suck test below.

True bypass means there’s no buffer. Sometimes that can be good, sometimes bad.
You really want a good buffer in the first pedal in your chain, so the signal is low impedance from there on.
After that, ideally you want a true bypass pedal. But it only becomes important if you use a lot of pedals and long cable runs.

More about tone suck in this blog.

Where to place the guitar tuner

As many tuners are buffered, a good place to start is first in line.
We mentioned it before, it would be good to have a buffered pedal as first in line of the chain.

There is no good or wrong where you like to place the tuner. There are people who place their tuner at the end.
Any interference from gain pedals etc. will be cut by using the tuner.

Using the tuner first in line may be good if you want to be certain that it is responding to the “pure” signal.
So, without any interference or modification from the subsequent pedals.

Optical differences bypass and buffered pedals

True Bypass pedals mostly have the clicking foot switch instead of larger platform switch. See image below.

Tone suck test

You can simply test if you have too many True Bypass pedals with no buffered pedals. In other words, your total length of cables is too long.

Switch off all pedals
Hit some nice chords or strings and listen.
Now skip all pedals and plug your guitar into your amp directly.
Hit some nice chords or strings again and listen.
Did the last test sound better than the first? More volume? Richer tone?
Yes: This configuration creates tone suck.
No: (i.e. the same as before) Your pedalboard configuration is perfect in terms of True Bypass vs Tone suck.

Best guitar pick for beginners

Since we are a company specialized in boutique guitar picks, we would like to say that while the guitar, the amp and the effects pedals are important to let you play and sound better, guitar picks mostly are forgotten.

The world of guitar picks is huge and there is a guitar pick for everybody. Most beginners at guitar start with the simple and cheap guitar pick they got from the guitar store rep.

Buy ChickenPicks here

Better grip using pick grippers

Regardless the brand or shape of the pick, it remains important that your pick stays stable and does not slip or turn between your fingers. Gripperzz are specially designed for the best grip on your guitar pick. Gripperzz are small soft rubber grip stickers in the shape of a guitar pick.

Guitar picks absolute do matter in how you play and the sound you produce.

Read about the differences in thin and thick guitar picks and why we are no fans of flexible guitar picks.
The beveled edges of thicker guitar picks will definitely help you to play with less effort.
The benefits of small guitar picks.
Learn how to hold the guitar pick for certain music styles or in different circumstances.
Bass guitar picks may be a chapter on its own like guitar picks for acoustic, although these absolute have things in common with electric guitar.

Guitar essentials:

In guitar essentials we write about interesting things every guitarist should know a bit of, especially when you’re new to (electric) guitar.
We definitely don’t dig deep into theories or technical aspects.
You will find many scientific documents about anything somewhere on the internet.

What others say about ChickenPicks guitar picks

Musikhaus Thomann
Chicago Music Exchange
Guitarpickreviews.com
Anatomy of guitar tone

About the author

Hi, my name is Eppo Franken and I started to make my own picks in the mid ’80’s.
In 2010 my wife Jolanda and I started ChickenPicks guitar picks, because we’d like to see if others would enjoy them as well.

I play guitar since 1980 and my favorite style is country chicken picking and some kinds of rockabilly and americana.
Send us an e-mail and let’s talk about guitar tone and picks

The right guitar effects pedal order