Setting up a pedal board for my bass guitar. What order for the pedals.?

Basically what I’m asking is where in the chain is best for each effect? The effects are, Boss Distortion, Boss Chorus, Digitech Bass Synth Wah, Ashdown Tuner, Swollen Pickle Fuzz and Tech 21 Sana Amp Pre Amp. Is one any better than the other?



There are general guides for setting up pedal boards so that the effects work well with each other.

In general terms, there are 3 major types of effects:

Level Modifiers – This would be boosters, distortion, and fuzz

Tone Modifiers – EQ, Wah

Time Modifiers – Chorus, Phasers, Flangers, Echo, Reverb

There are a few others (like your tuner and noise gates), but that’s the high level view.

With your set up, the main thing to keep in mind is that your Synth Wah is going to respond best to a clean signal from your bass. Putting it after fuzz or distortion will likely confuse it.

The tuner (and I’ll assume that it mutes the signal) usually goes first as it wants to see a clean signal too. Some guys I know will put it at the end of the signal chain to mute everything. That’s cool, but you have to remember to turn off your effects before you try to tune.

Back to the general guide…you usually want to put your level modifiers first, tone modifiers second, and the time modifiers last. With your level modifiers, you usually put them in assending order of gain.

OK…putting this all together, this is how I would hook these devices up….

Tuner –> Bass Synth Wah –> Distortion –> Fuzz –> Chorus –> Sans Amp

That all said, rules are made to be broken! Try them in any order you like. You’ll find some will work better than others, but you just might find a sound you really like.

Good luck.

Greetings from Austin, TX
Ken

Episode 269 – Boss ME-70 Guitar Effects, TU-88 Micro Monitor Tuner