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I was hoping some of you pedal gurus might be able to help me out with my pedal setup theory, since I'm a pedal noob. I'm trying to figure out the best sequence to use. Not sure I totally understand the ins and outs of it. I haven't bought my boost or volume pedal yet. Pretty much decided on the MXR Micro Amp for boost, but the volume pedal I'm kinda confused on. Active? Passive? 25K? 250K?

The pedals I'm using (or going to be using) and the order that makes sense to me is:

Guitar
Boss Tuner
Guyatone Micro Delay
Morley Wah
Hughes & Kettner Tubeman 3 channel preamp pedal
MXR Micro Amp
Volume pedal
Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10

Not using an effect loop, just going guitar-pedals-amp. I'm only using the clean channel on the amp.

My guess is that I want to run the boost and volume post preamp so that it doesn't affect the input level into the pre. But like I said, I'm a pedal noob.

Any advice?

There is different tastes as to order, but I always ran my dirt pedals prior to any modulation. The only exception to that was I would often run the wah 1st as it was easier for me to use on the right side of the board verses the left side. I would also sometimes run a clean boost set for a slight bump at the end of my chain so I could quickly boost the volume if I had problem with signal loss or etc if I was running alot of pedals.

It really does depend on what you want the pedals to do. Do you want to have the preamp pedal pushed by the boost? or the boost making the preamp output louder and driving the amp more. Answer that and you'll know which way around to put those two pedals. Answer similar questions for the rest and you can work out most of it to suit your sound.

Also consider if you'll use two pedals together or not. For example if you'll never use the wah and delay at the same time, you can pretty much ignore where they are relative to each other and just consider where they are relative to the other pedals.

I'd start with this and then add the others as you think through your intended use

Guitar --> Tuner --> ..... --> Amp

Delay
Wah
Preamp
Boost
Volume

You have three pedals controlling volume so how they interact will probably be your main consideration.

If I had those pedals then personally I would have them in this order:

Guitar
Morley Wah
Boss Tuner
MXR Micro Amp
Hughes & Kettner Tubeman 3 channel preamp pedal
Guyatone Micro Delay
Volume pedal
Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10

Or switch the Volume and MXR Micro-Amp depending which works best. This way you can use one to impact the preamp (I know you said you didn't want this, but it might be useful) and one to change your overall volume.

But like James says - depends how the pedals interact with each other and which you intend on using together. Have a play around.

Cool. Thanks for the feedback. I figured I'd have to play around a bit, just wondering more if I'm doing anything really retarded by putting certain things before the pre vs after.

I forgot to ask, would it be better to use a higher or lower impedance volume pedal after the preamp? I've searched other forums and all I got was confused. Don't want to buy the wrong one, since it looks like I'll be putting it post-preamp. Does the hotter signal from the pre mean I need a higher impedance VP or is that ass-backwards?

i read this awhile back; overall, i thought it was a good article.

I always put my tuner at the end of my chain
cause I use my tuner as a mute
and it mutes all of my pedal noises too
I check my tune between every song
so everything is muted between songs too
but I don't tune with any effects on

Thom wrote:If I had those pedals then personally I would have them in this order:

Guitar
Morley Wah
Boss Tuner
MXR Micro Amp
Hughes & Kettner Tubeman 3 channel preamp pedal
Guyatone Micro Delay
Volume pedal
Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10

Or switch the Volume and MXR Micro-Amp depending which works best. This way you can use one to impact the preamp (I know you said you didn't want this, but it might be useful) and one to change your overall volume.

But like James says - depends how the pedals interact with each other and which you intend on using together. Have a play around.

This

Thom wrote:If I had those pedals then personally I would have them in this order:

Guitar
Morley Wah
Boss Tuner
Hughes & Kettner Tubeman 3 channel preamp pedal
MXR Micro Amp
Volume pedal
Guyatone Micro Delay
Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10

OR This maybe.

Volume swell delay lines, plus the micro amp could be used as a nice little volume boost in addition to the H&K.

But yeah, mess around. I like to try every pedal in every place in the board, sometimes you get some cool noise/gain/whatever from pedal placement thats against the grain.

just take the time to try it different ways-- there is no right way--