This week, I wanted to discuss a question that gets asked a lot here at Wampler HQ. “What is the best order to put my pedals in for the best results.” While there are no hard and fast rules on pedal order – this is the preferred order that we personally wire our show boards and the method in which Brian wires his personal boards.
Lets start from the beginning. If you are going to be running a lot of cable – or a lot of pedals – you should start with a buffer. (For more info on buffers specifically – check out this link) https://www.wamplerpedals.com/blog/buffers-un-baffled/
Right after your buffer you place your Phaser/ Wah/ Uni-Vibe pedals. After these 3 you can place your compressor.
The next section is the heart and soul of every pedal board – and personally my favorite section – the dirt. This would include your Overdrive/ Distortion/ Fuzz (possibly distortion/fuzz into your overdrive depending on your preference. Please experiment for your own tailored tones.)
Your Equalizer pedals will come after your drive section – to help shape some of those tones. After your equalization – will come your other modulation pedals: Chorus, Vibrato, Shifting, Flanger pedals. Following this would be your noise gate, if you use one.
Then come your delay and reverb pedals. Here at Wampler, we like to run our Reverb after our Delay pedals. We find that particular order allows us to create some pretty rich tones when stacked together.
For guys that plug straight in to the house – or when space is super limited and an amp cannot be used – a cabinet simulator is used next.
And last but certainly not least – you can use a level boost at the end of your chain to really boost the front of your amp.
While pedal order and pedal stacking is not an exact science, the pedal order we just discussed just happens to be what we have found to work best for us. We find that this order allows us to get the most potential out of our pedals. We know that pedal order can be a subjective topic at times and we strongly encourage you tone chasers to get in front of your pedal board and experiment!
-Max