ilovefuzz.com

Just ordered my first couple of fuzz pedals, and I'm trying to decide where to place them in the signal chain. My current board is:

Keeley compressor-->Crybaby-->Keeley Time Machine Boost-->Ernie Ball volume pedal-->Line6 DL4-->amp

I'm thinking I want the fuzz before the wah, but I figured I'd ask around. I know pedal placement is kinda subjective, so what have you tried, what's worked, and what hasn't?

I have some before my wah and some after.
In my setup low gain fuzz before... high gain after.
But you have to try and see.

Your going to want compressor before fuzz, or make sure they're not both on together or you'll likely get loads of noise.
I like wah before fuzz, but I know a lot of people like it after. Try both and see which you like I guess. Also, depends on what type of buffer your wah has, and what kind of input impedance your fuzz likes -- the classic combo of crybaby and fuzz face can be awful if the wah doesn't have a proper output buffer.
If you put the boost before fuzz, you'll get an increase in gain with it. If you put it after fuzz, you'll get an increase in volume. Again, depends what you want. Try both?
Volume's a hard one - depends what it's doing

I'd go wah->compressor->fuzz->boost-delay->amp

But you're going to have to experiment and find the compromises that you like best.

Dev knows what's up.

What fuzzes did you get? Some fuzzes like being placed in different places.

devnulljp wrote:Your going to want compressor before fuzz, or make sure they're not both on together or you'll likely get loads of noise.
I like wah before fuzz, but I know a lot of people like it after. Try both and see which you like I guess. Also, depends on what type of buffer your wah has, and what kind of input impedance your fuzz likes -- the classic combo of crybaby and fuzz face can be awful if the wah doesn't have a proper output buffer.
If you put the boost before fuzz, you'll get an increase in gain with it. If you put it after fuzz, you'll get an increase in volume. Again, depends what you want. Try both?
Volume's a hard one - depends what it's doing

I'd go wah->compressor->fuzz->boost-delay->amp

But you're going to have to experiment and find the compromises that you like best.

i typically keep the fuzz/distortion/boost all the way at the beginning of the signal chain, on the theory that otherwise the fuzz boxes amplify the noise from everything else in the chain. i've used either order, lowest gain to highest or highest to lowest. both have their good/bad points. with low-to-high you can use a low-gain boost at the beginning of the chain to balance the levels of guitars with different output levels, which is handy if you switch guitars a lot; the higher-gain boxes overwhelm the mid-gain boxes a bit less in this order too. when arranged high-to-low the high-gain box swallows up anything distorted turned on after it, assimilating its harmonic and dynamic characteristics while still retaining its general character. it depends on what you want. using a more random, non-linear order may also give you a result you like. there's nothing for it really but to get a box of batteries (plugging a daisy chain for this is going to be too much ass-pain) and plug stuff in in various sequences and see how it sounds when you combine them.

the compressor placement seems to be the most debated. i've tried mine before and after the fuzz, and have settled on using it after the fuzz to squish the signal down into a firehose stream of pure Hell. the good point of using the compressor before fuzz is that the fuzz smooths out the squashing attacks and pumping on the sustain that you get with a lot of compressors.

i prefer to use the volume pedal AFTER the fuzz and compressor, as well as after any other effect that is input-signal-dependent such as an envelope filter. most distortion boxes react differently as you turn down the guitar's volume knob and decrease the signal out of the guitar; IMO you want to avoid this when using a volume pedal for those Fripp toothpaste-tube Evening Star notes that go on for days, and of course a compressor or EF will get totally screwy if you vary the input level. if the pedal arrangement on the board is so tight that it's difficult to run cables out to the VP, which i don't use 100% of the time and which lives off of the pedalboard due to size constraints, i use Hosa 90° metal connectors plugged into the stompboxes as patch points.

similar to my thoughts on fuzz amplifying noise in the chain, i place reverb and delay at the end of the chain because i want everything that's happened to the signal to be reverbed/echoed before it goes out to the amp.

i haven't the foggiest notion where to put the wah pedal, because i don't use a wah; given my general ideas on setup i'd probably put it on the cable out with the volume pedal, which would also keep the ancillary pedals together in one spot. i'd likely put it after the VP, because post-compressor(/VP) is where i put the filter and modulation effects: envelope filter, chorus/flanger, tremolo. before the EF is the obvious home for the wah, placing the filter/mods in order of sweepage/wavelength.

My fuzzes are first, largely as a matter of preserving their reactive behavior. I've got a Zoom Ultra Fuzz that does oscillation stuff, especially playing with the volume and tone pots on the guitar, and putting that behind buffered pedals blows that. However, it plays nice with the Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz (basically a silicon Fuzz Face) in front -- true bypass when off, and it's output feeds the Zoom well when it's on and the stacked fuzz is pretty ballz out bad ass.

My Crybaby has been sitting broken-ish and unused for ages, so I don't really know where it fits. Only thing I have in front of fuzz is the THD Quintet, a passive eq. Doesn't futz with oscillation, and adds some cool choices.

I have other dirt late, after some modulation and time effects, too. If I had moar fuzz, I'd have moar fuzz late. Must get moar fuzz. Compressor after last dirt -- Fripp sustain for days.

FWIW, I ordered an Analogman Sunface and I'm exchanging emails with Tom about a custom Fuzzhugger Chalice he's building me, and my amp is an Orange AD30TC. Don't know if any of that makes a difference.

At the moment, I'm thinking I'll want to put them between my compressor and my wah. I like the idea of having the wah shape the fuzz rather than the other way around. Of course, we'll see if it actually ends up sounding good like that.

I like my fuzzes after tremolo, and before phase. I like how delay and chorus sound after fuzz, but I understand delay before fuzz gives you some square-esque sound. I need to try chorus before fuzz, but I need a chorus pedal.

I like wah in a sandwich
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-erUfSwk6vc[/youtube]

If You are in a hurry, just slam them in there and see what happens. When You got time, try out stacking the pedals in different combinations with each other to see how they react and find out the pedal order for the sounds You really want to get. If You've got a several new pedals, and there's a plenty of moving parts, You might want to test only a few pedal combinations in different pedal orders at time. Don't have any extra pedals in the chain You're not testing, before You've got some idea of the pedal order and combinations You will be using.