Question:
Could you please explain the theory behind the order of effect pedals in a typical daisy chain. I'm more after understanding the theory than just getting a list of what comes first and what comes last. Why does OD come first after amp and, say, delay, go last. Is the delay uneffected by the OD when it follows the OD? I have a little 1958 Princeton Tweed and I run two guitars on it. A Tele and an Archtop. From the amp, in this order, I now have an OD and Delay going to guitar. I've just bought an Acoustic Boost (from Frantone) for the Archtop and I don't know where to put it. I'll probably turn off the OD when the Boost is on.
Answer:
Kind of, but you have it backwards. You want the entire sound guitar sound to be repeated by the delay much like the natural reverb in a large room. When you put the delay first you are not getting that, you are getting something weirder as the various repeats are variously affected by the OD, depending on the level, so each suceeding repeat would have less distortion as well as less volume for example. also an OD will boost any extra noise that is introduced before it. If you listen closely to your average made for guitar delay/flange, or other time domain effect, you'll likely hear various undesireable artifacts that are byproducts of the pedal doing what it does. If you put that before the OD, those noises get boosted, compressed, and otherwise become part of the whole tone as opposed to being just a bit of noise under the signal. That is why some amps have effects loops. All the time domain processing should be in a side chain in the effects loop. That puts them after the preamp stage. The preamp stage will have the same effect as the OD pedal would on the noise etc. A compressor is even worse in that regard, it will boost noise just as if it WERE signal. So the compressor should be way early in the chain if you use one. Unless of course a gnarly, snarly noise is what you are wanting to get. Hope that helps some. There are others here that know more about using pedals than I do, and maybe they will correct, add or otherwise chime in.
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