Monday, 8 February 2016

How-to: Set Up A Pedalboard

Rather then talk about how to physically make a pedal board, or the actual schematics of the board, I want to discuss the actual order of the effect pedals. Maybe at a later time I'll share some tips in regards to physically creating a board, but this post's purpose is all about how to properly set up the equipment on the board.

The first step is to have a good power supply. It is best to have all your pedals connected to the same power supply, although it is not necessary. Having them all connected to the same source removes any chance of additional noise. However, my pedal board does have separate power supplies, and I've found this doesn't create too many problems. The best way to connect your pedals is through a daisy chain. A daisy chain can connect to a single adapter, or to a power supply box (the best one being the VooDoo Lab - http://www.voodoolab.com/pedalpower_2.htm). From there, it loops every pedal back to the same power supply.

From there, the order of your pedals is next. Again, there are no set rules for the set up of your pedals. At times, you have to consider the physical makeup of the board you have and the room for certain pedals, as well as the actual type and brands of your pedal. Find the best set up by experimentation. Look for a good, clean sound, easy access to pedals, and an aesthetically good looking board.

A good suggestion is to always start with your volume or wah pedals. From there, add your distortion, overdrive, or compression pedals. Within this type of pedal you can also get different orders, depending on what effects you have. Throwing a boost in front of a distortion will add more distortion, whereas adding overdrive or compression after a distortion pedal will increase the volume, without adding much to the distortion level. It all depends on what sound you are looking for.

From there, go into your modulation effects. This includes your choruses, pitch effects, phasers, e.t.c. After, add into your delays and reverbs. These tag on at the end to effect your total sound up to this point.

Don't forget to plan out space for tap tempos, tuner pedals, and any other additional effects (maybe like a looper or expression pedal). Because these are simply add on pedals, they are connected to a certain other effect pedal, and therefore don't have to be in a specific spot. It just depends on the space on your board.

An additional note should be put in for the ever growing in popularity multi effect pedals. The new trend seems to be adding a multi effect pedal to a board with other single effect pedals. Personally, this is what I have done with my board, and I love it! Depending on what multi effect pedal you get, it can drastically change the order you choose to go with. I go into my multi effect pedal right off the bat, and from there into my wah, into a delay, and end with a looper. I've got tap tempos on the delay and looper, an expression pedal on my multi-effect (that is normally dedicated solely to volume control), and I make sure my multi-effect is always running a reverb, a distortion, and then leave an open spot on the pedal for whatever I please. Again, it comes down to experimentation to see what works best for you, and what sounds the best as well.

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