Buildiing a pedal board

Hi Peeps, I’ve gathered up a lot of my old guitar pedals and added a couple of Bass specific ones and I’m trying to draw out a planned order to build a pedal board (home use only but I can’t stand pedals all over the floor). I know pedal order is a subjective and frequently discussed topic but I think I’ve got it pretty much nailed down to: Bass - Tuner - Compressor - Distortion - Chorus - Octave - Delay - Reverb - Looper - Amp. If anyone has on any thoughts on changes to that it would be appreciated. NOW, the main reason for the post is I also want to include an Electro-Harmonix Freeze (for those unfamiliar EHX describe it as a sound retainer, but it basically plays a continuous drone of any note you play to improvise over). I’m insure where in the chain this should go. My inclination is next to the looper but again, I’d appreciate any advice from people who know more about these things than me!

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I’d move the octaver to before the distortion. I had mine there and it worked well.

No opinion on the Freeze.

Big topic here if you’re interested:

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Thanks Howard, will certainly play around with the octaver position before nailing everything down

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@chris6 here is a Great guide that should help you with that…

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I’ve just discovered the octave pedal works much better before distortion as well as @howard.

@chris6, how did you make out? Pics? I am in the process of changing up / finishing (haha, for now) my pedalboard, awaiting several back ordered items.

+1 to this. Pitch pedals before effects.

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I have a harmonist Boss pedal, so should this go prior to distortion as well?

Yes, it would seem so :wink:
There’s a good schematic about this over in this thread:

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Lol Krescht I was about to paste it here :smiley:

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I’m more the cross-referencing type of person :sweat_smile:

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Not so sure about this one. I never had a harmonist pedal. People say first unless you want it glitchy.

By the way, I’m gonna blame you for me ordering the Ripply Fall pedal @Paul :grin:
Had seen it before in the 2020 pedal review by Julia but you made me go back to it and have a more detailed look :wink:

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It’s so weird as I thought I had it right, looked at a zillion images of trains.
Oh well, this makes sense. No idea why I thought it was the other way.

Back to ripping velcro.

Haha nice @Krescht you did order the bass one I hope? I bet you gonna love it. Hands down one of the best chorus/vibrato I have found for bass plus you can combine it with the phaser. If you have an expression pedal you can play with the speed or depth of your chorus/vibrato. JAM pedals are awesome.

Been eyeballing that delay lama for some time too…

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I wonder why they have the looper before the delay/reverb. I guess it is to apply to the loops vs. apply all effects to your loops. I see both ways being useful.

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I also see a lot of Delay after Reverb vs. this way. I guess again its what you are after in sound as either would work.

There is not really a right or wrong way. Some ppl us compressors at end. For example I use my tuner at the end. It all depends on what you want and that makes it more fun to experiment with.

Someone else said this about harmonist pedals: “It depends whether you’re using it for harmonies or Whammy/pitch-shifting stuff. Harmonies will sound better after dirt, pitch-shifting before dirt.”

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No expression pedal yet. I try to keep it simple right now. Two hands is enough of a challenge :sweat_smile:

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Ah, then I have it in the right place!

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Hi all, just got my 1st pedal board complete after Christmas !

DI pedal on the way

Here is the initial set-up. I arranged the pedals based on the few videos that I have seen

It seems I got it right (or main stream should I say)

Looking forward to trying it !

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