What is the best order for my Bass Pedal Board?!
Question: Right now I have 4 different effects for my bass. They are the Boss TU-2 (Tuner Pedal), Boss LMB-3 (Limiter Enhancer), Boss GEB-7 (E.Q.), and Boss AW-3 (Auto-Wah). I know it seems like a fairly simple question considering so few effects, but what would be the best order to put them in on my pedal board? Thanks!
Answers: Right now I have 4 different effects for my bass. They are the Boss TU-2 (Tuner Pedal), Boss LMB-3 (Limiter Enhancer), Boss GEB-7 (E.Q.), and Boss AW-3 (Auto-Wah). I know it seems like a fairly simple question considering so few effects, but what would be the best order to put them in on my pedal board? Thanks!
Well, that's an interesting opinion, but I'd offer a different one.
Because limiters and compressors narrow the dynamic range and bring the peaks of the signal closer to the noise floor, it makes more sense to me to put any compressor/limiter as close to the signal source as possible - in other words, first in the chain. This way it will be acting on the purest signal and not on any noise introduced by other pedals, like the EQ or the tuner. The EQ at some settings may produce noise - we don't want that compressed along with the signal. Likewise, the autowah modulates (well, kind of) the signal, and it doesn't make sense to compress after modulation, time-based effects, or distortion. Google limiting and learn a little more about it, you'll understand why I came to this conclusion. Tame the dynamic peaks first, then change the signal however you want.
My preference would be
Limiter - Tuner - Autowah - EQ
But you could just as easily swap the tuner and limiter with probably no ill effect (since I think Boss's tuner doesn't add much if any noise to the signal) and probably swap the EQ with the Autowah, depending on how you want to use them.
I would say that if the EQ is being used as a solo boost or as amp correction (ie, you need to cut freq x in order for it to sound right, and it's on all the time) I would have it last in line, if you want to use it to feed the Autowah (pump gain so the Autowah is triggered more often, for instance) then put it before.
I can think of no reasonable reason to not have the limiter and the tuner as the first two pedals in your pedal chain. If you put the tuner after the autowah it won't track correctly, and the limiter after the autowah will muffle its sound.... try it and see, don't just take my word for it.
The only other thought I had was you could try putting the limiter in the fx loop, if you have one... its post everything, but it would be the only other logical place for it. The EQ could also go here, if there's some minor corrections post-preamp you would want to make. Could probably even put the autowah in as well. I dunno, it's worth expirimenting with, it won't hurt anything, but you'll probably get the best benefit overall (simplicity of setup, for instance) by keeping it all in front of the amp.
Saul
tuner
eq
auto wah
limiter
a limiter and/or compressor are inserts and should always be last in your chain.