Rule 3 – Noise can be a problem, particularly with high-gain distortion sounds. Octave pedals or tuners, for example, don’t work as well with a distorted signal as with an undistorted signal, so they should be placed before the distortion. Rule 2 – Some pedal types work better in certain parts of the signal path than in others. As a very wise man said: if it works, don’t fix it.
Following the principles of how sound is made in physical space is another (see Rule 4 coming up). Traditional pedal board arrangements were designed for certain reasons, and keeping the noise down is one biggie. The issue is this: what does it sound like? If it makes the sound you’re after, then it’s right…although, you may have to do something about the noise. The sound you’re after might not be made by what we could call the appropriate or logical signal path, but that’s not always the issue. Here are some tips to keep in mind before you start plugging pedals together: SO, WHERE DOES EACH PEDAL GO IN THE SIGNAL PATH? What about a tuner? The TU-3 is the most popular pedal tuner in the world. And you might want the NS-2 Noise Suppressor to kill the noise in your rig, so let’s add that in, too. Loopers fall into this category also, so let’s add an RC-3 Loop Station to the mix. The most common of these is the CS-3 Compression/Sustainer. A few BOSS effects defy categorization, but are nevertheless very useful in any signal path.
This effect type can be used in different places in the signal path, so we’ll use the GE-7 Graphic EQ. Some effects change your sound with filtering. The AC-3 Acoustic Simulator will do the job. From this category, let’s throw in a BOSS OC-3 Octave.īOSS also has a few pedals that make your instrument sound like some other instrument. For want of a more esoteric name, we’ll call these “pitch-altering” pedals. There are some pedal effects that can add notes or alter the pitch of what you’re playing. We’ll use one of each: a DD-7 Digital Delay and the FRV-1 ’63 Fender Reverb. Another group is ambience effects, such as delays and reverbs. Let’s use the most versatile of these-the BF-3 Flanger. Another category with many choices is modulation.These are effects like flanger, phaser, chorus, tremolo, and others. The largest pedal group is probably overdrives and distortions, and BOSS currently makes 16 different pedals in this category.įor our example pedal board, we’ll pick the ST-2 Power Stack. Understanding the different pedal groups is the key to getting the best sound when chaining them together. Effects pedals can be separated into groups based on their functions. Once you get a guitar and an amp, the next step is to explore effects.
#NS2 PEDAL HOW TO#
HOW TO LINE UP YOUR EFFECTS PEDALS WITH THE GOAL OF HELPING YOU GET YOUR RIG SOUNDING JUST RIGHT