Conventional wisdom for pedalboard setup?

[Eric***]

Hi all,

So I recently received my Pedaltrain Jr that I ordered, but I'm a bit gunshy on hooking everything up. Part of that is 'cause I'm still waiting for some patch cables to come in, but I was wondering if you all could help me a bit with my setup.

First of all, which side of the velcro do you usually put on the board itself: the hook (rough) or loop (soft)? I think loop goes on the board and hook on the pedals, but does anyone have any input on that?

Also, what should be the order/setup of pedals? I have a tuner, wah, delay, distortion, and OD/distortion/modeling (Sansamp). Order-wise I'm thinking

tuner -> wah -> distortion -> sansamp -> delay

but I see a lot of pedalboards with the wah on the far right. Does this mean that it comes before the tuner, or is there just some funky wiring to correct this?

Anything else I should know? I'm pretty fired up to make my optimal setup finally portable -- it'll just take a little while longer to get everything worked out.

[vroomery]

Well you're order for things seems about right for what I would do. That being said, you can do it however you want. Some people like the sound of overdriven repeats rather than repeats that are overdriven. Whatever you like is how you should set it up. Some people also put the tuner last to be able to silence any noise that could come from an engaged pedal.

As for wiring. Most people put the wah on the right side of the board because it is more natural to use with that foot. Wiring can be frequently mixed up and not necessarily in order of placement. It saves the most cable and provides the best chance for a clean signal to keep the cables short, but you can also put them wherever you want. If that pedal needs to be on the right side, then by all means put it over there.

[Eric***]

Thanks. I think my main debate now is how to wire the durn thing and where to place everything, but I guess I'll get it figured out eventually.

[hubberjub***]

You can put your tuner anywhere you please really. Some pedal tuners (mine included) create extra noise if placed first in the chain. I had to move mine to somewhere in the middle. Don't ask me why it did this. It was a common problem with the Planet Waves pedal tuner. Other than that your setup looks fine. Typically filters (wah/envelope) before compression before overdrive before distortion before modulation before delay before reverb. I sometimes switch my delay and modulation for experimental purposes.

[ZMAN]

Eric: If you have an effects loop on your amp I would put the delay there.
The rest of the order is up to you. What are you using for a power source?
What ever you do use make sure it is plugged directly into the wall, not a power bar. One of the hardest things with a pedal board is to stop the noise and hum. Good patch cords are a must. The cheap ones will crackle when you hit the board or click a pedal. Lots of things to look for and be aware of.

[Eric***]

Eric: If you have an effects loop on your amp I would put the delay there.
The rest of the order is up to you. What are you using for a power source?
What ever you do use make sure it is plugged directly into the wall, not a power bar. One of the hardest things with a pedal board is to stop the noise and hum. Good patch cords are a must. The cheap ones will crackle when you hit the board or click a pedal. Lots of things to look for and be aware of.

I use the Sansamp a lot when going direct to FOH at church, so for now I'm trying to keep the delay in front so I don't have to rewire a lot, but I'll definitely bear that in mind if I don't like the tone.

Here's a picture of what I ended up with for now:


Not exactly the most efficient use of space, but that's all I need right now, so I'll reorganize if needed later. I'm pretty happy with it for now, though it hasn't been road tested yet.

BTW, my power source is a Godlyke Power All, basically the same as a 1Spot. I occasionally get some noise from my Sansamp, so I might do the direct-plug thing like you say to see if that helps.

[Zip]

May not help too too much, but I've always found this website useful: http://pedalboardplanner.com/