When you get a new pedal....

[Miller77]

Do you just tear into the settings or play with some of the factory examples first? Ive often wondered how other people do this. Mainly because 9 times out of 10 I'll find a factory example to produce the sound I was looking for.

[Katastrophe]

I don't use pedals any more. I used to get so excited about having the darn things that I'd rip open the package, plug in, and start fiddling with knobs right away. At some point, all the knobs would be on "10," just to see what the pedal would do (the sonic equivalent of flooring the gas on a new car, I suppose).

Then I would just fiddle with the knobs until I found a setting I liked. Never had much use for factory recommendations on the things.

[markb]

Factory recommendations? Yeah, maybe...

With an overdrive I'll put the drive and tone on halfway and bring the level/volume up from minimum to find where it matches the bypass signal. Then tune all the knobs to taste.

[sixstringdrug]

taste tests sound best. I tweak my knobs constantly, always digging a new sound that comes out.