How to Set Up Guitar Pedals

Guitar pedals alter the sound of a standard guitar tone. Guitar pedals, also known as guitar effects pedals or simply FX pedals, offer guitarists a way to have more control over their sound. This allows the player to create a unique signature tone that is completely his or her own. Knowing some basic rules about guitar pedal setup and the proper order of pedals can help you avoid frustration and achieve a great guitar sound.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar effects pedals
• 1/4-inch instrument cables
• Guitar
• Amplifier

1. Place the guitar pedals in the correct order. The order you place the guitar pedals in the signal chain in is crucial to achieving a professional sound. Before making any connections, map out the order of the guitar pedals first.

2. Use the following effects order when setting up your pedals: Guitar, Wah, Octave, Noise Gate, Compressor, Overdrive/Distortion, EQ, Modulation effects, Delay, Reverb. Place your pedals in this order from right to left (to make cable connections easier.) If a particular pedal is not part of your setup, simply skip over it and continue to the next guitar pedal type.

3. Plug the output of your guitar into the input of the first guitar pedal using a 1/4-inch instrument cable.

4. Place a 1/4-inch cable into the output of the first guitar pedal and connect it to the input of the second guitar pedal in your signal chain. Continue this process with each pedal until you have connected to the input of the final guitar pedal.

5. Connect the output of the final guitar pedal in the signal chain to your guitar amplifier.

6. Turn on the guitar amplifier.

7. Step on each guitar pedal in order to activate it.

8. Play the guitar. You should now hear a guitar tone altered by the sound of your guitar pedals.

Tips & Warnings

• There are no strict rules regarding making guitar tones. The order of effects mentioned here are the most commonly used by guitarists. This order is common because it maintains the purity of the guitar tone as much as possible throughout the chain. However, many interesting guitar sounds have been made by breaking the rules. Get used to this standard setup first and then feel free to experiment with pedal placement as you gain experience and understand what each pedal does to a guitar's tone.

Resources

• Guitar Effects Museum