TOPIC:

I am in need of some advice on the order in which i should put my pedal chain and what to hook up directly to the amp and what into the effects loop..Im also wondering how to incorporate my volume pedal in the chain. I have a Mesa dual rectifier with Mesa 4x12 cabinet. The pedals I have are as such
Boss tu3 tuner
Zakk wylde wah
zakk wylde mxr beserker
boss octave
boss flanger
boss noise suppressor
boss dd 3 digital delay
ernie ball volume pedal
dunlop fuzz face
ibanez turbo tube screamer
I play metal and hard rock and would love to know your suggestions on what i should put directly into the head and what should go into the effects loop and to which channel clean or not?? I also need to know how to incorporate my volume pedal into all of it. Thanks in advance for your advice. I love your website

Brett

Hi Brett,

I'll just jump into what I've done and what I've heard. I'll say first though, that in metal, less is sometimes better. It's whatever though, whatever you like to hear! And that's said in encouragement. There's a billion different ways you can experiment, and I encourage experimenting, but here's the general rules I abide by:

I mostly always start with the the volume then wah first. The volume can be overpowered by dirty sounds or boosts. You can honestly put the tuner anywhere, but I have it right after the wah usually. Next, I would put compression, if you had it. Next, I'd do any dirt, in this order: fuzz, OD, distortion. You could put the noise suppressor right after, or in the effects loop of your Mesa to help clean up any "messiness" in your playing. After which I'd put modulation in the chain, octave then flanger. Then, your post effects like delay and reverb. Even try running the delay thru your effects loop, to bypass the preamp, to get a less "in your face" delay, unless you want that.

As for stacking tone, the Tubescreamer stacks very well with gain, and I would use it for leads, unless you're the only guitarist in your band, then I'd use it for a main sound. It might compress your sound some, but that might be okay sometimes, really depends on the day for me. I don't prefer stacking fuzz. It might do best just fuzz on the clean channel of the amp, but not mixing drive. Try it and see what happens (feedback might happen lol).

To sum it up, you have the perfect rig to be playing some Intronaut style metal! I'm liking the mix of vintage idea boxes with metal. Good luck in your tonal endeavors!

Thank you very much!! So it'd go like this.... volume>wah> tuner> tube screamer> fuzz> nsupp...amp head....octave,,,flanger delay....effects loop??