Pedal chain help

[catzodellamarina]

I've only used a pedal or 2 in my life and they've always been distortions to make crappy amps sound better. Now I'm building a very small board with 3 pedals to use in my home amp to play at small bars just for kicks. I don't need much for FX so this is what I've got chained in this order:
Guitar > Modded MT2 > Reissue MXR phase 90 > Boss delay > amp input.
This chain works well in the clean channel when I want to run balls out metal.

I also plan on using my built-in OD channel for hard rock with the phaser and delay - no MT2 engaged. Is this possible or once you commit to a pedal setup do you have to run everything through a clean and use a OD pedal in the chain for a less heavy distortion? Will I suffer from weird signal issues in my built-in OD channel when I engage the delay or phaser? BTW - I also want to avoid the effects loop and keep cable mess to a minimum. I don't want to make brain surgery out of this simple rig.

[Grandturk]

Whats the MT2? Is that a BOSS pedal? Boss pedals usually don't suck that much (if any noticable) tone, so no, you just turn that pedal off and kick on the other channel on the amp.

[blitz]

the MT-2 is a BOSS Metal Zone, and yes that looks like a good way to run everything if you get a wah it would go before the mt2

[Spivonious]

I think you'd get better results running the phaser and delay in the effects loop, with just the MT2 in front, but whatever floats your boat.

To answer your question, it's perfectly fine to leave the MT2 disengaged and play into the OD channel of your amp.

[Grandturk]

Oh Metal Zone - I have one of those!

[catzodellamarina]

Thanks guys

I knew you'd all come through. Wish me luck. I'm taking it out this weekend.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

do yourself a favor and add an overdrive pedal like the boss sd-1, or digitech bad monkey. this will serve you very well when you want to use the OD channel of the amp but add that screaming lead tone to that sound.

[Grandturk]

do yourself a favor and add an overdrive pedal like the boss sd-1, or digitech bad monkey. this will serve you very well when you want to use the OD channel of the amp but add that screaming lead tone to that sound.

This is really completely dependant on how the amp handles overdrive type pedals - for instance, on my Boogie Mk II, my Tubescreamers have zero effect on the sound.

Not every amp reacts like a non-master volume Marshall, especially amps with cascading gain stages like Boogies.

[blitz]

i think my friend has a digitech bad monkey pedal he was wanting to sell for $20 bucks and im sure it was in pretty good cond, I used it before when I was playing his guitar.

[vondran]

The one item you'll notice with the delay in front of the amp is the repeats will be louder when using the amp overdrive than when using the clean channel. Putting the delay in the effects loop generally avoids this problem - if it's even a problem for you.

[jgcable]

The delay won't work for that set up. You can set it up for clean or gain but not both. You will notice the delay will be way to wet when the gain is engaged. You need to put time based effects in the loop when at all possible.

[bombtek]

do yourself a favor and add an overdrive pedal like the boss sd-1, or digitech bad monkey. this will serve you very well when you want to use the OD channel of the amp but add that screaming lead tone to that sound.

I friggen HATE the tone of the Digitech Bad Monkey and the tone of the SD-1 is just so sterile sounding. For the money you can't beat the Artec Blues Overdrive. It is a better tubescreamer than any version of the tubesvreamer there is.

[bombtek]

The delay won't work for that set up. You can set it up for clean or gain but not both. You will notice the delay will be way to wet when the gain is engaged. You need to put time based effects in the loop when at all possible.

Not to thread hijack, but what if your amp does not come equipped with an effects loop? I've seen some pedals out there that are kind of intriguing....check this one out

http://cgi.ebay.com/MOEN-%22ANOLE%22--DUAL-LOOPER--EFFECTS-SEND-BOX-...--LOOK!_W0QQitemZ250404382173QQcmdZViewItem

Yeah I know no name brand, but I've been having good luck with some of them.

Anyways, I know no matter what, on my amp, every pedal will be in front of everything. But will this pedal help me out? Or will it just be a useless addition to my now rather large and crowded pedalboard?

[VitaminG]

I friggen HATE the tone of the Digitech Bad Monkey and the tone of the SD-1 is just so sterile sounding. For the money you can't beat the Artec Blues Overdrive. It is a better tubescreamer than any version of the tubesvreamer there is.

I like my Bad Monkey. I guess it depends on how you use it. It's not so hot (for me, anyhoo) through a pristine clean channel. But for a clean channel that's set to break up, it's bliss. Great for a lead channel that needs some more push too, it can really tighten things up.

The SD-1 is great if used as more of a boost too. I wouldn't use either pedal to try and replicate a "tube" sound through a super clean amp

Not to thread hijack, but what if your amp does not come equipped with an effects loop? I've seen some pedals out there that are kind of intriguing....check this one out

http://cgi.ebay.com/MOEN-%22ANOLE%22--DUAL-LOOPER--EFFECTS-SEND-BOX-...--LOOK!_W0QQitemZ250404382173QQcmdZViewItem

Yeah I know no name brand, but I've been having good luck with some of them.

Anyways, I know no matter what, on my amp, every pedal will be in front of everything. But will this pedal help me out? Or will it just be a useless addition to my now rather large and crowded pedalboard?

a loop pedal like that is great for putting tone sucking or noisy pedals in. You can have a nice clean input to your amp, and then click on the loop pedal to engage whatever noisy or sucky pedals when you need them, then click on the loop again to take them right out of your chain. If you're concerned about True Bypass, you can have a non-TB pedal in the loop and it's only engaged when you switch that loop on.

It can also mean that if you have a couple of pedals you want to switch on at the same time, you can leave them on in the loop, click the loop pedal and voila your boost, overdrive & wah (for example) are all on with one click. A lot less tap dancing is required.

It's still not going to allow you use a delay effectively in front of a distorted amp, because your pedals are all still running into the amp's input

[bombtek]

I like my Bad Monkey. I guess it depends on how you use it. It's not so hot (for me, anyhoo) through a pristine clean channel. But for a clean channel that's set to break up, it's bliss. Great for a lead channel that needs some more push too, it can really tighten things up.

The SD-1 is great if used as more of a boost too. I wouldn't use either pedal to try and replicate a "tube" sound through a super clean amp

a loop pedal like that is great for putting tone sucking or noisy pedals in. You can have a nice clean input to your amp, and then click on the loop pedal to engage whatever noisy or sucky pedals when you need them, then click on the loop again to take them right out of your chain. If you're concerned about True Bypass, you can have a non-TB pedal in the loop and it's only engaged when you switch that loop on.

It can also mean that if you have a couple of pedals you want to switch on at the same time, you can leave them on in the loop, click the loop pedal and voila your boost, overdrive & wah (for example) are all on with one click. A lot less tap dancing is required.

It's still not going to allow you use a delay effectively in front of a distorted amp, because your pedals are all still running into the amp's input

Thanks for that, it is kinda what I thought.

Oh and I still don't like the Bad Monkey's tone, nor the SD-1. Much better tonal options out there.

One thing that I've found is that using any of the tube screamer like effects as a boost is a really great option, as they do really well in that regard.

I've got an overdrive pedal set up behind each of my distortion effects for a good strong boost for leads in my chain. Artec Blues Overdrive behind my Biyand Metal End, and then my Biyang Overdive beind my EH Big Muff Pi. Makes for a lot of pedals and it gets crowded, but it is also nice to have the overdrives that close to the dist so I don't have to go searching when I need to go to a clean sound. If I am looking strictly for a nice strong overdriven tone with nothing else distiortionwise, I pretty much rely soley on the Artec Blues Overdrive. It really is a kickass pedal that is super easy to get a sweet tone out of.

Oh and almost all of my pedals are tru-bypass, or at least they are all advertised that way . In any case, none of them suck any tone out of my setup. I've checked. I've played my guitar into amp only, then used each of my pedals one by one in the bypass mode to see if there was any difference as to when I was playing straight into the amp. There wasn't. I also did the same thing, hooking one pedal after another into the chain and playing them in the bypas mode as soon as I hooked each one up. Again, no tone loss throughout the entire chain. So even if they aren't tru-bypass, they sure act like it.