No guitar setup is complete without some toys… you know, effects! When you listen to bands like The Mars Volta, Sonic Youth, or maybe Radiohead, perhaps you say, “Wow, awesome sound. It must require a lot of effects to make a sound like that!” You probably ask yourself, “How can I get a guitar sound like that?”
Sometimes it’s not a lot of money you need, but a knowledge of the effects. Here is the info to get started.
Guitar effects are an interesting phenomenon when playing guitar. No matter how much you spend for guitar effects, you’ll get a good sound when you learn how to chain these guitar effects to work together. And how you set up your effects can help you achieve your dream tone. In this tutorial I will explain more about effect chain order.
Step 1: Basic Effects Chain Order
Guitar —> Pre gain effects —> Gain related effects —> Post gain effects —> Amplifiers.
Perhaps you confused when look at the picture above, “what these pictures mean?”
This is the map of basic effects chain order. In next step I will explain more about “how these chain works”. And a little explaination starting from each category until each effects. Sound samples included 
Step 2: Pre Gain Effects
Pre gain effects are effects placed before the effects of who clip the signal. These effects involves: utility effects (such as tuners pedal or metronome), filters (such as the wah-wah, envelope filters, filters or sequential), dynamic controllers (or compressors), and intelligent processors (like harmonizers, pitch shifter or whammy).
Utility Effects
Utillity effects are tuner pedal, metronome and noise gate. Example : noise gates are in their simplest form, merely a switch which gets rid of the noise you hear during quieter parts of a signal by muting (switching off) the sound. This effectively reduces the perceived level of noise in the signal.
Filters
Filters is the process of boosting or attenuating parts of a frequency spectrum. It is one of the most powerful ways to shape your sound. This effect include Wah-wah, Envelope Filters, Filters or Sequential. Example wah-wah is a resonator that can have its center frequency moved up or down in frequency by moving a pedal. The “wah” name comes from the way it mimics the moving resonance of the human vocal tract in speech as the sound “wah” is made.
Download audio file (wahwah.mp3)
Wah-wah sound sample
Dynamic Controllers
Usually a compressor or limiter is the first effect used. This helps to boost the signal level, which helps reduce the amount of noise generated by subsequent effects. However, they are sometimes used after effects which reduce or boost the volume level significantly, like modulation effects and wah-wah.
Intellegent Processors
Intellegent Processor like harmonizer, pitch shifter and whammy. Intelegent Processor works by change the pitch or add extra ‘voices’ which are harmonically related to the original sound.Example, pitch shifter is an effect which enables a user to transpose the pitch of the input signal. The simplest pitch shift effects can add octaves above or below the input pitch. More sophisticated pitch shifters can add fourths or fifths.
After you read the step 2, maybe it can help you how to order pre gain effects in your pedaboard. Continue please.
Step 3: Gain Related Effects
In a effects setup usualy theres a gain related effects, which is going to sound waves entering the clipping effect. These effects range from overdrive, fuzz, and feel full / thick gain (distortion).
Overdrive
Overdrive is the clean signal is boost a lot , so the sound is a bit distorted. Overdrive started as what you got when you put too large a signal into the input of an amp, causing the signal to be distorted at the speaker. You were “overdriving” the inputs.
Download audio file (overdrive.mp3)
Distortion
Distortion, is cutting, strengthening and destruction clean signal very extreme, to produce a sound that well broken and very distorted. “Distortion” is the more generic term, and started when folks noticed that you could get a distorted sound from a little solid state amp that was very nonlinear.
Download audio file (distortion.mp3)
Fuzz
Fuzz boosts and clips the signal sufficiently to turn a standard sine wave input into a waveform that is much closer to a square wave output. Fuzz sounds also tend to have lower Mid frequencies than other distortion types. Pretty much everyone involved agrees that fuzz is a harder, harsher, and buzzier distortion than overdrive, and usually considered harder and harsher than “distortion” by itself. There is no real boundary on all this – it’s just which words you want to use, no strict definitions.
Download audio file (fuzz.mp3)
Step 4: Post Gain Effects
Post gain effects includes time based modulation (chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo and many others) and pure time based modulation (delay, reverb).
Time Based Modulation
Modulation effects are usually placed after gain related effects and before time-based effects. They can also be placed before distortion, which gives a much more subtle effect. Kinda hard to explain what these effects, will be easier to understand when you hear it yourself. Modulation provides a unique sound, and provide a significant when placed at the beginning, or at the end of the chain effect. So start experimenting with many types of modulation effects, and get the ideal sound! Meet the family.
Chorus
Perhaps the most widely used modulation effect, is so called because it makes your guitar sound like more than one – thicker and usually a bit “sweeter” sounding. This is done by electronically “cloning” your original guitar sound and adding delay or “modulation” (which is shortening or lengthening the delay) to your cloned signal. Then this is mixed back in with your original signal. Although it can be used as a solo sound this effect is generally used for a clean rhythm sound.
Phaser
This effect is a filter response generated by using long phase delays and mixing with the original signal to cause a number of deep notches and/or peaks in the overal filter response. This mimics the larger number of notches and peaks caused by true time delayed flanging. Most simple phasers do this by generating two notches, although some pedals make four notches. Flangers may make many notches. Phasers may also incorporate feedback to sharpen up the effect of the notches.
Sound sample
Flanger
As with the chorus effect, here the signal is split or cloned and a short delay is simply added to the cloned signal-then again mixed back in with your original signal. This delay has several repeats with the time of the repeats being lengthened and shortened at a steady adjustable rate. The resulting sound is usually much thicker than the chorus effect. Its sounds like a jet plane.
Download audio file (flanger.mp3)
Tremolo
Tremolo produces a periodic variation in the amplitude (volume) of the note or chord, which creates a “shuddering” effect. A sine wave applied as input to a voltage-controlled amplifier produces this effect. Tremolo effects normally have a “rate” knob which allows a performer to change the speed of the variation.
Download audio file (tremolo.mp3)
Pure Time Based Modulation
Pure Time-based effects such as delay and reverb usually come last in the signal chain. There is one exception – when you are using a delay to split a signal for parallel processing. Included in this family are delay and reverb. Echo delay is long, imagine if you yell at the hill / cliff, would lead to recurrent re-echo. Reverb, more like a collection of short delay and a lot, barely audible, so that creates an echo effect in the room. Imagine there you was singing in the bathroom, there is a short echoes that make your sound bathroom type. We may call that type “Bathroom Reverb”.
Download audio file (delay.mp3)
Download audio file (reverb.mp3)
Step 5: Full Map
Guitar — > Utility effects —> Filters —> Intellegent processor —> Dynamic controllers —> Gain related effects—> Time based modulation —> Pure time based modulation —> Amplifiers.
So this is the final map. In the picture explains final map to order the guitar effects. Maybe this will help you to chain guitar effects.
Please note, while this is a guidelines to chain effect but theres no “right” way to do it. It’s all a matter of taste and your personal tone. Let your ears be the final arbiter. Ring modulators, volume Pedals, equalizers, phasers, splitters, or the clean gain booster can be positioned pre-gain or post-gain. They still work well in any position. If you think another effect position will be more interesting,why dont you try it?. Why not experiment? For example, try to place the Whammy pedal and feel the effects after the gain is how fat is produced a digital output. Or, with Spring Reverb modes before gain effects, will produce vintage sound. Also note the allocation of your effects. Should not fall in line so that your board does not become too elongated. Put in the position efficiently and to your liking, just connect to one another in your favor. Lets start experiment!.
Step 6: Start Experimenting!
Compressor before gain effects
Guitar —> Compressor —> Gain effects —> Amplifiers.
Gives a “smoother” distortion sound because the signal level the distortion gets has less variation – the compressor wipes off more of the signal changes, so the distortion works mostly at one level, and the tone quality of the distortion changes less as the note decays.
Gain effects before compressor
Guitar —> Gain effects —>Compressor —> Amplifiers.
The compressor adds little but hiss, because the distortion already sets up a fairly fixed output level. The tone quality changes as the distortion would without the compressor.
Gain effects before time delay
Guitar —> Gain effects —>Time delay —> Amplifiers.
The subtleties of the time delay, chorus, flange, etc. are generated after the distortion’s harmonic hash, so the nuances of the delay can be heard.
Time delay before gain effects
Guitar —> Time delay —>Gain effects —> Amplifiers.
The distortion’s harmonic generation tends to fill in the response notches the time delay created, usually less acceptable.