Above is a pic of my current set up.
Hi, my name is Brad and I'm a pedal effects addict and have no intention of trying to recover. (Hi, Brad) ;D
Seriously, I do love and use alot of pedals. I have been using them since before there were such a thing as vintage or boutique pedals.
I wish I still owned alot of the ones I've sold and given away over the decades. Original TS9s, DM2s, CE2s, MXR and Electro Harmonix stuff and even an original grey Ross compressor. My dad once gave me two of his original echoplex units and an early 60's Fender tube reverb. Don't even remember what happened to most of it. But I've developed my opinions on the use of pedals in 33 years of using them and would be more than happy to spout off a bit about them. Disclaimer: these are just my opinions and you should experiment enough to form your own. There are classic "rules" that are followed but nothing is set in stone because there are many variables involved with tone and what is indeed great tone. Pedals to me are the easiest way to have available on the fly a great many tonal textures at your disposal. I don't believe in over use of them however I do think they can be misused.
My current setup is far from the most expensive or boutique I've used but it's working well for what I'm doing and it does change on a moments notice.
I don't use an effects loop at the moment although my amp does have a series loop and I may split off my modulation and time delay stuff to get an little cleaner tone from them. The effects loop basically bypasses the preamp of your amplifier so that your EQ controls and natural gain and tone do not affect them.
There are two types of effects loops, series and parallel. In simple terms you can use a series loop to allow for a cleaner signal from certain pedals by placing them back in line after the preamp at an equal signal value. The parallel loop allows you to mix the signals up to about 99 percent. This works great unless you have a volume pedal in the loop to avoid tone suck. If you do this you can't achieve a zero signal with the VP all the way off. Your main signal will bleed through. I like loops but don't think they are an absolute necessity for good tone.
As to the order of your pedals HJ, I would order them - compressor, fuzz, overdrive, chorus and delay.
My pedals and order:
Boss TU2 tuner: most tuners today have a very good degree of accuracy so what I look for is two things. First, a display that is bright enough to see in direct sunlight. (trying to tune at outdoor gigs can be tough sometimes) The TU2 isn't perfect in this respect but it is passable. Second, that it allows for silent tuning. That is that there is no signal to the amp while the pedal is engaged. You don't want folks hearing you tuning esp. if you have to drop out in the middle of a song to do it. I try very hard not to do this but I have had my headstock bumped by another bandmember before and it was either tune or suck. I choose tune.
Next is a Keeley compressor. Very transparent pedal that adds girth to my tone and evens out the natural dips and spikes of my playing. By doing this it adds a degree of squish to my lead tones and for chicken pickin it sounds really cool.
After that is a Boss PH3 phase shifter. For the money I think it's the coolest phaser on the market. You get multiple stage phasing, tap tempo, ect. so you can get the simple swirl of say an MXR Phase 90 all the way to layered phasing like a rack mount studio effect. The only downside to this pedal for me is a volume drop when engaged. I'm looking for a mod to get around this. Great effect to use for solos and certain kinds of chordal work. In the conventional wisdom this pedal is out of place in the chain but I like it here because I hear more high end sheen in the effect when placed in front of the overdrives.
Next is my overdrive chain going from highest gain to lowest. First in this chain is a Boss SD1 that has the Wampler Eternity mod performed by Brian Wampler himself. I love this pedal. I use it alone for guitars with humbuckers for a really killer "brown" sound. And stack it with other overdrives for a more saturated lead tone with single coil pups. It is basically an 808 circuit that clips asymmetrically but the mod gives it a nice "plexi" quality.
Next is a NCO3 Firefly. It's a really cool honey toned overdrive with a toggle switch for variance in the mids. Sounds great with single coils alone and stacks well for lead tones. Very natural sounding.
Next is a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. This is a classic 808 circuit (mid humped and symmetrically clipped) but with the ability to add back in the amps clean signal with the overdriven signal. Really cool feature for chord work. I use it for chords and leads that need just a little bite to them without adding hair around the note. I don't like overdrives that lack clarity. Even at a higher gain level I want to hear the note without muddy goop all over it.
From the overdrive chain I go to a Boss CE2 chorus. This one is a mid 80s model and is my favorite chorus of all time. A little more lush and not quite as subtle as a CE1 but just perfect in my ears. I use it for clean chord work only to add a keyboardish vibe to the songs. Fatten things up and adds great dimension.
Next is an Ibanez FL9 Flanger reissue. I've used a ton of different flangers but this is by far my favorite. Not as crazy as an A/DA or the like but is big, fat and classic sounding. I like it for funky intro stuff or legato chords that need a little statement and the occasional solo.
Next is one of my all time favorite pedals. The Xotic EP Booster. It's based on the preamp section of an old Echoplex unit. It's a magic pedal. Just one of those guys that make cleans cooler as well as overdriven tones more vibey. This guy stays on all the time. It also has a very high quality buffer and I use it to help with tone loss over the course of about 55 ft. of cable. I use it in this spot so that it doesn't add any extra gain to my overdrives or push the modulation pedals. And the buffer takes the tone suck out of the volume pedal.
Next is the Ernie Ball Jr. 250kohm passive volume pedal, which I use to uh......control volume. I place it before the reverb and delay so that when I completely kill the signal with it, it won't affect the trail off from those pedals.
Next is the Electo Harmonix Holy Grail Plus reverb. Great hall and spring reverb tones. Not the most expensive or feature rich reverb on the market but I really like it. There is however a slight volume loss when engaged.
Last is the Cmatmods Deeelay. It's a digital delay that is voiced more like an analog delay. Really great compromise in that the repeats are clean but have a warmness about them. I use it mostly for lead work.
I'd like to add a few more the the mix eventually. A smooth high gain overdrive and an analog delay to compliment the digital. Maybe another tremolo but I usually sell them as fast as I get them. Definitely a polyphonic octave generator. And maybe a synth. Pedal addiction is not for the faint of heart. ;D
Hope I didn't muddy the waters any more than usual.
