Where should you put your chorus pedal (with video)?

jpjr50 · #1 01-28-2016, 10:22 AM

I posted a thread in the Telecaster Forum about where to put a chorus pedal on their pedal board.

Most said after the distortion, some said their chorus pedal is in a drawer, some said in the FX Loop and what I found is there isn't a right answer.

I made a video of my pedal setup and moved the chorus around in different spots. It sounded decent is most situations and horrible in others.

I took the Delay out and used Reverb instead.

Where should a chorus pedal go on your pedal board? - YouTube

jpjr50 · #2 01-28-2016, 06:19 PM

No replies? I guess I'm the only chorus fan.

BTF · #3 01-28-2016, 06:44 PM

I'm a chorus fan, and I've tried it both ways. To my ears, chorus after the distortion yields a brighter, somewhat thinner and more '80's sound. In my rack, I use a vintage chorus before my Marshall and Fender preamps. While the chorus is a bit noisier that way, the sound with the chorus engaged doesn't change so dramatically. The classic Marshall preamp was very articulate, and even at full bore the chorus comes through.

There's really no wrong way to do it. What works for you is what works best.

Regards, Bill.

Sombras · #4 01-28-2016, 08:10 PM

Also a big chorus fan. After a bunch of experimenting I prefer it in the effects loop, sandwiched after the delay and in front of the reverb.

FolkRock Rules · #5 01-29-2016, 12:24 AM

I like chorus effects. I've got two amps that have it built-in, plus an Arion SCH-Z Stereo Chorus and a couple of Danelectro Cool Cats, the big ol' DC-1 type. The Arion "is known for producing a fantastic faux-Leslie tone at faster settings," accorinding to a blurb on Reverb.com, but I haven't tried that yet. One of the Cool Cats was modded with a toggle switch for a vibrato effect, but I haven't found that "feature" very impressive.

As to the best order of pedals, Robert Keeley puts chorus under modulation effects (along with flanging, rotary, and vibe), going after compression and overdrive, and before echo/delay/reverb in the chain. But he also says "these 'rules' are meant to be broken."

What would Jimi do?

pieterh · #6 01-29-2016, 02:58 AM

I'm with FolkRock on this one though as he also said there are no hard and fast rules. I reason thus: I want the distortion to be modulated then delayed, rather than the modulation distorted then delayed.

It could be cool trying it in a different order to hear the results - I'm off today so I might give it a go later!

jpjr50 · #7 01-29-2016, 06:59 AM

In my video you can tell where I left the chorus pedal. It just sounded right there. Again, I have an FX loop.

My next video may be without the FX since many amps don't have it. I'll throw the Flashback delay in the mix too. I was trying to avoid too much modulation in the video. Might as well throw it in now.

pf400 · #8 01-29-2016, 09:26 AM

Looking forward to your next video because I don't use an effects loop, just run patch cords from guitar to pedal to pedal to pedal to amp. Sometimes I run the stereo out from a pedal so I can use two amps. I might be missing something by not using an effects loop? Honestly don't know what an effects loop is or how to use it.

MikeBmusic · #9 01-29-2016, 09:43 AM

The old fashioned rules for pedals:
GAIN > DISTORTION > MODULATION > DELAY/REVERB
So where to put the Wah?

Experiment and find the right order for the sound you want! Something like THIS lets you switch order of pedals (using pre-programming) without yanking out wires each time.

6L6 · #10 01-29-2016, 10:41 AM

After distortion/overdrive for sure.

redir · #11 01-29-2016, 12:41 PM

I've been using a Boss CE-2 Since when I first started playing electric guitar in the early 90's. I remember when I first got it I had no idea where to place it but it took me no time to figure out it sounded terrible before the over drive so I put it after and have not tried it before since. I have put it in the effects loop and I do believe that was the optimal place for it but my current amp doesn't have one so it goes on the floor after overdrive/gain.

jpjr50 · #12 01-29-2016, 02:05 PM

I appreciate you guys checking out the video. Makes me want to do another so I promise a new video will be out.

For those who amps don't FX loops this will be for you.

@pf400, thanks for watching. The FX loop is the backside of the amp, the sound that is exiting the amp I think is the best way to explain it. So in the video you'll see the first 2 pedals are in the front of the amp (overdrive and distortion). The FX loop requires separate chords and do not connect to the pedals in front of the amp at all. You'll notice the reverb (in FX Loop) is away from other pedals because it requires two chords (in / out) which get plugged in from the back of the amp. Hope I didn't confuse you even more. I'm no expert, just how mine is setup currently.

Paleolith54 · #13 01-29-2016, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpjr50

I appreciate you guys checking out the video. Makes me want to do another so I promise a new video will be out.

For those who amps don't FX loops this will be for you.

@pf400, thanks for watching. The FX loop is the backside of the amp, the sound that is exiting the amp I think is the best way to explain it. So in the video you'll see the first 2 pedals are in the front of the amp (overdrive and distortion). The FX loop requires separate chords and do not connect to the pedals in front of the amp at all. You'll notice the reverb (in FX Loop) is away from other pedals because it requires two chords (in / out) which get plugged in from the back of the amp. Hope I didn't confuse you even more. I'm no expert, just how mine is setup currently.

Let me try to help a bit here. I'll talk in terms of a tube amp, but the basic logic is the same for solid state stuff. I'll also assume you have a two-channel amp: a clean channel and a dirty channel.

My interest is more in getting across the basic idea than in covering nuances.

What we call an amp is really two amps: a pre-amp and a power amp.

Your guitar signal (a very weak signal produced by the magnetic fields produced by your guitar pickups) goes into the amp's input to the pre-amp where it is made louder (commonly with 12Ax7 tubes), and goes through the "tone stack" (bass, mids, treble, presence, gain, etc). It is in the pre-amp that the signal gets its basic "character", for lack of a better term. It gets the signal ready to move along to the power amp.

The signal then leaves the pre-amp and goes to the power amp (most commonly EL 34 or 6L6 or EL 84 tubes) which basically makes it louder.

Some people will run their signal from the guitar through pedals then into the pre-amp to modify the character of the signal that the pre-amp sees. Boosts, overdrives, wah pedals, compressors are examples of pedals that pretty much always work fine in front of the pre-amp whether you are playing on the clean or dirty channel.

Some pedals sound like crap if they are placed in front of the pre-amp AND you then go into the dirty channel and you are getting most of your distortion from the pre-amp "tone stack" section (i.e. "gain" knob up high). Delay is a great example of this: a delayed signal that is fed into a highly distorting circuit (like a pre-amp with the gain up) sounds bad to most people.

So: the series effects loop (there is something called a parallel loop that is a bit different) is simply a "loop" circuit that is "inserted" between the output of your pre-amp and the input of your power amp. It enables you to take the signal coming out of the pre-amp and run it through a cable into one or more pedals that sound best after distortion, let the pedals have their effect on the signal, then send it along to the power amp to make it louder.

Most folks think delay, tremolo, chorus, and clean boost are examples of effects that work better in the loop.

None of this really means much if you play clean or cleanish: you can put everything in front, ignore the loop. otherwise, some things just sound better in the loop (or at least most would think so).

I think that covers the basics, undoubtedly others will chime in.

jpjr50 · #14 01-29-2016, 07:13 PM

That sounds about right. In the Genesis there were no FX loops anyway so you put in order that sounded best to your ear.

For me I got lucky and my amp came with an FX loop and modulation seems to love being place there.

Again, the idea about doing this video / question was to show there isn't a right answer. Everyone is different, everyone's ear is different so just go with what sounds great.

pf400 · #15 01-30-2016, 04:43 PM

I use reverb, chorus, delay, tremelo, overdrive, and a looper. Seems that I might as well put all effects pedal through the effects loop and even the looper pedal ? And I'll have a patch chord coming out of the back of the amp to the effects in front, to the input jack in front of the amp ?