Connect a Guitar Pedal
Guitar effect pedals are devices that alter the electronic signal produced by an electric guitar, changing its tone. These pedals can be used to produce a variety of different sounds, effects, and echoes, from a heavy distortion to a psychedelic reverb effect. It's important to learn to connect pedals properly, to avoid shorting your rig and keeping your pedals in good working condition. Whether you're hooking up a single pedal or changing together a big sequence, you can learn to do it correctly.
Contents
Steps
Hooking Up a Single Pedal
- Turn everything off. Anytime you're connecting or disconnecting an effects pedal, you need to cut the power to everything in the chain. While the power cables can and should be plugged in to each separate unit, the units themselves should be switched off. Make sure the amp and each pedal are switched off when you connect them. There is one exception to this rule though - if you are using a tube or valve amp. In this case, you want to keep the amp turned on but put the amp in standby mode using the standby switch.
- Trying to connect live circuits can result in shorts, as well as loud pops and feedback bursts that will come through the amp. It'll shorten the life of all the components in your rig. Don't do it.
- The biggest thing to avoid is powering on a pedal, connecting it, then powering on the amplifier. This is a fast-track to a short.
- Hook your amplifier and pedal up to power. To make sure the pedals and the amp are off before you connect them, you'll need to have them plugged in. Connect both your pedal and your amp to power and switch them on and off to make sure.
- Some guitar pedals will come with 9-volt A/C adapters, while others will be battery-operated, though most feature both options. For most guitar players, batteries are nice because it's one less thing to plug in, but are a hassle because batteries die and are expensive.
- Connect your guitar to the input jack. Most pedals will have only two jacks, one labeled "Input," and another labeled "Output." These jacks are usually located on opposite sides of the pedal's body, depending on the unit, and are built to accept a standard quarter-inch (6 mm) audio cable. Locate the input and output jacks on the guitar pedal, then connect your guitar to the jack labeled "input."
- All the inputs and outputs can get confusing for the beginner. Remember: the audio signal is generated by your guitar's pickups, from where it travels to the amp through the cable. So, the guitar should always be connected to the input jack of the pedal, because this reflects the direction in which the signal travels. You play a sound on the guitar, then it travels “in” to the pedal, where it comes "out" and goes back “in” to the amp.
- Connect the output jack on the pedal to the input of the amplifier. Run another length of quarter-inch cable from your pedal to your amplifier. The cable connecting the pedal to the amp should go into the same input you would normally plug your guitar into directly.
- To connect a pedal, you'll need at the very least, two quarter-inch cables. If you're chaining together pedals, you'll likely need more patch cables to fit everything together without much hassle, but if you're just plugging in one, two regular cables will work fine.
- Turn the amplifier on first and set your levels. After you've got all your cables plugged in, switch your amplifier on and set everything like you like it. In general, it's best to keep your amp relatively unaffected when you're trying out a pedal for the first time, to get a feel for how it sounds, but feel free to experiment. If you always play with the amp on the same settings, leave it how you like it.
- Turn down the effect knobs before switching it on. Especially if you're plugging in a super-fuzz distortion pedal or some kind of space-echo, you want to make sure you're not going to blow out your eardrums when you stomp on the pedal for the first time. Turn all the settings down low before you activate the pedal. You can adjust them as you play.
- Experiment with the pedal. To activate most pedals, you can step on a button or a lever below the control knobs on the pedal to activate it. Most of the time, a red or green light will turn on, letting you know the pedal is activated. Gently explore the features of the pedal, turning the different effect knobs up while you're playing to get a feel for the sound. Play around with different effect volumes and orientations. Have fun.
- To turn most pedals off, you'll step on the button or lever again, cutting the signal to the pedal and going straight through the amp. Play around with activating and deactivating the pedal to get the kind of sound you want.
- Always unplug cables when you're finished playing. If you leave pedals connected, the power will be drained, making this especially important if you're using batteries to power your guitar pedals. Any time you've got cables connected to the input and output jacks, the power will be drained from the pedal. If you're not actively playing, make sure all your pedals are disconnected and switched off. They'll last a lot longer.
Organizing a Sequence of Pedals
- Use patch cables. Patch cables are short lengths of quarter-inch cable that are used specifically for connecting a sequence of pedals. It would quickly become unwieldy to patch together more than one or two pedals with 12-foot lengths of stage cable, so patch cables help to keep your set-up tidy and easy to manage.
- Patch cables are also recommended to maintain signal quality. The longer an audio signal must travel, the worse it will eventually sound, so short patch cables help to keep your signal of the highest quality possible.
- Always start with your tuning pedal. When you're chaining together a sequence of pedals, the order of the pedals is very important. The first pedal in the sequence is the one connected directly to your guitar and the last pedal in the sequence will be the pedal that connects to your amplifier. Different rules apply to different pedals, but the one pedal you want to make sure is first in any chain is a tuning pedal, if you have one.
- Tuning pedals need clear, direct, unfiltered signals to work properly. If you installed a distortion pedal in a sequence before a tuning pedal, the tuner would be reading that degraded and distorted signal. It might sound cool, but it'll make the tuner go all wonky and give you a bad reading. Put your tuner first so your guitar will stay in tune.
- Place compressors and filter-type pedals early in the sequence. Basic rule of thumb when it comes to sequencing guitar pedals: Pedals that create tone need to go before pedals that manipulate tone. Wah-wahs, envelope filters, and other pedals that compress the natural sound of your guitar should be placed early in the signal path, following any tuners that you use.
- Put overdrive and distortion pedals second in the sequence. Some of the most common pedals used in playing rigs are the fuzz boxes. Distortion, overdrive, and other types of pedals that create great-sounding gain and distortion for controlled bursts of chaos in your sound should come after the tuners and the wah-wahs.
- The specific order of your distortion and overdrive pedals is up to you. When it comes to playing guitar, the rules are meant to be broken. Experiment with different orientations of your pedals to see what sound works best for you.
- Chain modulation pedals after distortion. Flangers, phasers, and chorus pedals work by modulating the signal and creating an atmospheric effect to that tone. It works best chained in the sequence after any distortion pedals that you might have in your chain.
- Volume and reverb pedals should always be placed last in a sequence. These work best when used to adjust a finished signal, and won't work properly placed in the middle of the sequence. Reverb pedals can go out of control if placed before distortion.
- Play with the order of the pedals to get the sound you’re looking for. There's no "wrong way" to chain together pedals. For some guitar players, looking for control and reliability and quality of sound, these rules of thumb are absolutely essential to getting a "correct" signal. For others, you can make noise symphonies just by twisting some dials and never touching your guitar. Spend an afternoon chaining together pedals in different sequences. See what happens.
- If something starts feeding back, go for the modulators and reverb units first. Anything that echoes and repeats, or loops a signal is the likely candidate for feedback, instead of distortion pedals, as you might expect. You can also turn down the effect knobs quickly to get control of the signal, if necessary.
- Power the cables in sequence. When you patch pedals together, you can also invest in a power-patch cable, to allow you to power all your pedals through a single 9-volt adapter, rather than trying to lug around adapters for each one of your pedals. This is usually the most efficient method for trying to power your pedals, rather than batteries or individual adapter units. It’s basically a long string of A/C jacks attached to a single cable, which you can link straight into the pedals.
- Create a Pedal Board. A pedal board allows you to keep your pedals organized on stage, as well as keeps your pedals ordered in a sequence that you like. If you’ve stumbled upon a set-up that works for you and produces the sound you’re looking for, it’s a lot easier to organize it on a board and keep it connected in the same basic order, rather than having to reorganize every time you want to play.
Tips
- Most effects pedals will consume battery power as long as a cable is plugged in to their input jack. To conserve battery life, unplug all cables from your pedals when not in use.
- Always leave your amplifier turned off when connecting and disconnecting pedals. Leaving it on can damage the internal components.
- Make sure you use instrument cables, not speaker cables. Instrument cables are shielded, which reduces radio frequency interference. This interference will generally cause a high pitched squealing noise and a lot of static coming through your amp.
Things You'll Need
- Electric guitar
- Effects pedals
- Long audio cables (2)
- Patch cable
- Amplifier
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