GigRig G2 User Manual page 35

A. I cover this in detail on the website under the Top Tone Tips section, but in short, I believe this is a
good place to start.
1st Germanium Fuzz Had to start off with this as germanium fuzz pedals are so incredibly sensitive to
what goes into them. So if you have a germanium transistor Fuzz Face or Tone Bender type fuzz pedal,
start off with it right at the front of your chain. It may not end up here, but hear it first with just your
guitar going straight in.
2nd Envelope Filter and Tone Shaping Effects - These include Auto Wahs and Wah pedals. These effects
rely on the dynamics of your guitar tone and should be the first thing you signal sees.
3rd Phasers/Vibes/Flangers - This might sound a bit unusual, but try it. Phasers work so great going into
gain stages such as OD's or preamps. Flangers can work great at the end of the chain but for that Van
Halen type flanger tone, it needs to go right at the front before the OD's
4th Compression - Compression can work well with a variety of different pedals, so best to have it close
to the front.
5th Overdrives, Distortions and Fuzz's, and in that order. If you go from the least amount of drive to the
greatest amount of drive you can get some pretty cool combinations. A low gain pedal can be a great
solo boost into a higher gain pedal, but the other way around can often spell disaster. There is one
major exception to this rule - Germanium Transistor boosters such as Fuzz Faces, Octavia's and treble
boosters. The nature of the design of these effects means that they don't like to see the buffer from
another pedal at the input. They prefer to see the guitar pickup. So, if you have one of these type of
pedals, best to stick it at the front before any buffers.
6th Modulation Effects - These include chorus and tremolos. It can also include flangers, but I personally
prefer them right at the front with phasers. The specific order of the modulation effects is probably the
least important as you rarely use more than one at a time and if you do is more a sound effect than a
toneful combination.
7th Delay effects - A good rule of thumb here if you use multiple delay effects is to put your short delay
before your long delay. Adding a nice drawn out delay on top of a slap back effect can sound quite cool.
8th and finally Reverb - Technically speaking, reverb is actually a delay effect. Very short delays
combined to give the effect of being in an enclosed space. Think about what happens when you shout in
a hall. That's the delayed sound of your voice bouncing of the walls. Leaving this effect till last works well
with many different combinations including clean and dirty sounds.
Don't Forget, you can change the order of any off the 8 mono loops in any preset by pressing and
holding the loop you want to move, then selecting the loop you want to place the moved loop BEFORE.
For more details check out 4. Basic Operation and Effect Loops
© TheGigRig Ltd 2013
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