Home (amp tone and effects placement)

>=> I use a lot of pedals, and have never really thought much about the
>=> order in which I use them (except for having the delay last in the
>=> chain).

>Guitar -> Wah -> compressor -> modulation (phase/flange/chorus) -> distortion
>-> delay -> amp

Better to break out modulation.

Guitar -> Wah -> compressor -> phase ->
distortion ->
flange -> chorus -> delay -> amp

Phasing is an eq-type effect, which can therefore go well before distortion. Phasers add self-noise, though, so you'll get less hiss putting phaser after distortion.

I'm not sure how well flanging can fit before distortion.

Chorus and delay fit much better after distortion, especially if you use these all intensely. Order is most significant when using heavy time-based effects together with heavy distortion or heavily saturated power tubes. I decided my theory of effects placement based on assuming very heavy distortion, and very heavy time-based effects, and very heavy power tube saturation. To do all this and still get a clear Basic Tone, you have to do:

distortion
saturated power tubes
chorus/echo

I don't like the limitation of "only use time-based effects when playing clean". I figured out how to combine hard-core pure cranked tube amp Tone together with wacky, extreme time-based effects such as the presets in guitar multieffects processors, in a way that preserves the clarity of the tube amp tone -- keeps the amp tone free of beats and muddiness.