# Pedal Chain - Overdrive Before Distortion?



## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...or after?

in general, i mean. i realize that many will have their individual preference.


----------



## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

I always put mine before back when I used more than 1 OD or when I had an OD and Dist. I always liked to stack my dirtboxes in ascending order of dirtiness, so light drive 1st, mid drive 2nd, heavy drive/distortion 3rd and then a boost after all that. But, as you mentioned, it's not a set-in-stone kinda thing. YMMV.


----------



## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

For me, this is a no-brainer. Assuming one is running them both concurrently, running a distortion into an overdrive means the overdrive turns into another distortion. Running an overdrive into a distortion means you get to make the distortion as mean as you like.

Note as well, that with so many "overdrives, like the Tube Screamer, trimming the bass off to keep the tone more even and less harsh, that filtering will suck all the guts out of any distortion you stick in front of it. Should the overdrive be situated ahead of the distortion, however, whatever bass enhancement the distortion pedal adds will be much more audible.


----------



## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...makes sense. i experimented last night with distortion first, and wasn't happy with the results. tonight i'll switch back.



mhammer said:


> For me, this is a no-brainer. Assuming one is running them both concurrently, running a distortion into an overdrive means the overdrive turns into another distortion. Running an overdrive into a distortion means you get to make the distortion as mean as you like.
> Note as well, that with so many "overdrives, like the Tube Screamer, trimming the bass off to keep the tone more even and less harsh, that filtering will suck all the guts out of any distortion you stick in front of it. Should the overdrive be situated ahead of the distortion, however, whatever bass enhancement the distortion pedal adds will be much more audible.


----------

