The classic position for a wah pedal is as the first pedal your guitar sees (or second, if you use a vintage fuzz pedal that doesn’t deal well with buffers). It’s almost considered gospel: the wah becomes part of the “base” guitar tone, and every other effect processes that base tone. The result is a great, classic sound.

But try thinking about wah less like a guitarist, and more like a synthesist, which means thinking of your wah pedal as a resonant peaking filter. A synth programmer would likely place that filter later in the chain so that the entire tone could be filtered and shaped in various expressive ways.

With this in mind, consider placing your wah pedal last in your signal chain before the amp input and after all of your other effects. Two things are accomplished here: first, the wah will be processing any fuzz/overdrive/distortion pedals, which means the filter has way more harmonic material to act upon and can create a more intense and dramatic effect.

Wah after delay and reverb allows you to filter the ambience as well as echo effects, which can open up interesting sonic options.

There are no rules when it comes to signal flow with effects pedals — though there are conventions that provide good results. If you want a fresh take on your tones, switch up your signal flow and place effects where you normally wouldn’t put them in the chain. A great place to start is with your wah at the end of the chain.

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Fresh Tones: Wah at the End of the Pedal Chain

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