This may not be the best possible answer, but start with one effect at a time and do lots of experimentation. To get a good handle on what each of them does, add it alone to the signal chain. Experiment with each setting by itself testing each at max and minimum settings as well as in the middle or their range. For example with a simple chorus effect, you will have rate, depth, and possibly mix controls. Get a good amp setting, either clean or distorted, and then add chorus. Try it both in front of the amp and after the amp. Test out the extremes of each setting to hear what it does to the sound. Then search for a good combination of all the controls to give you the sound you are after. There are so many possibilities to list, and it wouldn't be very effective to just read them all cause only after you have a handle on each individual effect will you begin to know how and when it can be used.
Of the effects I like to mess with I'll list them in order of signal path and some common settings (your mileage may vary).
Compressor
I often put a compressor in fromt of my amp as the first thing in the chain to smooth out the amplitude of the signal. This way variations in how hard I hit the strings are reduced. On higher gain signals, and when using a real tube amp, this can often be replaced with just a signal booster which will help to overdrive the front end of the amp and utilize the sort of natural compression that comes with a tube amp. On the other side of the coin, adding the compressor to a digital or solid-state amp before it's gain stages can serve to simulate natual compression that is said to occur with a tube amp. I tend to stick to subtle compression with the thershold set fairly hign and ratio set at maybe 3 to 1. Of course compressors have a multitude of applications, but this how I use it mostly with guitars.
EQ:
Using a parametric eq and boosting at about 1.5 KHz helps a lead tone cut through the mix a little bit. I also like to roll off the tone at the low end, say below 70kHz or so to reduce competition with the bass guitar. Parametric EQs are popular because of their flexibility. A good way to get a handle on how to use them is within your DAW. Plug one in on a guitar channel, enable only one filter, then adjust it's "Q" (bandwidth), Center Frequency, and gain. Watch graphically what this looks like on the computer while listening to the effect it has you your tone.
Amp:
I usually put the amp here in the signal chain relative to the others in this list. For me the tone controls, and the gain settings are my primary focus when setting up an amp or amp model. Then of course with amp modeling, the model selection itself is the biggest shaper of your basic tone.
Chorus/Flanger or other modulation.
I usually like to put this after the amp with a low rate setting and a depth at the midpoint of its range. These settings vary of course from application to application, but I usually dont go too extreme with the chorus as they often say "Less is more" with effects and to me the modulation effects colorize the signal more than just about any other effect and can be like too much candy after awhile. Chorus can add a nice stereo widening effect though and that's what I think is it's best attribute.
Delay:
I use delay to add size and depth to the tone. Common settings are 300ms delay time, feedback at 30% or less, mix at 25% or less. Usually mix is set at a very low amount say 8-12% to keep the delay from making you halucinate.
Reverb:
I like to think of reverb as something that occurs naturally in every room and therefore, reverb should be added to every tone depending on the room size that you imagine yourself or your song, or your band or whatever playing in. Most digital reverbs today do exactly this by modeling how a room will behave with respect to the infinite number of discrete echoes that a room produces. With reverb settings, first select the roon "Hall" "Club" Bright Room","Dark Room" in accordance with your imagination and then set its level (or mix) according to what the walls of your imaginary rooom
are made out of. Of course so much of this all depends on personal taste that I can't telll you exactly what to do hereexcept to again experiment until you find what your preferences are.
Well, those are the common ones that I use anyway, and how I typically set them with variations again as to the song or tune that I'm working on. Good luck with your experimentation and I hope this at least gives your some "food for thought".
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