1)How does the order of connecting pedals affect the sound
In general, overdrive, distortion, fuzz be the first in the chain, directly from your guitar come out, cable goes to those. Those pedals,
in general, react better with it first in line. As you turn down the volume knob on your guitar, you can vary the gain level. As for modulation kinda, usually it be at the last in pedal chain before the connection goes to amp.
As for what if you totally reverse the order of the pedals, it will work too(following output to input to output to input of amp will get amplified sound for sure), you will still get your pedal processed sound amplified thru the amp, but there will be a different in your sound
in general. As for how different, this depend on the pedals in your setup.
The above just a very very brief description. If you wanna, got to google and type in "Effect pedal order", you will find lotsa in depth write up on it. Go thru those, practice it, then follow by breaking those order and coming up with your own order connection to find useful sound for your own usage. There are some order which can be changed and some normally more or less fixed. Different player has different ways of doing and as you go along, you might see that nothing is fixed, but knowing the norm, either sticking to it or breaking it, is really, still a normal thing in playing with effect.
2) Is it a must to disconnect every single cable from every pedal in order to conserve battery life?
in order to understand why you have to disconnect the plug in order to save battery life, you will have to understand the way how most effect are being wired.
For most pedals in the market, usually the wiring of the pedal will make use of the input jack as a switch, to turn on the power supply to the pedal. As you plug in the jack, the metalic part on the jack will complete the path for electricity to flow and power up the pedal. As such when you disconnect, you will stop the flow and help save battery life. But if continuous plugging in, electricity will keep going flowing from postive to negative(completing the path for electricity flow) and in the end, become dead battery.
so if you wanna the cable remained plug in constantly without draining the battery, theres a solution. As you might have know, most if not all effect pedals(commercially released that is) will have its own power jack to use adaptor instead of battery. This power jack hold the key to have the cable plugged in all the time without straining battery.
The way most effect in the market are wired, when you plug in the power adaptor(using adaptor instead of battery), internally, the connection from the battery supply to the effect circuit will be disconnected and the adaptor will take over to supply the power for the effect.
In general, most and majority of the effect are all wired like that. There are exception also, but most prolly there wont be much chance to come across those
3) Does every pedal require it's own specific adaptor if I did not want to use batteries? And, would any adaptor do or it must be a specific brand of adaptor (eg. does a dunlop crybaby require a dunlop adaptor?)
Adaptor like one spot wud be useful and can be used with lotsa pedals. But important thing here is to know what kinda supply your effect need. For lotsa pedals, it require 9vdc, center negative supply. This 9vdc/center negative thingy, usually you will see it as a sticker beside the power jack.
For pedals needing other supply value(12vac, 18vdc etc), best to use the indicated adaptor from manufacturer. Take note of the AC or DC spec. Never use the wrong spec adaptor for the pedal, if fine, nothing might happen, in most cases, either the adaptor spoilt or your effect.
another thing to take note with adaptor is the rating. Usually for adaptor, you will see a sticker or sorta inprint on it, Input 230/240vac-50hz/60hz, output 9vdc 1700ma(this is the spec for onespot btw)
230vac is the house power, go thru the adaptor, it will be 9vdc with 1700ma current supply. All pedals will need this current as energy in order to power up and usually the current intake varies from pedals to pedals. In general, modulation efx take up lot more and drive pedal much less. So when you connect various pedals together using a dc chain/daisy chain, sharing 1 adaptor, the current comsumption will add up together. Its ok to have the total, less than the stated spec, but not the opposite. Beyond the spec, your adaptor wont be able to meet the demand and thus it will break down instantly.
4) Chopping sound.
Most likely the potentiometer in your wah is a bit dusty. Open up your wah and look at the innard. Get a non oil based electrical contact spray and spray the inner of the pot, turn the pot few time and see if the irritating sound goes away. If it doesnt, just send it to effect tech to take a look.
Usually for a pot, the internal consist of a circular carbon path where a metallic contact always touches. When you turn the pot, this metallic contact will rub against the carbon path and your effect setting(can be volume, tone or any sorta function) can be changed. For the carbon path, it can wear out(prolong usage over long time) or having dust particle on it over some time(worst when you dont use for long time) and as the metaliic contact move along this carbon path, the contact is kinda shaky, like touched a bit, never touched, touch abit, never touch, you will hear this intermittant "creaaakkkk tsssshhhhh csssssssh" sound.
heh, hope the above never bore you out. Although it seem a quite a bit, but its rather more towards in general info. So if you wanna know more, will have to google around liao. There be lotsa things to find.
have fun
