To answer this you have to understand the basics of the devices you're putting inline and what the final sound is going to be like.

The Sansamp is basically a tone device with different types of overdrive and distortions. Distortion tends to compress the signal so you have to decide to compress the EQ'd signal or the signal going into the EQ-able device. Both sound different and only you can determine which is best.

This sorta answers the question about EQ........in short.

I like to compress before distortion if I'm going to do both. It sounds weird to me to hear guitar with long sustain that loses the distortion faster than it loses volume. I might put eq before or after the distortion, but for me it's almost always after compression. I think I've even put eq before and after the distortion on at least one occasion.

[Edit] Whoops, I wrote it backwards. I actually like eq before compression almost all the time, especially if I'm going to adjust the LF. Sometimes I'll do a gentle HF boost after the comp, but most filtering goes before.

Personally, I like eq after compression simply because eq affects how compression works. This is either a good thing or a bad thing or just another option depending on your point of view. It takes a bit more practice using eq before compression as sometimes what you think you are trying to do will have the opposite effect.

As far as before or after sansamp:

bouldersound wrote: It sounds weird to me to hear guitar with long sustain that loses the distortion faster than it loses volume.