How to minimize hiss in pedals? Would this work?

[Morocotopo]

Hi people, I recently connected a few of my DIY pedals together, and since I´ve been building for at least a year, I have accumulated quite a few of them. I chained:
Tonemender>280 Comp>CE 2 Chorus>TS 808> Guvnor. All made with standard resistors. The result: HISSS!!!!! Angry snakes in my pedalboard!! 
So I´ve been thinking:
Metal film resistors are the best in terms of adding the least noise/hiss to circuits, right? Since it´s out of the question to rebuild them pedals completely, I thought maybe replacing just the resistors that are BEFORE the first semiconductors in each circuit might improve the situation (yes, I know that dist/OD pedals= noise increase). I´m not looking to eliminate completely the noise, I don´t think that is even possible, just to reduce it as much as possible.
What do you forumites think?

Thanks for reading

Morocotopo

[Sir H C]

Things earliest in the chain have the most affect as the noise gets gained up as you go through.  From there, the largest value resistors add the most noise.  Sometimes you can look at compromising current usage for lower noise.

[Mark Hammer]

Best S/N ratio is obtained by:

1) Feeding hot clean signals and applying as little gain as you can get away with.
2) Making sure your impedance-matching is as good as it can be so you don't lose signal.
3) Trimming off as much high end as you can without compromising signal.  This is an electric guitar, not a symphony orchestra.
4) Using the best shielding you can for interstage/pedal coupling
5) Paying special attention to layout, shielding, and use of low-noise components just a little more whenever there is a high-gain stage.

If I've understood your signal chain correctly, it is not exactly a recipe for cleanliness.

Compressors may have an interesting effect or behaviour when they are not first in the signal chain, but the noise specs tend to be at their worst unless they are first.  Similarly, even though the CE-2 is a pretty well-behaved little box, as chorus pedals go, BBDs are notoriously noisy, and sticking a high-gain pedal like either a TS808 or Guvnor after it just amplifies the noise it produces.

In Craig Anderton's projects, he would often have the option of an AC or DC coupled input, noting that if you knew the preceding device/pedal had a DC-blocking cap on the output, you could get less noise by omitting the DC-blocking cap on the input of the next pedal.  Most commercial pedals assume you simply don't know what came befopre so they all stick a DC-blocking cap on the input.  Sometimes those caps are necessary and do double duty as tone-shaping caps, rather than just DC-blockers.  But in many other cases, input caps can be safely omitted for slightly less noise.