If you’re reading this you’re probably thinking about buying some guitar effects. You probably already know what kind of sound you are trying to make and are trying to figure out which of the MASSIVE range of pedals that are out there will suit your needs. There is a pedal or rack mount to give every tone and every sound you can imagine and I challenge you to find a professional musician that doesn’t use at least one effect either live or in the studio. The fact is that pretty much any time you hear an electric guitar you’re probably hearing it being played through an effect of some sort.
Many guitarists have become very well known for the use of effects in adding a new characteristic to their playing. As I write this I particularly have Tom Morello in mind from Rage Against The Machine a guitarist who has gone beyond the stage of using pedals and even uses the guitar controls themselves to give an “effect”, I am of course talking about that killswich made stuttering he is renowned for. Many other guitarists have become forever linked to the pedals that have given their sound such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Ibanez Tube Screamer and Hendrix and his Fuzz Face pedal.
The Huge variety of effect pedals is made even more daunting by the plethora of manufacturers but some of my personal preferences are Boss, MXR and DigiTech.
Here is a quick rundown of various effects on the market and what they do.
Distortion
There are several types of distortion but generally come from the clipping of the guitar signal by an increase in gain within the pedal several also use harmonic multiplication. You can find distortion effects built into many amplifiers and can even get an overdrive distortion sound just by turning your input gain right up on many amps…so no pedal required :D
Overdrive is the most common distortion and all it does is boost the signal of your guitar to the point where it is outside of the range that the amplifier or speaker can reproduce. They are available in Tube, Tube emulation and digital varieties.
Crunch pedals such as the Tube Screamer mentioned before are similar the use of a vacuum tube causes compression of the sound and at high level gives a very gritty sound, but just before the point of total distortion they make a very thick tone …think Santana.
Fuzz in my opinion sounds like you have trashed your speaker. In fact this is what a lot of the guitarists back in the 60’s used to do this on purpose to get a fuzzy tone. The pedals are just an emulation of this.
EQ pedals
Does what it says on the tin. If your amp isn’t giving you enough control over which frequencies to cut and boost or you want to boost a certain frequency range so you can be heard over the bass player you want to get y
ourself one of these.
Wah pedals
They have a big footplate that rocks back and forth, a frequency is chosen by how far back or forward the plate is and that is boosted by the pedal. Rocking it back and forth gives a sweeping sound. Very commonly used in the 60’s and 70’s for psychedelic rock bands and also funk. Also available in an auto version which sweeps through the frequencies for you.
Volume pedals
They look like a wah pedal but turn your volume up and down…not complicated at all.
Tremolo
Turns your volume up and down at a certain rate causing a fluttering sound, the more tremolo you put on the more cut in the sound and there is usually a speed control for how quickly you want it to change volumes. I like these.
Compressor
Compressors are useful for when you want to smooth out the volume of your guitar playing. They are very common with bass players. Be warned though compression is very rarely needed when you are using a distorted sound therefor If you plan on playing in a metal band your probably not gonna need one.
Delay pedals
A copy of the signal is made and it is repeated a set number of times. The modern digital delays are much cleaner sounding and are my personal preference. They are widely used a good example of the delay pedal is nearly any track by U2.
Loop pedals
Similar to a delay but allows you to play a couple of bars of music and the repeats them for you to play over the top. Very popular with several YouTube artists at the moment.
Reverb
Reverb pedals are very common, they emulate the sound of playing in a room giving the guitar tone a more real presence. This is used a great deal in studio when trying to make sounds more natural.
Flanger
Back in the days of tape reels and men in white coats in recording studios this effect was created by slowing down the tape by pressing something into the edge (or flange) of the tape real to slow it down then allowing it to speed back up. The sound of a flanger is hard to describe, try having a look around YouTube for some samples if you haven’t heard one before. Randy Roads and Van Halen both use a MXR flanger.
Chorus
This splits the guitar signal then slightly modifies one to give the sound of two or more guitars playing at the same time.
Octavers and pitch shifters
These pedals mix the guitar signal with a synthesized copy. The synthesized copy is at a different pitch to the original sound. This can be done to create a harmony type sound where the pitch is added to say a fifth of it or in the case of an octaver it mixes the sound with either an octave higher or lower. Basically they do what it says on the label.
These are just a few of the pedals out there and this is by no means an extensive list. I hope you enjoyed the read and have fun choosing your new pedals.
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