One of the great things about being a guitar player is the variety of sounds you can get. A
clarinet is a clarinet, but your guitar can be a sweet sounding classic guitar, a cool jazz box, an
acoustic that sounds like a cannon, or any of hundreds of electrics with sounds suited to country,
blues, classic rock, or sizzling metal and everything in between.
Guitar effects pedals increase the sonic variety by many orders of magnitude and give you
the chance to experiment with sounds and moods in your playing. You don’t have to be an advanced
player to make use of most pedal effects – with a few exceptions they require no special playing
technique. There is also no right and wrong or best and worst in the choice of a guitar pedal
effect: It’s all a matter of taste, mood, and experimentation.
Effects can define a style, such as the ever present use of reverb in the surf guitar and
rockabilly styles. They can also be used for a specific purpose, as in the use of Fuzz in the
Rolling Stones’ "(I can’t get no) Satisfaction," the first hit to feature the Fuzz and the Stones’
only use of that effect.
What about effects for vocals or other instruments? Although these effects are often called
guitar stomp pedals, they can often be used for vocals, keyboards, electronic drums, or any other
instrument with an electronic output. In some cases pedals have separate inputs for bass or are
optimized for specific frequency ranges. This is usually noted in our description or on the pedal
itself.
The first effects were fairly cumbersome and limited, such as the tape echo effects
developed by Les Paul in the 1940s or the spring reverbs found in early guitar amplifiers.
Beginning in the 1950s many players made use of the new tremolo effect built into their amplifiers.
In the ‘60s players found they could get a grittier sound with interesting overtones by overdriving
the amplifier – increasing the gain to levels beyond with the amps were intended to handle.
Then in 1962, the Maestro Fuzz Tone came out as the first stomp box effect. It didn’t get
much interest until the Rolling Stones used it in “(I can’t get no) Satisfaction” and then the
stomp box explosion began. Sam Ash is proud to have been part of this revolution with several
different effects including the Sam Ash Fuzz Boxxx and Volume Baby. Our Fuzz Boxxx sold originally
for about $29.99; today, if you can find one, they are selling for as much as $800 depending on
condition.
The major effects types are the following:
Distortion and Overdrive
Distortion effects include Fuzz and Overdrive and create warm
buzzing or to recreate the distorted sounds of an overdriven guitar amp. Distortion is a great
first choice for starting your collection of guitar effects. An Overdrive effect is also nice to
have if you’re amp can’t deliver a good “tube” sound. Today, you can get digital, analog, and some
overdrive effects with real 12AX7 tubes for a truly authentic tube amp sound. See our
Distortion
Pedal Buyers Guide.
Delay/Reverb
A Delay repeats the original sound after a period of milliseconds or longer,
creating an echo effect. A Reverb uses similar processing to simulate the reflections of the sound
from various room surfaces giving the sound the extra fullness you hear in a concert hall or other
venue. Most reverbs give you a choice of room sizes and types and many are designed to simulate the
effects of old analog reverbs like the spring units in 1950s and 60s Fender amps (but without the
explosive bang the old spring reverbs produced when jostled). The great sonic enhancement you get
from a reverb makes it another great way to start your collection of effects. See our
Delay
Effects Buyers Guide and our
Reverb
Pedal Buyers Guide.
Chorus/Flanger/Phaser
Chorus adds a slightly delayed slightly modulated version of your sound to the original creating
the illusion of two or more instruments playing in unison. A Phaser or Phase Shifter uses a similar
technique but sweeps the modulated signal sweeps from in phase to out of phase in a constant
rotation to give an effect similar to a rotating speaker. Eddie Van Halen frequently makes use of
the MXR Phase 90 and the Rolling Stones used a phaser in the song Shattered. The Flanger is the
most subtle version of this effect, with more sweeps and changing speeds over time creating an
ethereal spacey sound typified by the psychedelic sounds of Jimi Hendrix or the song Blue Jay Way
from the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour.
By the way, the word “flanger” comes from the way the effect was originally produced. In the
studio, two identical tracks would be played on two different tape machines. The effect resulted by
putting a finger on the flange of one of the tape reels to change the speed of one machine from
time to time (very cumbersome compared to the modern electronic effect). See our
Chorus/Flanger/Phaser
Pedal Buyers Guide.
Phrase Looping
Phrase Loopers require a bit of playing experience beyond rank beginner
status. They let you record a phrase or passage of music, play it back on command, and play along
with it. Using the better units, you can record more and longer passages and record layers of
performance on top of them. See our
Phrase
Looper Pedal Buyers Guide.
EQ Pedals
Anyone with a stereos system is familiar with EQ. EQ boosts or removes certain
frequencies and at extreme settings can create unusual effects, such as extra deep bass or an
emphasized midrange. Tone controls are the most familiar EQ filters, but you can get very creative
with an equalizer and this is where the EQ Pedal comes in. EQ Pedals can also be used to boost your
signal by moving up all the faders and hitting the button, but watch out, it will be quite a boost
and could damage your speakers. See our
EQ
Pedal Buyers Guide.
Wah Wah pedals
Wah Wah Pedals work by varying the filtering of frequencies dynamically with
your foot to give a Wah Wah or quacking sound to your playing. A Wah Wah pedal is essentially an EQ
that can be constantly varied by your foot. Since you need to coordinate the movement of the pedal
with your playing, the Wah Wah is not a tool for rank beginners. See our
Wah
Wah Pedal Buyers Guide.
Auto Wah - Envelope Filter Pedals
An Envelope Filter Pedal, sometimes known as Auto Wah or
an Envelope Following Filter, alters the cutoff frequency of a filter according to the volume of
the sound. It does this as each note is attacked, sustained, and decays (hence the term Envelope
Filter pedals) so the Wah Wah effect responds faster than a foot controlled Wah Wah pedal. It takes
some practice to control the response of the Envelope Pedal, so this is not an effect for the
novice. The Auto Wah effect is featured in The Who’s "Going Mobile", Dire Straits’" Industrial
Disease", and U2’s "Mysterious Ways" to name a few. Stevie Wonder used this effect with his
Clavinet Keyboard to get the distinctive sound of "Higher Ground". See our
Auto
Wah Pedal Buyers Guide.
Talk Boxes
Talk Boxes let you play the signal into your mouth for filtering control. By
varying the shape of your mouth, you can use a Talk Box to get a Wah Wah effect or even to shape
your guitar tone into recognizable words. The Talk Box was made famous by artists like Joe Walsh
who featured it in Rocky Mountain Way. Use of the Talk Box is closely associated with Peter
Frampton, notably on his hit Show Me the Way. The Talk Box also features prominently in Sly and the
Family Stone’s "Sex Machine," Aerosmith’s "Sweet Emotion," and Queen’s" Delilah", and Metallica’s
"The House the Jack Built." See our
Talk
Box Buyers Guide.
Octave/Pitch Shifters.
As the name implies, Octave and Pitch Shifter pedals duplicate the
original signal at a different pitch. The effect can be of two instruments playing in unison an
octave apart or of two instruments playing together at different intervals such as fifths. See our
Octave/Pitch
Shifter/Harmonizer Pedal Buyers Guide.
Tremolo/Vibrato
Although the terms are used interchangeably, technically Tremolo is an up
and down pattern of volume and Vibrato is an up and down patter of pitch. The tremolo/vibrato sound
is a natural part of the tone of an accomplished singer, wind player, or violinist. For organs and
other keyboards the effect was generated by the rotating Leslie speaker until electronics were
capable of recreating this effect. The effect has been a feature of guitar amps for a long time but
today’s digital electronics give you a more sophisticated and controllable result. See our
Tremolo/Vibrato
Pedal Buyers Guide.
Major Brands of Effects.
The major brands of effects pedals include
Boss (by Roland),
DigiTech, Dunlop, Ibanez, Korg, Line6, Morley, MXR, and
Zoom. These brands can provide you with excellent value and sound quality. There
are also boutique brands such as
T-Rex Engineering, Keeley Electronics, and
Gravesend, offering ultra high quality components and true hardwired bypass (see
our guest article on the
Buffer/True
Bypass compromise) to completely eliminate noise and distortion when the effect is switched
off.
Effect Pedal Boards:
You can get a lot creativity out of a Multi Effect pedal (see our
Multi-Effect
Pedal Buyers Guide), but somehow, most players end up collecting effects units and stringing
them together in a pedal board, including multi effect units. That is because you can also change
your sound by the order in which you place your pedals. For example, you can place your distortion
pedal before your flanger for a cleaner sound, or put your flanger first for the Eddie Van Halen
sound. The order of the pedals doesn’t matter technically, but changing the order enables you to
experiment with different tonal effects. See our
Effect
Pedal Board Buyers Guide.
Have Fun and Make Great Music!
