Guitar Effects Pedals: These are an important component used in most studio setups and use even while performing on stage. Every guitarist/bassist uses effects pedals to make the guitar sound more interesting and better. While using effects pedal is the more popular way, you can also use an amp or effects software to add effects. Earlier, used mostly with synths, effects pedals are now used extensively with guitars.
Best Effects Pedals & Pedal-boards
The more experienced you become at playing a musical instrument, the more options you look for which would give you more control over the sound that is produced. And it is no different when it comes to guitar. This is where Guitar Effects really helps!
For Guitar players, amplifiers and effects are essential gear. Even songwriters and music producers, who play the guitar, find these effects units helpful to get a variety of sounds, which impacts the overall sound of the song.
If you have playing the guitar for some time, sooner or later, you’ll reach the stage where you’ll experiment with various effects. These effects can really provide you with a wide range of sounds, that can sound great onstage or in the studio. The type of effects you would require will also depend on what type of sound you are trying to generate. Though you can use software based effects as well, for portability and live use, guitar effects pedals are more suitable.
See Also
Recommended Products
Zoom G1XN Guitar Multi Effects Pedal
Zoom G1XN comes with 8 effect modules and 54 effect types, 80 patches (40 user defined and 40 preset patches), Advanced ZFX-3 processing engine, 96kHz sampling, 24-bit A/D/A Conversion and 32-bit signal processing.
DigiTech RP355 Modeling Guitar Processor
The DigiTech RP355 Modeling Guitar Processor features 126 Amps, Cabinets, Stompboxes and Effects, Built-In wah, whammy and volume pedal, USB Audio Streaming for computer recording, 60 High-Quality drum patterns, and has Built-20 Second Looper.
Boss ME-70 Guitar Multi-Effects Pedal
The Boss ME-70 is a multi-effects unit that comes with 10 types of OD/Distortion, 10 types of Modulation, Reverb, Delay, Compression and Noise Suppressor, and more.
Guitar Effects: Guide
Introduction
Effects pedals (also known as or stompboxes) are equipment that sit on the floor and are designed to be operated by the foot. Simple effect pedals house a single effect, whereas the more complex stompboxes pedals have multiple footswitches, several knobs, switches and even a small display that indicates which effect is activated.
A physical guitar foot pedal can be controlled using your foot while your hands are busy on the guitar.
Most of these effects boxes are triggered using pedals, and hence they are known as Guitar Effects Pedals. Effects pedals are essential gear for any guitarist or bassist.
Common effects units include wah-wah pedals, fuzzboxes and reverb units. Its easy to form an effects chain (or signal chain) by connecting several effects pedals together.
Effects Units Features
Here are some of the important features of Guitar Effects Pedals.
- Effects units are electronic devices that alter the sounds of a musical instrument and other sound sources.
- The effects can range from subtle to quite dramatic
- These are used in the studio and also for live performances
- Used mostly with electric guitars, bass, and keyboards, and other electric / electronic instruments. However, these can be used with acoustic instruments such as drums and even with vocals
Limitations of Using a Guitar Amp for Effects
Though guitar amps are primarily meant to provide amplification so that you can hear the final sound from your guitar, most amplifiers also have options to add effects to make the sound different. But then, it doesn’t give the guitarist the option to add or remove the effects while playing the guitar.
How to Make the Connection?
So how does make the connection between the guitar effects pedal, guitar and the amplifier? Usually the connection is made in this manner:
Your Guitar -> Goes to the Effects Pedal -> Goes to the Guitar Amplifier
You need a regular guitar cable to make the connection.
But then you can always add multiple or different guitar effects to make your guitar sound more interesting; which means that the above connection will now follow the sequence:
Your Guitar -> Pedal 1 -> Pedal 2 -> Pedal 3 and so on and the last pedal -> Goes to the Guitar Amplifier
In this case, you use a regular guitar cable to connect your guitar to the first pedal in the chain, and the last pedal in the chain to the amplifier. All the intermediate pedals are connected to each other via ‘patch cords’. A patch cord is a really short cable that is used to cut down the amount of noise that gets added by these pedals.
Here’s a picture that depicts how a guitar effects pedal is connected to a guitar. and the output provided to the amplifier.
Popular Guitar Effects
So what are the various types of effects that musicians use? Effect can vary from subtle to dramatic, and come in various types.
Here are the more popular ones.
Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Tremolo, Vibrato, Wah-wah, Delay/Echo, Reverb, Overdrive/Distortion, Noise gate, Acoustic Simulator.
As you can see, Guitar effects indeed come in a wide variety, however, if you hear them closely, most of these are simply variations on four basic effects, and those are:
- Distortion
- Dynamics
- Reverb/Delay
- Pitch Modulation
Various Effects / Categories Explained
There are several types of effects that one can apply while playing the guitar. Though most of these effects apply to electric and bass guitars, a few are available for acoustic guitars as well.
In general, these are the broad types or categories of Guitar Effects:
- Distortion (Overdrive, Hi-Gain)
- Modulation (Chorus, Phase Shifter)
- Pitch (Octaver, Whammy Pedal)
- Filter (Wah Pedal, Talk Box)
- Volume (Volume Pedal, Tremolo)
- Time (Digital Delay, Reverb)
Here’s a brief explanation of the popular effects. If you have played an instrument like electronic keyboards before, you may already be familiar with some of these.
You do get different guitar effects pedals that mimic the sound of these effects.
Reverb units simulate sounds produced in a large hall, by creating a large number of echoes that gradually fade or decay.
Delay/Echo
This effect produces an echo effect by adding another electrical signal that sounds at a slight time-delay to the original one.
Chorus
Another common one, this effect mimics the sound of choirs and string orchestras. It sounds as if several singers / musicians are being played together.
Tremolo
In case you are not very skilled, this effect can come in handy. A tremolo effect produces a slight, rapid variation in the volume of a note or chord.
Vibrato
Opera singers and violinists use this often (naturally). The same effect can now be provided with
Vibrato effects that produce slight, rapid variations in pitch.
Wah-wah
Meant to mimic the human voice, this effects pedal alters the tone of the signal to create a distinctive effect known as the “wah” effect.
Guitarists love this effect, these create “warm”, “gritty” and “fuzzy” sounds by “clipping” an instrument’s audio signal, which distorts the shape of its wave form and adds overtones.
Acoustic Simulator
Want to quickly switch from electric to acoustic? Use this effect! Acoustic Simulators enable electric guitars to mimic the sound of acoustic guitar.
Phaser / Phase Shifter
Used a lot for onstage performances, this effect creates a slight rippling effect, amplifying some aspects of the tone while diminishing others. It works by splitting an audio signal in two and altering the phase of one portion.
Flanger
Use a lot in studio recordings, a flanger creates a “jet plane” or “spaceship” sound. It simulates a studio effect produced by recording a track on two synchronized tapes and periodically slowing one tape by pressing the edge of its reel (the “flange”).
Noise gate
These are quite effective during recordings to help you get a cleaner sound. With Noise gates, you can set a frequency threshold, which can be used to eliminate unwanted sounds such as “hum”, “hiss” and “static” sounds. Any sound below the threshold is removed, clipped or diminished.
More Pedals
It’s an absolute joy to play if you have the right instrument, sound equipment and also the skills to get the most out of your electric guitar setup. This setup includes an ESP Viper Standard with EMG 85s, running through a Fulltone Bass Drive 2 and a Boss Flanger into my Orange AD30HTC with a PPC212 on its side. The player doesn’t care much about the actual song structure though (of Electric Wizard Funeralopolis: Guitar Cover).
Guitar Effects Software
Although the physical foot pedals are best for live playing, when practicing at home or when creating music in your studio, you also have the option of using a effects software. There are many software programs out there (guitar effects software and amp modeling software) that can turn your computer into some sort of guitar effects processor.
But then, you also have options of using software to generate these effects. These are known as guitar effects software / processor (also known as Guitar Effects Simulator or Guitar amp Simulator); some of these usually also have a hardware part to the package.
Advantages
There are many times when musicians wish that they could just get rid of bulky & heavy equipment, and use something much more convenient. Software effects & simulator applications fit the bill in such cases and can deliver sounds that are as close as possible to your favorite stomp box and rack mount effects.
There are several free options out there, but for best results are provided by the paid ones.
How Does it Work?
Connect your guitar to the computer and run it through a software that has cool effects (some sort of guitar effects processor). You can use different kinds of effects such as delays, distortions, reverbs, etc. Basically, you can do anything you want with the sound.
If you are a beginner and just curious about how the whole thing works, you can just plug the guitar into the line input of your sound card, and run through the effects software.
But for serious work, the onboard mic input isn’t the ideal way to go. Those sound cards are anywhere not meant for serious music. You’ll need to run it past an audio interface. This will give you a much better sound, and you will be able to truly appreciate the qualities of the effects software.
To get a good studio quality sound, you’ll need good set of studio equipment, in addition to Guitar Effects Software / Processor.
Features of Guitar Effects & Amp Simulator
Here are some of the things that you can expect from a guitar effects software:
- The better ones are expandable effects processor, combining creative effects with pristine sound quality.
- With a good guitar modeling software, you just have to connect your guitar to the pc, and you can start using the cool effects that comes with the software
- You have to plug your guitar into the microphone or line input of your sound card oryou may use a USB audio interface to get the guitar’s input in the computer
- Using a guitar effects software basically lets you turn your computer into a guitar effects processor and/or into an all-in-one guitar amp
- The better software allows you to use classic amps, cabinets, mics and effects via a drag and drop interface.
- The effects may not be as good as the ones available in a professional studio but for most users, the reproduction is of very high quality and the only thing that you are using is basically a simple computer application.
- For best results, you may have to use a guitar foot pedal
Recommended Products
- Zoom G3 Guitar Effects and Amp Simulator with Expression Pedal
- IK Multimedia AmpliTube 3 guitar and bass amp and effects modeling software
- Zoom G5 Guitar Effects and Amp Simulator with Z-Pedal
Strange Guitar Pedal Powered by Candle, Costs $6,000
How much should a guitar pedal cost? 50, 100, 200, 500 dollars? Well, this one costs around $6,000 to make. But this one is a strange pedal this is powered by a candle (you don’t need 9-volt batteries). And because its a custom piece created by hand, its expensive.
The vibrato/phaser is designed by Zachary Vex, who has been building unusual guitar effect pedals for the last couple of decades (but this one has to be the strangest yet).
Vex’s latest creation was on display at the recent National Association of Music Merchants convention (NAMM).
Although its impractical for a gigging musician, it looks beautiful (the Candela Vibrophase looks like a Rube Goldberg machine).
How does it work?
Here’s how it produces the effect:
- At its heart is a a highly efficient but low-power Stirling engine
- The heat from the candle provides a temperature differential to drive the engine’s tiny piston which powers a flywheel.
- The flywheel spins an optical disc with an offset opaque coating. On one side of the disc is a bank of photo cells, while on the other side is, once again, the candle.
- This intermittent input to the photo cells provides the tremolo sound.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
Leave a Reply