Electric Guitar Effects Pedals - 5 Popular Effects Pedals For Guitar

If you want to enhance your Guitar playing experience and create rich and varied sounds for your performances, then the obvious means is by use of Electric Guitar Effects Pedals. Here are five 5 popular Effects Pedals in common use, with brief explanations of each.
1. Compression
This is an extremely useful pedal, which is probably the hardest to use, and the least understood. Effectively the Compressor enables the performer to play over a wide dynamic range - from soft rhythmic chords to blistering solos - while maintaining the same output volume of the Amplifier. This way the audience can not only hear those softer passages, but also the more dynamic lead work without drowning out the other musicians (and making your 'ears bleed').
Another effect put to good use, is the ability of the Compressor to enable long sustained notes, far beyond the natural ability of the instrument. Ideal for all those eyes closed, posing moments while stretching that note for as long as possible.

Care must be taken when using a Compressor, as improper use can lead to the introduction of noise,or lead to a rather bland dynamic performance.
2. Tremolo
A very popular Pedal used in the 60's and is still used today. The Tremolo Pedal produces a vibrato effect to the single note or chord by changing the amplitude (volume) of the signal, by a variation determined by the user. The Pedal allows control of both the signal depth and rate of the speed variation. On a technical note, a sine wave is applied to a Voltage-Controlled Amplifier, which affects the signal from the Guitar. It's the Frequency and Amplitude of the sine wave - which the controls alter - that effects both the rate and depth.
3. Overdrive and Distortion
These Pedals amplify the guitar signal to the point where the sound produced is anything between a warm rich 'clipped' sound to a dirty or gritty tone. The number of controls, and hence the available tone variations, vary from pedal to pedal from just a few simple pots and a footswitch, to more complex versions incorporating Tone Shaping facilities.
4. Wah Wah
Another extremely well known Pedal. This produces an effect, which sounds similar to a human voice saying - yep you've guessed it 'wah'. The effect is produced by a foot pedal in the form of a rocking treadle, and is great for enhancing your lead or rhythmic playing.
Getting a bit technical again, the Wah effect is produced by a low-pass filter whose cut-off frequency is control by the foot pedal. Interestingly, this type of low-pass filter is used often in modern Dance or Trance type music where the high frequencies of the song are gradually filtered out until only a kind of muffled beat is left. The effect is then gradually reversed until all frequencies are restored again.
5. Phaser
Finally the fifth pedal for this article is the Phaser, and is probably the best known. Basically, two signals are produced from the Guitar signal going in, and then they are mixed together but slightly out of phase. This is what produces the Phasing effect.

Conclusion
Guitarist set up their effect pedals in two ways. By use of mutli-effects Units that have various types of Guitar Effects in one 'box' - which range in price depending on the facilities available. However, as most are now microprocessor controlled, huge variations of range of tone and parameter are at the guitarist's disposal.
The second method is where individual pedals are 'daisy chained' together by short cables. Many guitarists have favourite individual pedals, which they prefer and know very well, therefore they adopt this method. Also, if you are on a low budget, pedals can be bought separately as time goes by, and added to the chain. The downturn is that the set-up time takes longer and more cables are involved (which always seem to go wrong at the gig).

There are literally hundreds of types of each pedal mentioned, which can be a logistical nightmare for the Guitarist looking to buy. If you would like more information on what's available on the market today, then YouTube is a great online place to visit to gain information on just about every pedal on the market, plus you will be able to watch and hear each pedal in action.

The Most Important Guitar Effects Pedals for Aspiring Rock Musicians asssss

There are a mind boggling amount of guitar effects pedals about and they come in all different shapes and sizes. What is an effect pedal you may ask? An effect pedal is a device that is put between your guitar and the amplifier to alter the output sound. A pedal is made up of numerous components put into a case. The sounds that you can achieve from various effect pedals are quite extraordinary.
Guitarists today use more effects than ever and are evident to the sounds of bands such as Pink Floyd and U2. Numerous effect pedals are used in succession to complicate the sound. There are two main pedals out there. One is the multi effects processors and these contain numerous built into a single device. Alternatively, individual pedals focus on giving you one sound and not more than two. Such pedals involve you playing around with settings in order to get your intended sound. Many amplifiers these days have built-in sounds for you to use but they are not as versatile as pedals. This is because it is hard to utilize more than one sound simultaneously on amps.

Pedals cost from $60 or £40 upwards and include a broad range of prices. Specialist brands include Boss, Marshall, Pete Cornish, Electro Harmonic, Yahama, Dunlop and Digitech. As a budding guitarist, you could easily wipe your bank account clean upon purchasing guitar effects pedals due to the countless variety out there. What I recommend is that you only purchase one pedal for each main sound.
Recommended guitar effect pedals
Delay and Reverb sounds give a strong echo sound and is great if you are really playing live. This sounds professional like and is very convincing. Distortion and gain guitar effects pedals are widely used with electric guitars and are certainly used in lead and solo guitar playing. This adds crunch and meat to your sound and certainly does sound sweet. As stated previously, multi effects processors are a great for beginners as they have access to all the different possibilities right in front of them. All of these mentioned are the essential pedals that you must have in order to sound great.

After you have gotten hold of the main pedals, you may want to look for a few more to sound even great! A wah-wah effect allows the sound pitch to be constantly changed through the use of a pedal. This was heavily utilized by Jimi Hendrix. Added effects include Flanger, Chorus and Phase shifter also know as a uni-vibe. These pedals sound slightly similar to each other, however they do sound beautiful. Chorus and Flanger pedals sound very sweet and made famous by David Gilmour and created the sounds of Pink Floyd. Most of these sound best with little to no gain or distortion.

How to Arrange the Order of Effects Pedals for Your Guitar and Amp

If you've started accumulating a few effects pedals you may have been wondering if there's an optimal way to chain them together for the best sound. The truth is this is something that's open for debate, to an extent. Depending on the overall sound you're trying to achieve, the kind of music you're into, and your ears in general, what may sound fantastic to you may sound horrendous to someone else, and vice-versa.
There is however a very general consensus on the best ordering. You can use this as a guide to start you off, and if you feel like rearranging things a bit from there, go ahead!
The Chain

• Actually the first one here is easy. If you have a tuner pedal, this should go first in the chain, i.e. the first one after your guitar, for the simple reason that you want it to receive the cleanest signal possible to obtain the most accurate reading.


• Patch a lead from the output of your tuner to the input of your next pedal. Next in line should be, EQ, volume and wah pedals, and compression. There's a bit of debate on placing compressors here as opposed to at the end of the chain. Here they'll have an effect on both the tone and volume of every following effect (which can be more desirable than you might imagine). Alternatively, placing them at the end will act as a volume boost only.


• Next up place your distortion and overdrive type effects. Again, there is some suggestion of a different placement for these - right at the front of the chain. If you like having your tone permanently distorted (i.e. no 'clean' parts) you might want to try this.


• Delay should probably go next, as you want to avoid the modulation effects that come next 'modulating' the delay echoes...or maybe you don't! Place it here for now anyway.


• Modulation effects - you may remember from one of my previous articles this includes things like chorus, flangers and phasers - should go next.


• Finally, if you have a reverb pedal this should go last, although one thing I would say here is, ask yourself how necessary a reverb pedal is. If you're setting up to record, fair enough. If you're setting up a live rig, stop and think about what a reverb pedal does. It emulates the reverberations within various different sizes of space. But if you're playing in a club or hall, that reverb is already naturally provided for you by the room. Add additional reverb and you're in danger of seriously muddying up your sound. Of course it is sometimes necessary even in a live context to achieve a certain desired effect, but tread carefully.


• The output from the final effect in the chain goes into your amp input, and then you're good to go!

At this point it's worth writing down a diagram of the arrangement you've just made, particularly as if you decide to experiment a bit, but end up getting muddled, you can come back to this layout as your default starting position. If you're doing this with the assembly of a pedal board in mind it's very important you get your desired arrangement right before you commit it to the board, as undoing this later will be trickier once the pedals have been fastened down and patch cords laid.
The above advice can also be applied to the stompbox sections of virtual guitar FX such as AmpliTube and Guitar Rig. The joy here is you can rearrange the pedals to your heart's content with the click and drag of a mouse, avoiding spaghetti junction with your patch cords, and never having to worry about your supply of 9V batteries running out...or maybe that's all part of the fun?

The Shocking Truth About Effects Pedal Boards

What People Are Not Telling You
Would you buy a guitar without researching it? Would you buy an amp without researching it? Probably not, and why not? Because you want to make sure that your making the right choice, one that you will be satisfied with, right? So why would you not spend the time researching the best effects pedal boards for yourself?
The shocking truth about effects pedal boards is that people have little knowledge about the importance of them and what you need to be aware of when buying them. You would not believe the amount of people who invest in a pedal board case only to realize that it is no good for them because it is too small, too big, too heavy, takes up to much room etc.The shocking truth is that If you do not know exactly what you are looking for, then you will get roped into buying an effects case that you don't need, or spending twice as much money as you should have

Unbelievably, the reason why musicians make this mistake is actually very simple, and because it is simple it can be easily avoided. Before you even start looking to buy an effects pedal board you need to look at you current set up of pedals and decide what you need from there. For instance if you have a large amount in your set up then you would want a good size to fit them all, but you also need to think about weight and transporting the pedals. If you're going to be carrying them around in a flight case a lot think how heavy that will be.
You can easily avoid these common problems that people come across and save yourself loads of hassle and money by considering the following points when looking to buy effects pedal boards.

• Ask yourself what are the reasons why you need a case?
• Do you simply want one so that you can transport and protect your effects pedals?
• Do you want a board that comes with a built-in power supply?
• One of the most important factors you should think about is if you need a hard case or a soft case?
• What size do you need?
• How many pedals do you have?

The Impact of Guitar Effects Pedals on the Music Industry

The stomp box is connected to the path of the electrical signal of the guitar. The most basic set up would be, from the guitar into the effects pedal, and then to the amplifier.
The fuzz box is the kind of stomp pedal that is usually just turned on and off to achieve the desired effects. There may be knobs to allow for different settings, but after the musician set them, he usually keep the setting for the duration of the song, if not the entire performance.

Some stomp boxes were given their names due to the way they alter the sound of the guitar. The wah wah pedal, and also the fuzz box are two classic examples. Both are among the favorite choices of guitarists, and they were among the earliest ones created, as well. The wah wah pedal is the kind that is actively controlled during the song by guitarist stepping on the peddle in a manner like a gas pedal. The more it is pressed down, the more emphasized is the effect.
It is all but impossible to accurately assess the impact of guitar Surge Rotater Reverb Pedal on the music industry because the influence goes so far beyond guitars. In the 1960's when they were introduced for guitars, musicians did not take long to hook them up to the other instruments as well.
Following this cue, the design engineers started creating effects units that would be used for almost anything. They were not delegated to the floor, but put on racks. This led to connecting them to mixing boards and using them in recording studios, where any of the effects could be produced after the music was played, even if they were not used during the actual recording of the songs. What this all comes down to is, the impact of guitar effects pedals on the music industry, can be heard on most songs that are played on the radio.

Guitar Effects Pedals Explained

So, let's say you have been playing your electric guitar for awhile and haven't quite figured out how to sound like your favourite band. You know how to play all their songs, but the guitar just doesn't sound right. You've heard about effects pedals, but you have never used one. Could one of these pedals be the answer to all your questions? The answer is yes--and no! An individual effect pedal may produce one of a thousand different sounds, and it's up to you to decide which ones are adequate insofar as what you're trying to achieve musically.
To begin, you'll need to go to a music store and see what's available and try out different effects pedals to hear for yourself the sounds they produce. A number of distortion pedals, for example, are on the market, and they produce sounds decidedly most appropriate for metal, punk, grunge, blues overdrive, or any number of different styles. Each one is activated by stepping on it while one plays. It remains on until one steps on it once again to turn it off. If your amp's distortion channel just doesn't give you the sound you want, it may be worth trying out a distortion pedal or two. Other pedals operate the same way--that is--they are activated by stepping on the pedal one time and deactivated by stepping on the pedal again. Digital delay effects, which allow repetitions of the last note played, and chorus effects, which provide a smooth element to one's clean channel, are popular pedals that follow this operation.

Not all pedals, however, are used in the same fashion. Wah pedals, like the popular Crybaby pedal, are used by first stepping all the way down on the pedal to activate a switch and then gently rocking the pedal back and forth as the "wah" effect increases and diminishes to one's liking. Volume pedals operate similarly. One can rock the pedal to one position to decrease volume gradually or all at once. Another pedal that rocks back and forth is the whammy pedal, which simulates the use of a whammy bar for electric guitars that do not come equipped with them and for those players who don't want to knock their guitars out of tune by using an actual whammy bar.

Another option that one should take a look at when browsing through the effects pedal selection at the music store are multi-effect pedals. Several brands manufacture effects pedal boards that provide lots of different effects in one unit. While such products are usually more expensive than an individual pedal that performs one function, they can be a more economical choice since for one price one can set several effects before one's feet. Many offer both distortion pedal-style, single-tap pedal action as well as a rocking pedal for wah, volume, or whammy effects. It's important to keep in mind, however, that multi-effect pedal boards have a reputation for providing inferior quality to those of individual pedals.

Guitar Effects Pedals Essentials

If you're a beginning guitar player are you happy with your guitar and amp set up? Are you trying to imitate the sound of your favorite guitarist but having problems recreating that sound. It's because most professional guitarists don't just use a guitar and amp, there are few like Angus Young of AC/DC who plug directly into the amp with no extra effects, but that's a rarity. Most guitarists use a combination of at least three effects to get their sound, distortion, delay, and chorus. You can use multi effects pedals to get your sound or you can use dedicated guitar effects pedals. Let's take a look at what they do and why you should have them in your guitar effects pedal board.
Distortion
Distortion is the most popular effect added to an electric guitar, it's "the" sound people think about when they think of electric guitar. Different styles will call for different types and different levels of this effect. If you're playing metal you want a heavy "crunchy" sound, if you're playing blues or "guitar rock" you might want a warmer sound. Even country players use distortion, they'll add just a little bit to their clean guitar sound, not enough to be really evident as distortion, but just enough to give their sound some bite, so that it cuts through. The Boss distortion pedal, the DS-1 is probably one of the most used of all times. Kurt Cobain used it in his stage rig (although he'd switched to a DS-2 by '94), and someone as diverse as Joe Satriani has also used the DS-1 pedal.
Delay
Delay is another basic guitar effect, it's related to reverb. Think of delay as the sound of the room your in. If you're in a big room it sounds boomy, if you're in a small room it sounds brighter and more distinct. The sound of a room is related to the sounds reflected off the walls. In any size room you'll hear the original and then the sound that is reflected off the walls. That delayed sound is what lets your ears know how big the room is. Reverb is similar, it's just that the sounds bounced off the walls aren't as distinct. Most guitarists use delay pedals set to a short delay time, (slapback delay). It sort of sounds like being in a concrete stairwell, a good example is a country "chicken picken" sound. Other guitarist use delay times so long that their are distinct echos, The Edge in the band U2 being a good example. What delay does is make you perceive the sound as being "thicker" almost like there were two guitars playing. Some pedals can create a delay and reverb sound.

Chorus
The third bread and butter guitar effects pedal you should have is a chorus. What a chorus does is split your sound and slightly delay one one of the signals. Imagine two people were playing guitar together. They can never play perfectly together, one will always start a split second late or early. That's what a chorus does. You're probably thinking what's the difference between that and a delay? Well, if you set your delay times small enough you will hear a chorus type sound. A chorus will also detune one of the signals by a minuscule amount increasing the effect of their being two guitarists playing. The perceived effect is a thicker guitar sound. Both delay and chorus can be used with a clean sound or a distorted sound.
So, those three guitar pedals are the bedrock of an electric guitar sound, you can find at least one of them in most guitarists pedal board. It's hard to say what is the best guitar effects pedal, it really comes down to a personal preference. There are some effects used by famous guitarists, other people buy that pedal to copy that sound. After awhile that sound kind of becomes the "standard", that makes it popular, but what's the best guitar effects pedal is up to you.

Multi Effects Pedal Bag

If you have ever bought a multi effects board then you will have realised that the majority of them do not come with a protective case for them, which is annoying because you then have to spend more money on a multi effects pedal bag if you want to protect it. With such a range of pedal board bags on the market, it is easy to make the mistake of spending more money on a protective bag than you have to. I am going to tell you about the various features you should look out for when buying a multi effects pedal bag and give you some reviews on them.
The main reason I am writing this is because about a year ago I saved up and bought a Boss GT8 but because I spent a lot of money on the actual pedal I didn't want to then go and spend more on a multi effects pedal bag, so I never bothered. This turned out to be a bad idea as I gig most weekends and transport my pedal board around a lot. As a result of having no case, I have had to repair it several times breaking the input jack, output jack, power, volume pedal...which has cost me more in the long run. I have now seen sense and invested in a multi effects pedal bag, but you should be aware of the following points:
Power Supply
Remember that your pedal board will already have its own power supply.A lot of pedal board bags come with their own power supply. There is no need to get a case with its own power supply as you already have your own and this will add to the cost of the case.

Raised platforms
You should not buy a case that comes with a raised platform/pedal board to place your pedals on as you can easily remove your pedal board from the case. However, the majority of cases will come with a pedal board but just be aware that some cases have "fancy pedal boards" which will add to the overall cost
Multi effects pedal bag
You should measure then dimensions of your pedal before you decide on which multi effects pedal bag you should buy. The majority of all pedal boards will usually fit into a 17" or 24" case, but be sure to measure just to check and also about an inch at the top for leads going into sockets. I use a soft Gater multi effects pedal bag which is 24 inches. A soft case provides greats padding and protection for my Boss GT8 and its easy to transport around. I find it better than using a flight case as it can tend to fall about in the case and do it damage.

Useful Guitar Effects Pedal Cases

A guitar case is often the first case you think about getting when you play guitar, but if you have several effects pedals how do you transport them around in an easy and tidy manor? Save yourself the trouble of stuffing all of your effects pedals and cables into a rucksack and everything getting tangled together in the process, and save the time it takes you to fix it all when you get to practice or a gig.
Have you ever set out to go to a gig with everything in your backpack as neatly and organised as you possible could, then finding out that everything has still managed to get into a heck of a mess when you arrive at the venue. You might have only walked 10 minutes or put your bag into the car, but its somehow still in a mess.
A pedal board and case will go some way to helping to solve the problems. The good thing about a pedal case is that once you have it at home you can Velcro or screw all of your effects pedals into place on the board, they won't move from their allocated position no matter what. Your pedals will all be set out and connected up with patch cables, then all you need to do is connect one side to your guitar and the other into your amplifier. It saves you about half an hour of untangling the ball of mess that has been created in your bag in the trip from home to the practice room or show. Connect two leads and you are ready to go.
Not only do these cases save you from untangling everything they are really handy for moving everything from place to place. Zip up the cover or attach the lid and you are set to go in a few seconds. There are many models available at most good music stores, they can come with a comfortable handle or a strap that will go over your shoulder, leaving your hands free to carry your other gear. Normally they do come with both handle and shoulder strap.

Effects pedal boards and cases come in all sizes from small to massive. If you only need to take a few pedals with you there will be a small case just for you. They can of course only go to a certain size before it becomes silly, so if you have every pedal ever made then you will need to buy more than one case for all of your stuff.
Pedal cases come in hard and soft cases and as flight cases just like those your guitar. Hard cases are great if you have expensive boutique pedals, or just don't want your gear to get damaged by things falling onto them or being struck by something unexpected. Or go for a soft case if you want some a little bit lighter to carry around.
If you move your gear around a lot and normally do it with a backpack then you should should look into getting a proper purpose made effects pedal case. For saving time, protecting your gear and for how easy it makes moving from place to place they really are worth the money.

Best Wah Pedal for the Home Guitarist

Since their inception in the late sixties, wah pedals have had a massive impact on modern music. Whether it was Jimi Hendrix's classic "Voodoo Child" riff or one of Kirk Hammett's famous wah-heavy solos, the wah has taken center stage on some of rock music's most famous tracks. Though they are versatile pedals, in rock music, they are often used to boost lead guitar riffs and solos, and if you are looking for that larger-than-life sound, you've got to add a quality wah pedal to your arsenal. Here are the best wah pedals on the market.
Voodoo Lab's Wahzoo Guitar Effects Pedal is the best wah pedal on the market. It is basically four top-class pedals in one. Purists will love its classic setting, while more adventurous users will love its excellent StepWah and Auto Reverse settings. Its very effective AutoWah is the cherry on top, and any guitarist will tell you that finding a quality AutoWah that doesn't sound cheesy isn't easy. It also offers excellent overall tone, and its quite easy to toggle through the different channels. Not everybody will be able to fit its hefty, $280-dollar price tag into your budget, but if you can, it will be an excellent part of any guitarist's arsenal.

There are plenty of alternatives to the Voodoo Lab model, and if you are looking for excellent quality at a lower price, VOX's Big Bad Wah Pedal is a great option. It offers great tone and a confluence of controls that allow you to tweak your sound to exactly how you want it. It also comes with a "Voice" switch that acts similarly to a talkbox, and an inductor that allows you to toggle between a classic "British" tone and a modern "American" one. It comes at the affordable price of about $200.
If you are looking to save even more cash, the Morley Steve Vai Bad Horsie 2 Contour Wah Pedal is a great option that is available for just over $100. Steve Vai is one of the most well known shredders of his generation, and this pedal is made to give you the power and presence of Vai. It obviously won't play for you, but it does have a great tone and is very easy to use. It features a handy footswitch that allows you to toggle through your channels without using your hands.

The Most Important Guitar Effects Pedals for Aspiring Rock Musicians

There are a mind boggling amount of guitar effects pedals about and they come in all different shapes and sizes. What is an effect pedal you may ask? An effect pedal is a device that is put between your guitar and the amplifier to alter the output sound. A pedal is made up of numerous components put into a case. The sounds that you can achieve from various effect pedals are quite extraordinary.

Guitarists today use more effects than ever and are evident to the sounds of bands such as Pink Floyd and U2. Numerous effect pedals are used in succession to complicate the sound. There are two main pedals out there. One is the multi effects processors and these contain numerous built into a single device. Alternatively, individual pedals focus on giving you one sound and not more than two. Such pedals involve you playing around with settings in order to get your intended sound. Many amplifiers these days have built-in sounds for you to use but they are not as versatile as pedals. This is because it is hard to utilize more than one sound simultaneously on amps.

Pedals cost from $60 or £40 upwards and include a broad range of prices. Specialist brands include Boss, Marshall, Pete Cornish, Electro Harmonic, Yahama, Dunlop and Digitech. As a budding guitarist, you could easily wipe your bank account clean upon purchasing guitar effects pedals due to the countless variety out there. What I recommend is that you only purchase one pedal for each main sound.

Recommended guitar effect pedals

Delay and Reverb sounds give a strong echo sound and is great if you are really playing live. This sounds professional like and is very convincing. Distortion and gain guitar effects pedals are widely used with electric guitars and are certainly used in lead and solo guitar playing. This adds crunch and meat to your sound and certainly does sound sweet. As stated previously, multi effects processors are a great for beginners as they have access to all the different possibilities right in front of them. All of these mentioned are the essential pedals that you must have in order to sound great.

After you have gotten hold of the main pedals, you may want to look for a few more to sound even great! A wah-wah effect allows the sound pitch to be constantly changed through the use of a pedal. This was heavily utilized by Jimi Hendrix. Added effects include Flanger, Chorus and Phase shifter also know as a uni-vibe. These pedals sound slightly similar to each other, however they do sound beautiful. Chorus and Flanger pedals sound very sweet and made famous by David Gilmour and created the sounds of Pink Floyd. Most of these sound best with little to no gain or distortion.