| Guitar effects pedals, which are also called stomp | | | | Chorus pedals give you a thick and lush sound by |
| boxes, are used by the musician to change the sound | | | | duplicating your original sound; adding some delay to it |
| of their guitar. Stomp boxes get their name because | | | | and then mixing it back with your original signal. This |
| of the "stomping" action needed to make the effect | | | | ends up making your guitar sound like a bunch of |
| work. When the pedals are off, you are playing with | | | | guitars or a "chorus of guitars" if you will. |
| the guitars clean (unaffected signal) sound coming | | | | Flanger: |
| out of your amp. When you step on it to turn it on, | | | | Just like the Chorus pedal, the Flanger duplicates the |
| the signal that goes to the pedals are changed | | | | signal, adds a short delay and then mixes it back with |
| creating the desired effect. | | | | your original signal. The difference here is that the |
| You can also connect more that one effects pedal to | | | | Flanger's delay includes several repeats that get |
| your guitar. Simply use patch cables (short cables) to | | | | longer and shorter at a steady rate. This produces a |
| connect them to each other using the imput and | | | | thicker sound compared to the Chorus pedal. |
| output jacks. You can individually control which | | | | Wah-wha: |
| effects you want on and off at any time just by | | | | The Wah-wha pedal kind of looks like your cars gas |
| turning (stomping) them on or off. When a pedal is | | | | pedal and you rock this pedal back and forth to allow |
| off, the signal will bypass it and go through anyone | | | | lower and higher frequencies to pass though. This |
| that is turned on. | | | | then produces the "wah-wah" sound. Jimi Hendrix in |
| For the best possible sound, you should place your | | | | the late 60's and funk music in the 70's made this |
| gain and tone based effects at the beginning of your | | | | effect famous. |
| line of pedals. Gain and tone based effects include | | | | Reverb: |
| distortion, volume, wah and EQ. Next you should put | | | | The Reverb effect emulates natural acoustic spaces |
| the pedals that change the pitch or color of your | | | | by producing an echo making your tone sound like it's |
| sound. Then at the end of your chain, you can put | | | | being played in a big concert hall. |
| the pedals that affect your timing such as delay, | | | | Talk Box: |
| reverb and flanger. | | | | Last but not least is the Talk Box. The Talk Box |
| If you accumulate a large amount of effects pedals, | | | | pedal has a small speaker in it that plays the signal |
| you can keep them all organized and protected by | | | | loudly up an airtight small plastic tube. This tube is |
| using a pedal board. Pedal boards are basically a flat | | | | taped to the side of the microphone where it sticks |
| board that all of your pedals can be placed on all | | | | out just enough to be able to send the sound into |
| connected together. You can even get them with | | | | the guitarist's mouth. The guitar player then makes |
| covers, transformers and power cables to make it a | | | | shapes with their mouth to change the sound, which |
| breeze to pack up and move from gig to gig. | | | | is then picked up by the microphone. Many |
| One thing to be aware of is that connecting too | | | | performers have used the Talk Box over the years |
| many pedals together can cause a lot of humming | | | | but one of the most famous was Peter Frampton |
| and unwanted noise. To fix this problem a noise gate | | | | who used it on his song "Do You Feel Like We Do" |
| pedal can be used. | | | | off his Frampton Comes Alive record. |
| With so many different types of pedals on the | | | | Hope you have enjoyed my explanations of some of |
| market today, I couldn't possibly list them all. So I'm | | | | the guitar effects pedals that are out there. This is |
| doing the next best thing and will explain some of the | | | | just a small fraction of the effects that are available |
| more popular ones. | | | | to you. A good tip would be for you to do a little |
| Distortion: | | | | research on some of your favorite guitar players and |
| Distortion is used in many popular musical genres | | | | find out what effects they use that give them "their |
| especially metal, rock and hard rock. The distortion | | | | sound" the most. For example if you were into hard |
| pedals job is to clip the signal, giving it's distorted | | | | rock or heavy metal, it would be a good idea to start |
| sound. | | | | off with a distortion pedal. Rock On! |
| Chorus: | | | | |