Global Guitar Network

Guitar Effects

Guitar-Effects-Wide

One of the coolest advantages to playing an electric guitar is the ability to incorporate different effects into your sound.

Some effects are subtle while other can render the guitar unrecognizable.

Effects are available as stomp boxes, 19 inch rack mount units or built right into amplifiers.

They are most often placed into the Signal Path between the guitar and the amplifier, though some amps let you place effects after the amp’s electronics but before the speaker(s) in an Effects Loop.


[two_fifth_last padding=”0 20px 0 20px”]

Types of effects include:

[/two_fifth_last]

Guitar Effect Descriptions:

[one_third_last padding=”0 10px 0 10px”]

Octaver – An octave pedal in a Pitch effect that doubles the note being played an octave up or one to two octaves down. Pitch devices should go near the front of the signal path so all effects that come after will alter the new pitch as well as the original.[/one_third_last]

[one_third_last padding=”0 10px 0 10px”]

Distortion – Distortion, overdrive, gain, and fuzz pedals create a warm, gritty sound by clipping the guitar’s audio signal and adding overtones. Distortion and fuzz effects produce the same amount of distortion at any volume while overdrive and gain effects are produce “clean” sounds at quieter volumes and distorted sounds at louder volumes mimicking the effect of a tube amp.[/one_third_last]

[one_third_last padding=”0 10px 0 10px”]

Delay – Delay is a Time-Based effect that sends a duplicate version of the instrument signal to the amp with an adjustable time delay creating the illusion of an echo. Time based effects should be placed near the end of the signal path for the most natural sounding results.[/one_third_last]

[one_third_last padding=”0 10px 0 10px”]

Volume Pedal – Another dynamic effect is the volume pedal which would be placed near the end of the effects chain. Most models offer a minimum volume setting for the effect. In the heel down position volume would be set to this user defined lower setting, in the toe down position it would return to full volume.[/one_third_last]

[one_third_last padding=”0 10px 0 10px”][/one_third_last]

The Typical Order of Effects

Experimentation is encouraged.

Exit mobile version