A Quick Guide to Guitar Effects Pedals

Guitar is my favourite hobby but I am realizing that it is a demanding hobby when it comes to upgrading your gear which can quickly become hard to understand, elitist, and expensive. Sometimes all you need is an acoustic guitar to play but when one starts with an electric guitar the scope of gear one could use rises by a lot. The basics are an amplifier and a guitar, if it is a hobby, it is probably best to go with a guitar you find comfortable and a small practice amp. After that the next step up are effects.

Effects might seem superfluous at this point for you if you are starting out and you might not have a need for them especially as there are a couple other solutions. First why might one want it? For me it was variability, I liked the ability to mess with tones and find the cool sounds my instrument could make. You can also want some effects or need it for a gig or exams, the latter if you are trying to get qualification certificates.

The thing is pedals are not a necessity. Nowadays a lot of amps come with effects namely practice amps. These include entirely digital effects controlled by your phone such as the Yamaha THR5 or a dial-controlled effect amp like the Vox Mini GO or Amplugs. If you are a fan of the digital way and want some more options than the apps on these amps may offer using a DAW (digital audio workspace) and laptop. It is easy to customize and has tons of options but you need to know what you are doing.

Personally, I chose to get a multi-effects pedal to add to my amp mostly due to the range of effects you get to play with.

Clean Tone –

Before even considering looking into pedals, it is important to look into what the base is. The most popular clean sound is from Fender amps but this is from a playing standpoint but if you are going own the digital path, I recommend an FRFR cabinet which acts as simply a speaker allowing you to use the effects and pre-amp with maximum effect. I have a small Fender amp so it made sense for me to get peals that added to it.

The first pedal anyone would reach for is to dirty their clean sound.

Dirt –

Distortion, Overdrive and Fuzz commonly referred to as dirt are pedals used in almost every song for all kinds of effects and most pro guitarists will have various different versions on their board.

• Fuzz is the ‘strongest of these effects and will make a hard clip at the peak of the sound wave squaring it off. It was popular with Jimi Hendrix who used the Fuzz Face which is still an iconic pedal. It is a bit over the top personally for me but is great for a strong attacking force.
• The distortion is the next in terms of clipping (the effect these have on sound waves). Distortion offers a really nice harmonic effect and mixes nicely with a track or other instruments. It is a grunge favourite with one of the most popular ones being the ProCo RAT and the BOSS DS-1.
• Overdrive is the most palatable effects which is popular for leads where the guitar should stand out and notes should ring clearer. This has been used by anyone from John Mayer to Kirk Hammett for all kinds of songs. The most popular OD is the Tube Screamer, almost every great guitarist has used one, and it sounds really good and controlled.

After dirt one needs harmony and variation in sound which is best achieved with…

Modulation –

This type of effect was the first every commercialized standalone effect, a tremolo which varies your volume. These have all kinds of types so I can’t talk about them all but chorus with a distortion sounds really nice. This is a really varied space of sounds that mostly ‘modulate’ how your soundwave is outputted. It’s more about personal preference and messing around until you find something you like.

Last but not least when talking about the effects…

Delay and Reverb –

This is kind of self-explanatory and, delay slows down and duplicates your sound and reverb emulates the echoing of a room with varying sizes. The BOSS DD-3 and reverbs from Strymon are good.

Ok, that’s the information I can give you on the different effect types, look at Andertons, JHS Pedals and Dre Dimura on YouTube for some more information.

Recommendations

1. If you are just starting out with effects take a look at a multi effects unit which generally offer the most options for testing when you are starting out but the menus can be a bit confusing but it is the best way to find your personal set-up and what sounds good for you and what you play.
2. If you have very few needs, take a look at ZOOM Multistomp line of pedals as you can hook together one of those, and overdrive and Wah for some good tones.
3. If you really know what to do with the tech take a look at DAWs to use your laptop.

My Pick

I use the BOSS ME-90 which is popular for the absence of screens and the more tactile dial focussed technology. It also has an expression pedal allowing me to manually modulate effects. I generally run this into my amp and use it as a pedalboard or into my headphones using the pre-amp. It is scalable and I will be able to use it with few upgrades for a very long time. Also it can connect to the BOSS Tone Studio on my laptop giving me even more control. The only issue I really have with it is that the reverb options are a bit sparse. I had this on my wish list for a while and on a family trip to Japan, I found it at the Ishibashi Music Store in Tokyo at a really good price.

Thanks for reading my ramblings about effects for guitars, I hope the advice is helpful.