Guitar Effects Pedals: A Buying Guide
Guitar effects pedals have been on the scene since the 1960's when guitar-based music became frequent. An engineer named Roger Mayer is credited with devising the first guitar effects device, a "fuzz" box, that developed into the contemporary distortion and overdrive pedal, and the wah pedal.
Mayer's clients included such noted rock n' rollers as Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Jimi Hendrix. Supposedly, Mayer created the first effects pedal for his friend in the early 1960's. Now, incalculable effects pedals are used by guitarists every day.
Guitarists use effects pedals to give themselves a wider variety of sound choices to use during recording or live performances.
True, it's possible to use the guitar amplifier to modify these sounds, but most amplifiers do not have built-in effects and the settings would have to be changed from song-to-song. Usually, guitar players want to be able to affect their sounds during a song or in various sections as well, so it makes sense keeping the pedals in front of them so they can change it themselves.
So, just like the electric guitar and the amplifier offered guitar players a wider variety of tonal choices, effects pedals, too, give them even more choices in shaping their tone.
Today, even classical and acoustic guitarists use these effects, though they tend to avoid the distortion, overdrive, and wah pedals used by electric guitarists.
After effects pedals became common, rack-mounted effects saw more wide use among guitarists, especially during the 1980's. The Yamaha SPX-90 and Eventide Ultra Harmonizer were two of the most popular rack effects that guitarists used at this time.
Since rack gear requires a more advanced and time-consuming approach (not to mention considerably more money) than pedals, most guitar players prefer effects pedals for their simplicity and tweakability.
When they have their effects selected, most guitarists will mount their pedals on a pedalboard to facilitate transportation and storage of their effects. This system makes it much easier to trigger the pedals as well, since they are contained in a relatively modest space.
Volume and Wah pedals are usually mounted in such a way that facilitates their usage, since those pedals have to be "rocked" back and forth to affect their sound.
Most pedals, though, have an easy on-off feature. For instance, the ubiquitous distortion tone of hard rock and metal guitar players can be directly switched off and the guitar's "clean channel" allowed to be played, to give a different feel to different sections of a song. Another simple stomp, and the distorted tone comes roaring back.
Guitarists often spend a great deal of time fine-tuning their effects, amps, and guitars just to get the "perfect" sound that they've been looking for.
Popular effects devices include distortion, overdrive, chorus, flanger, echo, delay, vibrato, tremolo, flanging, and pitch-shifting, just to name a few. These effects can have drastic changes on a guitar player's sound.
If you are interested in expanding your sound or just trying something different, then you should give some of the above effects a try. Who knows? They may inspire your next killer solo! - 18418
Mayer's clients included such noted rock n' rollers as Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Jimi Hendrix. Supposedly, Mayer created the first effects pedal for his friend in the early 1960's. Now, incalculable effects pedals are used by guitarists every day.
Guitarists use effects pedals to give themselves a wider variety of sound choices to use during recording or live performances.
True, it's possible to use the guitar amplifier to modify these sounds, but most amplifiers do not have built-in effects and the settings would have to be changed from song-to-song. Usually, guitar players want to be able to affect their sounds during a song or in various sections as well, so it makes sense keeping the pedals in front of them so they can change it themselves.
So, just like the electric guitar and the amplifier offered guitar players a wider variety of tonal choices, effects pedals, too, give them even more choices in shaping their tone.
Today, even classical and acoustic guitarists use these effects, though they tend to avoid the distortion, overdrive, and wah pedals used by electric guitarists.
After effects pedals became common, rack-mounted effects saw more wide use among guitarists, especially during the 1980's. The Yamaha SPX-90 and Eventide Ultra Harmonizer were two of the most popular rack effects that guitarists used at this time.
Since rack gear requires a more advanced and time-consuming approach (not to mention considerably more money) than pedals, most guitar players prefer effects pedals for their simplicity and tweakability.
When they have their effects selected, most guitarists will mount their pedals on a pedalboard to facilitate transportation and storage of their effects. This system makes it much easier to trigger the pedals as well, since they are contained in a relatively modest space.
Volume and Wah pedals are usually mounted in such a way that facilitates their usage, since those pedals have to be "rocked" back and forth to affect their sound.
Most pedals, though, have an easy on-off feature. For instance, the ubiquitous distortion tone of hard rock and metal guitar players can be directly switched off and the guitar's "clean channel" allowed to be played, to give a different feel to different sections of a song. Another simple stomp, and the distorted tone comes roaring back.
Guitarists often spend a great deal of time fine-tuning their effects, amps, and guitars just to get the "perfect" sound that they've been looking for.
Popular effects devices include distortion, overdrive, chorus, flanger, echo, delay, vibrato, tremolo, flanging, and pitch-shifting, just to name a few. These effects can have drastic changes on a guitar player's sound.
If you are interested in expanding your sound or just trying something different, then you should give some of the above effects a try. Who knows? They may inspire your next killer solo! - 18418
About the Author:
If you are a guitar player who is looking to expand your tone using Effects Pedals, then you should visit Just Effects Pedals today. We have the widest selection of effects pedals available on the Internet. It doesn't matter if you're searching for the perfect overdrive, chorus, or delay pedal, we've got what you're looking for. Visit our site today!
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4:53 AM
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