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Guitar Effects

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Guitar effects



 
 
Guitar effects are electronic devices that modify the tone, pitch, or sound of an electric guitar, or condition or reroute the signal in some fashion. Effects can be housed in small effects pedal
Effects pedal

An effects pedal is an electronic effects unit housed in a small metal or plastic chassis used by musicians, usually electric guitar players, to modify their instrument sound....
s ("stomp boxes"), guitar amplifier
Guitar amplifier

A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar louder and modify the tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequencies and/or by adding electronic effects....
s, guitar amplifier simulation software, and in rackmount preamplifiers or processors. Electronic effects and signal processing form an important part of the electric guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
 tone used in many genres, such as rock, pop, blues, and metal.






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Guitar effects are electronic devices that modify the tone, pitch, or sound of an electric guitar, or condition or reroute the signal in some fashion. Effects can be housed in small effects pedal
Effects pedal

An effects pedal is an electronic effects unit housed in a small metal or plastic chassis used by musicians, usually electric guitar players, to modify their instrument sound....
s ("stomp boxes"), guitar amplifier
Guitar amplifier

A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar louder and modify the tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequencies and/or by adding electronic effects....
s, guitar amplifier simulation software, and in rackmount preamplifiers or processors. Electronic effects and signal processing form an important part of the electric guitar
Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
 tone used in many genres, such as rock, pop, blues, and metal. Guitar effects are also used with other instruments in these genres, such as electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Electric bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
 players use bass effects
Bass effects

Bass effects are electronic devices used to modify the tone, pitch or sound of bass guitar guitars or, more rarely, amplified double basses. Bass effects can be housed in small 3" or 4" square "stompbox" effects pedals, larger floor multi-effect units, bass amplifiers, bass amplifier simulation software, and rackmount preamplifiers or process...
, which are designed to work with low-frequency tones of the bass.

The overdriven sound of distortion, which alters a signal's waveform by "clipping" the signal, is an important part of an electric guitar's sound in many genres, particularly for rock, hard rock, and metal. Filtering-related effects such as equalizers are used to adjust the frequency response in a number of different frequency bands, either for subtle sound shaping, to notch out unwanted resonance, or to enhance certain frequencies. Some filtering effects are used for creating more pronounced effects such as the "crying" sound of the wah pedal, the funky tone of the auto-wah, or the vocal-like sounds of the talk box
Talk box

A talk box is an effects device that allows a musician to modify the sound of a musical instrument. The musician controls the modification by lip syncing, or by changing the shape of his mouth....
. Volume-related effects such as volume pedals are used to adjust the volume of an instrument, make notes or chords fade in and out, or create a tremolo effect by rapidly increasing and decreasing the volume. A more complex volume-related effect is the compressor
Compressor

Compressor may refer to:*Gas compressor, a mechanical device that compresses a gas *Compressor , a video and audio compression and encoding application made for use with Final Cut...
, which acts as an automatic volume control and smoothes out the peaks and valleys in the signal.

Time-based effects such as delay or echo pedals create a copy of an incoming sound which can be used for reverb effects; very long delay times can be used as a looping pedal. Modulation-related effects include the swirling sound of rotary speakers such as the Leslie speaker
Leslie speaker

The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/loudspeaker used to create special audio effects utilizing the Doppler effect. Named after its inventor, Donald Leslie, it is particularly associated with the Hammond organ....
, the "whooshing" sound of the electronic phase shifter, the psychedelic rock-style flanger, or the shimmering sound of a chorus
Chorus

Chorus may refer to:...
 effect. Pitch-related effects includes octave effect
Octave effect

Octave-effect boxes are a type of special effects unit which mix the input signal with a synthesised signal whose musical tone is an octave lower or higher than the original....
s (different effects are able to create octaves above or below the initial pitch) and pitch shifting pedals which can be used with an expression pedal to give a smooth bend-like effect or to add a parallel harmony part to a melody. Other pedals include switcher pedals (used to route a signal between different effects, or to select different guitars or amplifiers); noise gate
Noise gate

A Noise Gate or gate is an electronic device or software logic that is used to control the volume of an audio signal. In its most simple form, a noise gate allows a Signal to pass through only when it is above a set threshold: the gate is 'open'....
s (for filtering out hum); and multi-effect pedals, which contain many different effects in a single chassis.

Distortion-related effects

Distortion is an important part of an electric guitar's sound in many genres, particularly for rock, hard rock, and metal. A distortion pedal takes a normal electric guitar signal and distorts the signal's waveform by "clipping" the signal. There are several different types of distortion effects, each with distinct sonic characteristics. These include overdrive/distortion (or vacuum tube-style distortion), overdrive/crunch, fuzz, and hi-gain.

Overdrive distortion

Overdrive distortion is a well-known distortion. While the general purpose is to emulate classic "warm-tube" sounds, distortion pedals such as the ones in this list can be distinguished from overdrive pedals in that the intent is to provide players with instant access to the sound of a high-gain Marshall amplifier such as the JCM800 pushed past the point of tonal breakup and into the range of tonal distortion known to electric guitarists as "saturated gain." Some guitarists will use these pedals along with an already distorted amp or along with a milder overdrive effect to produce radically high-gain sounds. Although most distortion devices use solid-state circuitry, some "tube distortion" pedals are designed with preamplifier vacuum tubes. In some cases, tube distortion pedals use power tubes or a preamp tube used as a power tube driving a built-in "dummy load." Pedals designed specifically for bass guitar are also available. Some distortion pedals
Distortion (guitar)

Distortion, also known as overdrive or fuzzbox, is an guitar effects applied to the electric guitar, the bass guitar, and other amplified instruments such as the Hammond organ, synthesizers, and even harmonica and vocals....
 include:
  • Pro Co Rat
    Pro Co Rat

    The Pro Co RAT is a guitar Effects pedal produced by Pro Co Sound. The original RAT was developed in the basement of Pro Co's Kalamazoo, Michigan facility in 1978....
  • Boss DS-1
    BOSS DS-1

    The Boss DS-1 is a basic distortion pedal manufactured by the Roland Corporation under the brand name Boss Corporation since 1978. It has one tone knob, one level knob, and one distortion knob....
     Distortion
  • Marshall
    Marshall Amplification

    Marshall Amplification is a United Kingdom company which designs and manufactures music amplifiers. Marshall is based in Bletchley, Milton Keynes....
     Guv'nor
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     Dr. Distorto
  • T-Rex Engineering's
    T-Rex Engineering

    T-Rex Engineering ApS is a manufacturer of hand-made electric guitar Guitar effects pedals....
     Bloody Mary
  • DigiTech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     Hot Head
  • Danelectro
    Danelectro

    Danelectro is a manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, instrument amplifiers and effects units....
     FAB Distortion


Fuzz

Fuzz was originally intended to recreate the classic 1960's tone of an overdriven tube amp combined with torn speaker cones. Oldschool guitar players (like Link Wray
Link Wray

Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an United States rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer.Wray was noted for pioneering a new sound for electric guitars, as exemplified in his hit 1958 instrumental "Rumble ", by Link Wray and his Ray Men, which pioneered an overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound, and also for ha...
) would use a screwdriver to poke several holes through the paperboard part of the guitar amp speaker to achieve a similar sound. Since the original designs, more extreme fuzz pedals have been designed and produced, incorporating octave-up effects, oscillation, gating, and greater amounts of distortion.

Some fuzzbox pedals include:
  • Z.Vex Fuzz Factory
    Z.Vex Fuzz Factory

    The Z.Vex Fuzz Factory is a fuzz box made by the American inventor and musician Zachary Vex of the Z.Vex Effects company.The Fuzz Factory is based on, yet vastly expands the tonal palette of, classic fuzztone designs from the 1960s....
  • Dallas Arbiter
    Dallas Arbiter

    Dallas Arbiter is a company formed by the merger of John E. Dallas and Sons musical instrument company and Arbiter Electronics. Dallas Arbiter Ltd....
     Fuzz Face
    Fuzz Face

    The Fuzz Face is an effects pedal used mainly by electric guitarists, and by some bass players. It is a stompbox designed to produce an Overdrive sound from an electric guitar....
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Big Muff
    Big Muff

    The Big Muff is a Fuzzbox produced in New York City by the Electro-Harmonix company, along with their Russian sister company Sovtek, primarily for use with the electric guitar....
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Little Big Muff
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     FZ-5 Fuzz


Hi-gain

Hi-gain (descended from the more generic electric guitar amplification term high-gain) is the sound most used in heavy metal
Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified Distortion , extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall...
. High gain in normal electric guitar playing simply references a thick sound produced by heavily overdriven amplifier tubes, a distortion pedal, or some combination of both--the essential component is the typically loud, thick, harmonically rich, and sustaining quality of the tone. However, the Hi-Gain sound of modern pedals is somewhat distinct from, although descended from, this sound. The distortion often produces sounds not possible any other way. Many extreme distortions are either hi-gain or the descendents of such. The Mesa Boogie
Mesa Boogie

Mesa/Boogie is a company in Petaluma, California that makes amplifiers for guitars and Bass guitar. It has been in operation since 1969.Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a small repair shop which modified Fender Musical Instruments Corporation combos to give them more gain....
 Triple Rectifier series of amps are an example.

Some hi-gain pedals Include:
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     ML-2 Metal Core
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     MT-2 Metal Zone
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Metal Muff
  • DigiTech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     Death Metal
  • Danelectro
    Danelectro

    Danelectro is a manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, instrument amplifiers and effects units....
     FAB Metal
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     Dime Distortion
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     Uber Metal


Power-tube pedal

A power-tube pedal contains a power tube and optional dummy load, or a preamp tube used as a power tube. This allows the device to produce power-tube distortion independently of volume; therefore, power-tube distortion can be used as an effects module in an effects chain. Some examples are:
  • Ibanez
    Ibanez

    Ibanez is a guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki and based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in the United States and Europe....
     Tube King
  • various Tonebone distortion pedals
  • Damage Control pedals
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     English Muffin'


Power attenuator

A power attenuator enables a player to obtain power-tube distortion independently of listening volume. A power attenuator is a dummy load placed between the guitar amplifier's power tubes and the guitar speaker, or a power-supply based circuit to reduce the plate voltage on the power tubes. Examples of power attenuators are the Marshall PowerBrake, THD HotPlate and Weber MASS.

Filtering-related effects


Equalizer

An equalizer adjusts the frequency response in a number of different frequency bands. A graphic equalizer (or "graphic EQ") provides slider controls for a number of frequency region. Each of these bands has a fixed width (Q) and a fixed center-frequency, and as such, the slider changes only the level of the frequency band. The tone controls on guitars, guitar amps, and most pedals are similarly fixed-Q and fixed-frequency, but unlike a graphic EQ, rotary controls are used rather than sliders.

Most parametric EQ pedals (such as the Boss PQ-4) provide semi-parametric EQ. That is, in addition to level control, each band provides either a center frequency or Q width control. Parametric EQs have rotating controls rather than sliders.

Placement of EQ in a distortion signal processing chain affects the basic guitar amp tone. Using a guitar's rotary tone control potentiometer is a form of pre-distortion EQ. Placing an EQ pedal before a distortion pedal or before a guitar amp's built-in preamp distortion provides preliminary control of the preamp distortion voicing. For more complete control of preamp distortion voicing, an additional EQ pedal can be placed after a distortion pedal; or, equivalently, the guitar amp's tone controls, after the built-in preamp distortion, can be used. An EQ pedal in the amp's effects loop, or the amp's tone controls placed after preamp distortion, constitutes post-distortion EQ, which finishes shaping the preamp distortion and sets up the power-tube distortion voicing.

As an example of pre-distortion EQ, Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen , is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and music producer, most famous as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen....
 places a 6-band MXR EQ pedal before the Marshall amplifier head (pre-distortion EQ). Slash
Slash (musician)

Saul Hudson , more widely known by his stage name Slash, is a guitarist best known as the former lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses and as the current lead guitarist of Velvet Revolver....
 places a Boss GE-7, a 7-band EQ pedal, before his Marshall amp. This technique is similar to placing a Wah pedal before the amp's preamp distortion and leaving the Wah pedal positioned part-way down, sometimes mentioned as "fixed wah," (pre-distortion EQ), along with adjusting the amp's tone controls (post-distortion EQ).

If a dummy load guitar-amp configuration is used, an additional EQ position becomes available, between the dummy load and the final amplifier that drives the guitar speaker. Van Halen used an additional EQ in this position. This configuration is commonly used with rackmount systems. Finally, an EQ pedal such as a 10-band graphic EQ pedal can be placed in the Insert jack of a mixer to replace the mixer channel's EQ controls, providing graphical control over the miked guitar speaker signal.

Equalization-related effects pedals include Wah, Auto-Wah, and Phase Shifter. Most EQ pedals also have an overall Level control distinct from the frequency-specific controls, thus enabling an EQ pedal to act as a configurable level-boost pedal. Some EQ pedals include:
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M-108 10-band Equalizer
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     GE-7 Equalizer
  • Danelectro
    Danelectro

    Danelectro is a manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, instrument amplifiers and effects units....
     Fish 'n Chips


Wah pedal

A wah-wah pedal is a foot-operated pedal, technically a kind of band-pass filter, which allows only a small portion of the incoming signal's frequencies to pass. Rocking the pedal back and forth alternately allows lower and higher frequencies to pass through, the effect being similar to a person saying "wah". The wah pedal, used with guitar, is most associated with 1960s psychedelic rock and 1970s funk. During this period wah-wah pedals often incorporated a fuzzbox
Fuzzbox

A fuzzbox is a type of effects pedal comprising an amplifier and a clipping circuit, which generates a distortion version of the input signal....
 to process the sound before the wah-wah circuit, the combination producing a dramatic effect known as fuzz-wah
Fuzz-wah

A fuzz-wah pedal is a stomp box containing a fuzzbox and a wah-wah pedal in series. These were popular among the more psychedelic bands of the late 1960s and 1970s....
. Kirk Hammett
Kirk Hammett

Kirk Lee Hammett is the lead guitarist and a songwriter in the band Metallica and has been a member of the band since 1983. Before joining Metallica he formed and named the band Exodus ....
 is a well known guitarist of Metallica
Metallica

Metallica is an American heavy metal music band that formed in 1981 in Los Angeles. Founded when drummer Lars Ulrich posted an advertisement in a local newspaper, Metallica's line-up has primarily consisted of Ulrich, rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, while going through a number of bassists....
 who extensively uses a wah pedal in his solos and riffs.

Some wah-wah pedals include:
  • Dunlop Cry Baby
    Dunlop Cry Baby

    The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby is a highly popular wah-wah pedal, manufactured by Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc.. It is the best selling guitar pedal of all time, as is extensively shown on the packaging the pedals come in....
  • VOX
    Vox (musical equipment)

    Vox is a musical equipment manufacturer which is most famous for making the Vox AC30 Instrument amplifier, the Vox electric organ, and a series of innovative but commercially unsuccessful electric guitars and bass guitars....
     V847 Wah
  • Budda BudWah Wah
  • Ibanez
    Ibanez

    Ibanez is a guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki and based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in the United States and Europe....
     Wh10


Auto-wah/envelope filter

An auto-wah is a wah-wah pedal without a rocker pedal, controlled instead by the dynamic envelope of the signal. An auto-wah, also called more technically an envelope filter, uses the level of the guitar signal to control the wah filter position, so that as a note is played, it automatically starts with the sound of a wah-wah pedal pulled back, and then quickly changes to the sound of a wah-wah pedal pushed forward, or the reverse movement depending on the settings. Controls include wah-wah pedal direction and input level sensitivity. This is an EQ-related effect and can be placed before preamp distortion or before power-tube distortion with natural sounding results. Auto-wah pedals include:
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Q-Tron
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M-120 Auto Q
  • Keeley Electronics Nova Wah


Talk box

Early forms of the talk box, such as the Heil Talk Box, first appeared in country music
Country music

Country music is a blend of popular American music forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in Traditional music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s....
 circles in Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
 in the 1940',s 1950's, and 1960's, by artist like swing band pedal steel player Alvino Rey
Alvino Rey

Alvin McBurney , known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an United States swing era musician, often credited as the father of the pedal steel guitar....
, Link Wray
Link Wray

Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an United States rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer.Wray was noted for pioneering a new sound for electric guitars, as exemplified in his hit 1958 instrumental "Rumble ", by Link Wray and his Ray Men, which pioneered an overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound, and also for ha...
 ("Rumble"), Bill West, a country music steel guitar
Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar and/or the method of playing the instrument. The name steel guitar comes not from the material of which the guitar is made, but from the name of the steel, a slide held in the left hand....
 player and husband of Dottie West
Dottie West

Dottie West was an United States country music singer, and was one of Country music's most influential and groundbreaking female artists. Dottie West's career started in the early-60s, with her Top 10 hit, "Here Comes My Baby Back Again", which won her the first Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1965....
, and Pete Drake
Pete Drake

Pete Drake , born Roddis Franklin Drake, was a major Nashville, Tennessee, Tennessee-based record producer and pedal steel guitar player....
, a Nashville mainstay on the pedal steel guitar
Pedal steel guitar

The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal slide to stop the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar....
 and friend of Bill West. Drake used it on his 1964
1964 in music

Events*January 1 - Top of the Pops premieres on BBC television.*January 3 - Footage of the Beatles performing a concert in Bournemouth, England is shown on The Jack Paar Show....
 album Forever
Forever

Forever, etymologically, comes simply from for and ever .Forever may also refer to:In music:Albums:*4Ever , compilation album by Hilary Duff...
, in what came to be called his "talking steel guitar." The device used the guitar amplifier's output to drive a speaker horn that pushed air into a tube held in the player's mouth, which filters and thereby shapes the sound leading to a unique effect. The singer and guitarist Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton

Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd , among others....
 made this effect famous with hit songs such as "Do You Feel Like We Do
Do You Feel Like We Do

"Do You Feel Like We Do" is a song by Peter Frampton originally on the Frampton's Camel album released in 1973 in music. The song became one of the highlights of his live performance in following years....
" and "Show Me the Way
Show Me the Way (Peter Frampton song)

"Show Me the Way" is a song written by Peter Frampton, which was originally released on his 1975 album Frampton and as a single, but gained its highest popularity as a song from his 1976 live album Frampton Comes Alive!....
," as did Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh

Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh is an United States guitarist, songwriter, and rock musician. He has been a member of three successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm , and The Eagles....
 on "Rocky Mountain Way
Rocky Mountain Way

"Rocky Mountain Way" is a 1973 song by rock guitarist Joe Walsh and also a 1985 compilation album by Walsh which features the song.The song was released in 1973 on the album The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get....
." Newer devices, such as Danelectro's Free Speech pedal, use a microphone and vocoder
Vocoder

A vocoder, , is an analysis / synthesis system, mostly used for speech in which the input is passed through a multiband filter, each filter is passed through an envelope follower, the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated, and the decoder applies these control signals to corresponding filters in the synthesizer....
-like circuit to modulate the frequency response of the guitar signal. Also Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd are an English Rock music band who initially earned recognition for their psychedelic rock and space rock music, and later, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music....
 has used this effect with a Dunlop Heil Talk Box in the recording of Pigs
PIGS

PIGS is a four letter acronym that can stand for:* PIGS : Phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class S, a human gene.* PIGS : Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, an informal grouping of sluggish economies....
 and Keep Talking
Keep Talking

"Keep Talking" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1994 in music album, The Division Bell. It features vocals by Stephen Hawking sampled from a BT Group television advertisement and live versions were featured in both the Pulse and Pulse ; these are taken from different shows in each format....
. Some talk boxes include: The Dunlop Heil Talk Box, Rocktron Banshee, and Peter Frampton's own company, Framptone.

Volume-related effects


Volume pedal

A volume pedal is a volume potentiometer that is tilted forward or back by foot. A volume pedal enables a musician to adjust the volume of their instrument while they are performing. Volume pedals can also be used to make the guitar's notes or chords fade in and out. This allows the percussive plucking of the strings to be softened or eliminated entirely, imparting a human-vocal sound. Volume pedals are also widely used with pedal steel guitars in country music. It has also been used to great effect in rock music. While volume pedals made of molded plastic with a single mono input are much less expensive, the best quality, most expensive pedals are made of metal, and they have stereo inputs, smooth-rolling potentiometers driven by a sting attached to the underside of the pedal top (as opposed to a rack and pinion style drive) and a "minimum" volume knob.

Some volume pedals are:
  • Ernie Ball
    Ernie Ball

    Ernie Ball was an American entrepreneur, musician, and innovator, widely acclaimed as a revolutionary in the development of guitar-related products....
     Stereo Volume Pedal
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     FV-50H Foot Volume
  • VOX
    Vox (musical equipment)

    Vox is a musical equipment manufacturer which is most famous for making the Vox AC30 Instrument amplifier, the Vox electric organ, and a series of innovative but commercially unsuccessful electric guitars and bass guitars....
     V850 Volume Pedal


Auto-volume/envelope volume

Just as an auto-wah is a version of a wah pedal controlled by the signal's dynamic envelope, there is an envelope-controlled version of a volume pedal. This is generally used to mimic automatically the sound of picking a note while the guitar's volume knob is turned down, then smoothly turning the knob up. This creates a sound similar to that which can be obtained on bowed stringed instruments such as the violin, in which the guitar note or chord gradually "blossoms" out of the silence. This effect inverts the typical sound of a plucked instrument, in which notes or chords typically start with a strong attack, and then fade away.

An example is:

  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     SG-1 Slow Gear [discontinued product]
  • Behringer
    Behringer

    BEHRINGER International GmbH is a Global audio equipment manufacturer, founded in its present form in 1989....
     SM-200 Slow Motion


Tremolo

Tremolo is a regular and repetitive variation in gain for the duration of a single note, which works like an auto-volume knob. It recreates the sound of rapidly turning the volume up and down, which creates a "shuddering" sound. This is a volume-related effects pedal. This effect is based on one of the earliest effects that were built into guitar amplifiers.

Examples include:
  • Voodoo Lab Tremolo
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     TR-2 Tremolo
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Pulsar
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     Tap Tremolo


Compressor

A compressor acts as an automatic volume control, progressively decreasing the output level as the incoming signal gets louder, and vice versa. It preserves the note's attack rather than silencing it as with an envelope volume pedal. This adjustment of the volume for the attack and tail of a note evens out the overall volume of an instrument. Compressors can also change the behaviour of other effects, especially distortion. When applied to the guitar, it can provide a uniformed sustained note; when applied to instruments with a normally short attack, such as drums or harpsichord, compression can drastically change the resulting sound. Compressors can also be used to smooth out the sound of a guitar or bass guitar. Another kind of compressor is the optical compressor, which uses a light source such as an LED or lamp to compress the signal.

Some compressor pedals are:
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     CS-3 Compression Sustainer
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M-102 DynaComp
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     Constrictor
  • T-Rex Engineering's
    T-Rex Engineering

    T-Rex Engineering ApS is a manufacturer of hand-made electric guitar Guitar effects pedals....
     CompNova
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Black Finger (optical compressor)
  • Aphex
    Aphex

    Aphex may refer to:*Aphex Systems, a maker of audio processing equipment*Aphex Twin, a Welsh-Cornish electronic music artist...
     Punch Factory Optical Compressor


Time-based effects


Delay/echo

A delay or echo pedal creates a copy of an incoming sound and slightly time-delays it, creating either a "slap" (single repetition) or an echo (multiple repetitions) effect. Delay pedals, which may use either analog or digital technology, can be used to create effects ranging from a subtle alteration of the original signal to drastically-altered sounds. Analog delays often are less flexible and not as "perfect" sounding as digital delays, but some guitarists argue that analog effects produce "warmer" tones. Early delay devices used loops of magnetic tape to produce the time delay effect. U2's guitarist, The Edge
The Edge

David Howell Evans , more widely known by his nickname and stage name The Edge , is a British people Irish people musician known best as the guitarist, keyboardist, and main backing vocalist for the Ireland rock band U2....
, is known for his extensive use of delay effects.

Some common delay pedals are:
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     DD-7 Digital Delay
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     DL-4 Delay Modeler
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     Echo Park
  • T-Rex Engineering's
    T-Rex Engineering

    T-Rex Engineering ApS is a manufacturer of hand-made electric guitar Guitar effects pedals....
     Replica
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     DD-20 Giga Delay
  • TC Electronic
    TC Electronic

    TC Electronic is a Denmark audio equipment manufacturer, founded by two brothers, Kim and John Rish?j, in 1976. It's product range includes guitar effects, audio interfaces, audio software, Equalization, studio processors and computer hardware....
     Nova Delay
  • Danelectro
    Danelectro

    Danelectro is a manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, instrument amplifiers and effects units....
     FAB Echo
  • Mxr
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay
  • Eventide
    Eventide

    Eventide is an expansion set from the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. It was released on July 25, 2008. The pre-release events for this set were held on July 12 and July 13 2008....
     Eventide Timefactor


Another technology that is used in Delay units is a "feedback circuit", consisting of a tracking oscillator circuit to hold a note of the last interval, and, after amplifying the signal, send it back to the input side of the delay. While it was first associated with Boss DF-2 Super Feedbacker & Distortion, currently, the signal feedback circuit is employed by other delay pedals. When used with the "hold" mode (As in Boss DD-3), this circuit will provide a sustain effect instead of simply a delay effect. While the selected note is being sustained, a guitarist can use it as a pedal point
Pedal point

In tonality, a pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass , during which at least one foreign, i.e., consonance and dissonance harmony is sounded in the other register ....
 to solo over.

Looping

Extremely long delay times form a looping pedal, which allows performers to record a phrase or passage and play along with it. This allows a solo performer to record an accompaniment, riff
RIFF

The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic meta-format for storing data in tagged chunks.It was introduced in 1991 by Microsoft and International Business Machines, and was presented by Microsoft as the default format for Windows 3.1x multimedia files....
, or ostinato
Ostinato

In music, an Ostinato is a motif or phrase which is persistently repetition in the same musical voice. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody....
 passage and then, with the looping pedal playing back this passage, perform solo
Guitar solo

Guitar solos are a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, rock , metal and jazz styles such as swing and jazz fusion....
 improvisations over the accompaniment. The guitarist can either creates the loop onstage, or create it before a show and store it for later use (as in playback
Playback

Playback may refer to:An album:*Playback *Playback *Playback In literature:*Playback , by Raymond Chandler**Playback , a screenplay by Raymond Chandler...
).

Some examples of loops effects are:
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     RC-2 Loop Station
  • DigiTech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     JamMan Looper
    DigiTech JamMan

    The DigiTech JamMan is a looper Effects pedal invented by DigiTech. It shares the name, but is unrelated to the earlier Lexicon JamMan unit. It is capable of recording up to 99 loops and real-time recording, and can hold up to 6 1/2 hours....
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     2880


Reverb

Reverbration, or "reverb", is the persistence of sound
Sound

Sound is vibration transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a threshold of hearing to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations....
 in a particular space after the original sound is removed. When sound is produced in a space, a large number of echoes
Echo (phenomenon)

In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a Reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound. Typical examples are the echo produced by the bottom of a well, by a building, or by the walls of an enclosed room....
 build up and then slowly decay
Decay

Decay may refer to:*Decay , a comic book character*Decay , a french musicband*Bacterial decay, decomposition of organic matter*Radioactive decay...
 as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air, creating reverberation, or reverb. A plate reverb system uses an electromechanical transducer
Transducer

A transducer is a device, usually electricity, electronics, electro-mechanical, electromagnetic, photonic, or photovoltaic that converts one type of energy or physical attribute to another for various purposes including measurement or information transfer ....
, similar to the driver in a loudspeaker, to create vibration in a plate of sheet metal
Sheet metal

Sheet metal is simply metal formed into thin and flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety of different shapes....
. A pickup
Pickup (music)

A pickup device acts as a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations and converts them to an electrical signal, which can be instrument amplifier and sound recording....
 captures the vibrations as they bounce across the plate, and the result is output as an audio signal. A spring reverb system uses a transducer at one end of a spring and a pickup at the other, similar to those used in plate reverbs, to create and capture vibrations within a metal spring
Spring (device)

A spring is an Elasticity object used to store mechanical energy. Springs are usually made out of hardened steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealing steel and hardened after fabrication....
. Guitar amplifier
Guitar amplifier

A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar louder and modify the tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequencies and/or by adding electronic effects....
s often use spring reverbs due to their simple and inexpensive construction. Spring reverberators were once widely used in semi-professional recording due to their modest cost and small size.

Due to quality problems and improved digital reverb units, spring reverberators are less-commonly provided in guitar amplifiers. Digital reverb units use various signal processing
Digital signal processing

Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of the signal s by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals....
 algorithms in order to create the reverb effect. Since reverberation is essentially caused by a very large number of echoes, simple DSPs
Digital signal processor

A digital signal processor is a specialized microprocessor designed specifically for digital signal processing, generally in real-time computing....
 use multiple feedback delay circuits
Delay (audio effect)

Delay is an audio effect which records an Audio signal processing to an audio storage, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo ....
 to create a large, decaying series of echoes that die out over time.

Examples of reverb pedals include:
  • DigiTech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     Digiverb
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Holy Grail
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     RV-5 Digital Reverb
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     Verbzilla
  • Danelectro
    Danelectro

    Danelectro is a manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, instrument amplifiers and effects units....
     DJ-4 Corned Beef Reverb...


Modulation-related effects


Rotary speaker

Rotary speaker effects are accomplished by amplifying a sound through spinning speakers or horns and/or by placing a rotating baffle in front of a speaker. This creates a doppler effect
Doppler effect

The Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842, is the change in frequency and wavelength of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the waves....
, and depend on the speed of the rotation, translates into phasing, flanging, chorus, vibrato, or even tremolo. In addition to the basic rotating speaker sound, other effects created with these cabinets included changing the speed, turning the motor on and off (causing a pitch "wobble" effect), and using two rotating speakers at once, a rich, chorusing sound nicknamed the "voice of God" by Leslie fans.

  • Leslie speaker
    Leslie speaker

    The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/loudspeaker used to create special audio effects utilizing the Doppler effect. Named after its inventor, Donald Leslie, it is particularly associated with the Hammond organ....
    s: The wooden cabinet has rotating baffle near the bass speaker, and a horn speaker that rotates like a siren. Originally designed for Hammond organ
    Hammond organ

    The Hammond organ is an electronic organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to Church as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, Rock and r...
    s, they are also used by some guitarists. Some Leslie enthusiasts claim that that no electronic effects or software modelling devices can duplicate the complex doppler effects that the speaker creates.
  • Fender Vibratone
    Fender Vibratone

    The Fender Vibratone is a Leslie speaker style cabinet that was built to look like a regular guitar cabinet. It was manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation....
    : This is a simplified version of Leslie speaker, containing only a 10" speaker with a rotating baffle.


Rotary speaker simulator
Electronic Leslie-style effects duplicate the sound of a rotating speaker, but they offer different simulations of the effects of the rotation speed, volume, and pitch modulation. Some Leslie-style pedals can provide two or more modulation effects at the same time. Despite the numerous different analog devices, it is very rare for them to be able to duplicate all aspect of a Leslie speaker. Thus, rotary speaker simulators are always going to be digital, utilizing modelling algorithms to model the relations between the rotating horns and bass baffle, and how the sound bounce around the cabinet. As Leslies also have a tube amplifier, most of these pedals have an overdrive circuit. Some of these pedals can even accept an 11-pin Hammond organ
Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electronic organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to Church as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, Rock and r...
 keyboard input.

  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     RT-20 Rotary Ensemble Pedal: This is one of the few pedals that is capable of modelling all aspect of a Lesile Speaker.
  • Line 6 Rotomachine: Also a modelling pedal, it is available in a compact pedal size.
  • DLS Roto-Sim: Hybrid of analog with DSP modelling.


Vibrato
A Vibe or vibrato pedal reproduces the sound of a rotating speaker
Leslie speaker

The Leslie speaker is a specially constructed amplifier/loudspeaker used to create special audio effects utilizing the Doppler effect. Named after its inventor, Donald Leslie, it is particularly associated with the Hammond organ....
 by synchronizing volume oscillation, frequency-specific volume oscillation, vibrato (pitch wavering), phase shifting, and chorusing in relation to a non-rotating speaker. The modulation speed can be ramped up or down, with separate speeds for the bass and treble frequencies, to simulate the sound of a rotating bass speaker and a rotating horn. This effect is simultaneously a volume-oriented effect, an equalization-oriented effect, and a time-based effect. Furthermore, this effect is typically related to chorus. Some vibe pedals also include an overdrive effect, which allows the performer to add "tube"-style distortion. Some Vibe pedals include:
  • BBE Soul Vibe
  • Voodoo Lab Microvibe
Some vibe-chorus pedals include
  • Dunlop
    Dunlop Manufacturing

    Dunlop Manufacturing, Inc., known to many as Jim Dunlop, is a popular music supplies company based in Benicia, California, U.S.A. The company is most famous for its wah-wah pedal, the Dunlop Cry Baby....
     Univibe
    Univibe

    The Univibe is a Effects pedal-operated Phaser or phase shifter for the guitar. It was introduced in the 1960s by Shin-Ei, and was intended to emulate the "Doppler effect sound" of a Leslie speaker....
  • Dunlop Rotovibe
    Rotovibe

    The Rotovibe foot pedal is an electronic rotating speaker simulator for electric guitar, produced and marketed by Dunlop Manufacturing. Many artists have performed and recording using the Rotovibe....
  • BBE Mind Bender


Phase shifter

A phase shifter creates a complex frequency response containing many regularly-spaced "notches" in an incoming signal by combining it with a copy of itself out of phase, and shifting the phase relationship cyclically. The phasing effect creates a "whooshing" sound that is reminiscent of the sound of a flying jet. This effect dominates the sound in the song Star Guitar
Star Guitar

"Star Guitar" is the second Single from The Chemical Brothers 2002 album Come with Us. The song reached #8 in the UK Top 40....
 by Chemical Brothers and Have A Cigar
Have a Cigar

"Have a Cigar" is the third track on Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here . It follows "Welcome to the Machine" and on the original Gramophone record opened side two....
 by the Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd are an English Rock music band who initially earned recognition for their psychedelic rock and space rock music, and later, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music....
. The song was not played with any guitars but one can hear the phasing effect. The instrument being phased was actually a synthesizer
Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequency....
. Some electronic "rotating speaker simulators" are actually phase shifters. Phase shifters were popular in the 1970s, particularly used with electric piano and funk bass guitar. The number of stages in a phase shifter is the number of moving dips in the frequency response curve. From a sonic perspective, this effect is equalization-oriented. However, it may be derived through moderate time-based processing. Some phaser pedals include:
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M-101 Phase 90
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     PH-3 Phase Shifter
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Small Stone
    Small Stone

    The Electroharmonix Small Stone is a model of phaser stompbox marketed to guitarists since 1974. Designed by David Cockerell, whom Electro Harmonix hired from his former employer Electronic Music Studios Ltd, the Small Stone is a 4 stage phaser based on Cockerell's work for the Synthi Hi-Fli at EMS....
  • Moog
    Moog synthesizer

    Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for analog and digital music synthesisers....
     MF-103 12 Stage Phaser
  • DigiTech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     Hyper Phase


Flanger

A flanger simulates the sound effect originally created by momentarily slowing the tape during recording by holding something against the flange, or edge of the tape reel, and then allowing it to speed up again. This effect was used to simulate passing into "warp speed" in sci-fi films, and also in psychedelic rock music of the 1960s.

Flanging has a sound similar to a phaser, but more intense, cutting, and metallic, and is closely related to the production of chorus (both involve delaying a copy of the signal by a short, varying amount, and re-combining it with the original signal). Spectrally, the main difference between the flanger and the phaser is that in the flanger, the notches in the spectrum are spaced at equal frequency intervals (similar to harmonic overtone intervals), while in the phaser, the spacing is approximately logarithmic (similar to pitch intervals).

The first pedal-operated flanger designed for use as a guitar effect was designed by Jim Gamble of Tycobrahe Sound Company in Hermosa Beach, CA, during the mid 1970s. Last made in 1977, the existing "Pedalflangers" appear occasionally on eBay and sell for several hundred dollars. A modern "clone" of the Tycobrahe Pedalflanger is sold by Chicago Iron.Famous users of this Flanger effect include Randy Rhoads
Randy Rhoads

Randall William "Randy" Rhoads was an United States Heavy metal music guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. Despite his short career, he is cited as an influence by many contemporary heavy metal guitarists....
 and Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen , is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and music producer, most famous as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen....
. Coincidentally, they both used the MXR
MXR

MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
 M-117R flanger and Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen , is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and music producer, most famous as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen....
 even has his own signature model now.

Examples:
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     BF-3 Stereo Flanger
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     Liqua Flange
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M-117R Flanger
  • Danelectro
    Danelectro

    Danelectro is a manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, instrument amplifiers and effects units....
     FAB Flange
  • Electro Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress
  • DigiTech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     Turbo Flange


Chorus

An electronic chorus effect
Chorus effect

A chorus effect is:* A condition in the way people perceive similar sounds coming from multiple sources.* A simulation of this effect created by signal processing equipment....
 splits a guitar signal in two, modulating the second signal's pitch and mixing back in with the "dry" original signal. The effect sounds like several guitarists playing the same thing at the same time, resulting in a wide, shimmering or swelling sound. Some common chorus pedals are:
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     CH-1 Super Chorus
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Small Clone
  • Ibanez
    Ibanez

    Ibanez is a guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki and based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in the United States and Europe....
     CF-7 Chorus/Flanger
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     Space Chorus
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M-134 Stereo Chorus
  • Detune effect on Digitech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     Whammy
    Digitech Whammy

    The DigiTech Whammy is a Pitch shifter effects pedal manufactured by DigiTech. It gives musicians the ability to shift the pitch of their electric guitar up or down in real time by rocking a treadle pedal up and down with their foot, similar to how a Wah-wah pedal affects the tone of a guitar based on the position of the treadle....
  • TC Electronic
    TC Electronic

    TC Electronic is a Denmark audio equipment manufacturer, founded by two brothers, Kim and John Rish?j, in 1976. It's product range includes guitar effects, audio interfaces, audio software, Equalization, studio processors and computer hardware....
     Stereo Chorus /Flanger /Pitch Modulator


Pitch-related effects


Octaver

An octaver mixes the input signal with a synthesised signal whose musical pitch is an octave lower or higher than the original. Effects that synthesize intervals besides octaves are referred to as harmonizers or pitch shifters, shown below. Octave up pedals are often used by lead guitarists to add additional edge and clarity to their solo sound. Octave down pedals are used by guitarists in bands without a bassist who want to add a lower-end sound, or by bassists who want an extended low range without having to buy a 5-string or 6-string bass.

Octave up pedals include:
  • Electro Harmonix POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator)
  • Electro Harmonix HOG (Harmonic Octave Generator)


Octave down pedals include:
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     OC-3 Super Octave
  • Electro-Harmonix
    Electro-Harmonix

    Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes electronic sound processors. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. They are most famous for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s....
     Octave Multiplexer
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M-103 Blue Box


Pitch shifter

A pitch shifter is a device that alters the pitch of the instruments. They are generally used with an expression pedal to give a smooth bend-like effect. Pitch shifters can also be used to electronically "detune" the instrument. The company Eventide were the first company to experiment with a harmonizer. Companies including Digitech followed in their footsteps. Some examples are:
  • Digitech Whammy
    Digitech Whammy

    The DigiTech Whammy is a Pitch shifter effects pedal manufactured by DigiTech. It gives musicians the ability to shift the pitch of their electric guitar up or down in real time by rocking a treadle pedal up and down with their foot, similar to how a Wah-wah pedal affects the tone of a guitar based on the position of the treadle....
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     PS-5 Super Shifter
  • Electro Harmonix Harmonic Octave Generator


Other effects


Feedbacker/sustainer

While audio feedback
Audio feedback

Audio feedback is a special kind of feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output . In this example, a signal received by the microphone is Amplifier and passed out of the loudspeaker....
 in general is undesirable due to the high frequency overtone, when controlled properly, it can provide true sustain of the sound (instead of using a distortion/compressor to make quiet notes louder, or a feedback of a signal in a circuit as in a delay unit). Several approaches have been used to produce guitar feedback effects, which sustain the sound from the guitar. The most primitive form, as used by Jimi Hendrix, is to use the feedback created when the guitar is played in front of an instrument amplifier's loudspeaker when it is set to a high volume.

The neck pickup can be used as a driver to push the strings based on the bridge pickup, such as the Sustainiac Sustainer and Fernandes Sustainer
Fernandes Sustainer

The Fernandes Sustainer is a device fitted to the electric guitar, usually in models produced by Fernandes Guitars, but it is also supplied as a kit for fitting to new or existing guitars....
. A string driver can be mounted on a stand as in the , which is driven by the selected guitar pickup(s). Feedback start, stop and harmonics can be controlled here by positioning the drivers distance to the strings and the position along the guitar neck while playing. A signal amplifier can be used to powers headstock transducer, which in turn sends feedback vibration down the string, as in Sustainiac's Model C. A handheld string driver can contain a pickup and driver, as in the EBow, which uses a small electromagnet to vibrate the string, creating a bow-like sustained sound. A dedicated high-gain guitar amp can be used in the control room, without a microphone, as a footswitch-controlled string feedback driver. The microphone is placed on the speaker cabinet of the main guitar amp in the isolation booth or live room.

Switcher/mixer (or "A/B" pedal)

A switcher pedal (also called an "A/B" pedal) enables players to run two effects or two effects chains in parallel, or switch between two effects with a single press of the pedal. Some switcher pedals also incorporate a simple mixer, which allows mixing the dry guitar signal to be mixed with an effected signal. This is useful to make overly processed effects more mild and natural sounding. One example of the way this mixer can be used is to mix a "wah-wah" pedal can be mixed with dry guitar to make it more mild and full-bandwidth, with less volume swing, or a strong phaser effect can be mixed with dry guitar sound to make the phaser effect more subtle and musical. . Alternatively, a compressor can be mixed with dry guitar to preserve the natural attack of the dry signal as well as the sustain of the compressor. For metal or hard rock guitar sounds, the mixer can be used to blend a "warm" overdrive pedal and a metallic hard-edged distortion pedal.

Examples include:
  • Dunlop A/B pedal
  • Loop Master
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     LS-2 Line Selector (also contains a mixer)


In 2008, a new breed of switching pedal was introduced by Molten Voltage called TOGGLE. It automatically switches channels based on a tap-tempo type control or when the guitar is strummed hard.

Noise gate

A noise gate allows a signal
Signal (electrical engineering)

In the fields of telecommunications, signal processing, and in electrical engineering more generally, a signal is any time-varying or spatial-varying quantity....
 to pass through only when the signal's intensity is above a set threshold
Threshold

Threshold may refer to:...
, which opens the gate. If the signal falls below the threshold, the gate closes, and no signal is allowed to pass. A noise gate can be used to control noise. When the level of the 'signal' is above the level of the 'noise
Noise

In common use, the word noise means unwanted sound or noise pollution. In electronics noise can refer to the electronic signal corresponding to acoustic noise or the electronic signal corresponding to the noise commonly seen as 'Noise ' on a degraded television or video image....
', the threshold is set above the level of the 'noise' so that the gate is closed when there is no 'signal'. While some people think that a noise gate is some type of filter that removes noise from the signal, this is not the case. When the gate is open, both the signal and the noise will pass through. However, when a chord or note is being played, listeners do not tend to notice hum or noise that is present, even though this hum might be quite distracting during a pause or rest in the music.

Noise gates are also used as an effect to modify the envelope of signals, removing gradual attacks and decays. For example, if a noise gate is used with a very resonant instrument such as a hollow-bodied guitar, which normally has a long, sustained sound, the sound of the notes and chords can be substantially shortened.

Examples include:
  • Boss
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     NS-2 Noise Suppressor
  • MXR
    MXR

    MXR, also known as MXR Innovations, was a manufacturer of guitar effects units, founded in 1972 by Michael Laiacona, Keith Barr, and Terry Sherwood, and based in Rochester, New York....
     M-135 Smart Gate


Multi-effects pedals

A multi-FX pedal is a single effects device that can perform several guitar effects simultaneously. Such devices generally use digital processing to simulate many of the above-mentioned effects without the need to carry several single-purpose units. In addition to the classic effects, most have amplifier/speaker simulations not found in analog units. This allows a guitarist to play directly into a recording device while simulating an amplifier and speaker of his choice.

A typical digital multi-effects pedal is programmed, with several memory locations available to save custom user settings. Many lack the front-panel knobs of analog devices, using buttons instead to program various effect parameters. Multi-effects devices continue to evolve, some gaining MIDI or USB interfaces to aid in programming. Examples include:
  • Tech 21
    Tech 21

    Tech 21 is a New York based manufacturer of guitar and bass effect pedal, Guitar amplifier, and DI unit which allow the user to recreate the tone of many popular guitar amps and record those sounds directly into a mixing console....
     Sans Amp - A line of simulated analog effects with distortion and speaker simulation capability.
  • Line 6
    Line 6

    Line 6 is a manufacturer of digital modelling electric guitars, acoustic guitars, instrument amplifier and effect processors. Line 6 was founded in the mid-1990s and is based in Calabasas, California....
     POD range
  • Behringer
    Behringer

    BEHRINGER International GmbH is a Global audio equipment manufacturer, founded in its present form in 1989....
     V-Amp Pro
  • DigiTech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     RP series
  • DigiTech
    DigiTech

    DigiTech is a manufacturer of guitar, bass guitar, and vocals electronics....
     GNX series
  • BOSS
    Boss

    A boss is an employee's supervisor.Boss may also refer to:...
     ME-20, ME-50, GT-6, GT-8, GT-10
  • Zoom G2 series
  • Vox
    Vox (musical equipment)

    Vox is a musical equipment manufacturer which is most famous for making the Vox AC30 Instrument amplifier, the Vox electric organ, and a series of innovative but commercially unsuccessful electric guitars and bass guitars....
     Tonelab series
  • Roland
    Roland Corporation

    is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ?33 million in capital....
     VG series
  • Korg
    Korg

    is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronics musical instruments and electronic tuners. The company is one of the most widely used and respected names in professional music worldwide....
     AX series
  • Eventide
    Eventide

    Eventide is an expansion set from the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. It was released on July 25, 2008. The pre-release events for this set were held on July 12 and July 13 2008....
     Eventide Modfactor
  • TC Electronic
    TC Electronic

    TC Electronic is a Denmark audio equipment manufacturer, founded by two brothers, Kim and John Rish?j, in 1976. It's product range includes guitar effects, audio interfaces, audio software, Equalization, studio processors and computer hardware....
     G-System, Nova System, G-Natural (for acoustic guitar)


Other pedals, effects, and accessories

Miscellaneous pedals and effects include power supply pedals, which can power a number of effects pedals and electronic tuner
Electronic tuner

An electronic tuner is a device used by musicians to detect and display the Pitch of notes played on musical instruments. The simplest tuners use LED lights or a needle to indicate approximately whether the pitch of the note played is lower, higher, or approximately equal to the desired pitch....
 pedals. Guitarists who use a number of guitar effects pedals may transport the pedals in a guitar pedalboard
Guitar pedalboard

A guitar pedalboard is a flat board or panel which serves as a container, patch bay and power supply for effects pedals for the electric guitar....
, which is a flat board or panel which serves as a container, patch bay and power supply for effects pedals for the electric guitar. Some pedalboards contain their own transformer and power cables, in order to power up to 12 (or more) different pedals. Pedalboards assist the player in managing multiple pedals. The entire pedalboard can be packed up and transported to the next location without the need for disassembly.

Pedalboards often have a cover which protects the effects pedals during transportation. There are many varieties of pedalboard cases, including homemade DIY pedalboard cases, store-bought pedalboard cases, and, for professional musicians, custom-made pedalboard cases. Hard shell pedalboard-cases have foam padding, reinforced corners, and locking latches which protect the pedals during transport; during onstage performance, with the lid removed, the bottom of the case serves as the pedalboard. Most pedalboards have a flat surface where pedals and their power supplies are attached using Velcro or other techniques, and they often have a removable lid or padding to protect the pedals when they are not being used. Some pedalboards have handles or wheels to facilitate transportation.

Samples


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Further reading


See also

  • Electric guitar
    Electric guitar

    An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickup to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker....
  • Electronic tuner
    Electronic tuner

    An electronic tuner is a device used by musicians to detect and display the Pitch of notes played on musical instruments. The simplest tuners use LED lights or a needle to indicate approximately whether the pitch of the note played is lower, higher, or approximately equal to the desired pitch....
  • Effects unit
    Effects unit

    Effects units are devices that affect the sound of an electric instrument or other audio source when plugged in to the electrical signal path the instrument or source sends, most often an electric guitar or bass guitar....
  • Effects pedal
    Effects pedal

    An effects pedal is an electronic effects unit housed in a small metal or plastic chassis used by musicians, usually electric guitar players, to modify their instrument sound....
  • Guitar pedalboard
    Guitar pedalboard

    A guitar pedalboard is a flat board or panel which serves as a container, patch bay and power supply for effects pedals for the electric guitar....
  • Guitar amplifier
    Guitar amplifier

    A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar louder and modify the tone by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequencies and/or by adding electronic effects....
  • Distortion
    Distortion (guitar)

    Distortion, also known as overdrive or fuzzbox, is an guitar effects applied to the electric guitar, the bass guitar, and other amplified instruments such as the Hammond organ, synthesizers, and even harmonica and vocals....
  • Power attenuator
    Power attenuator (guitar)

    In electric rock music electric guitar, attenuators are used to dissipate some or all of the amplifier's power in the attenuator's built-in, mostly resistive dummy load instead of letting that power drive the speaker, in order to silence or reduce the output volume....
  • Guitarists
  • Stomp box
    Stomp box

    A stomp box or stompbox is a simple percussion instrument consisting of a small wooden box placed under the foot, which is tapped or stamped on rhythmically to produce a sound similar to that of a bass drum....


External links