January 2005
Female musician Nikki O'Neill
Nikki O'Neill is a guitarist, bass
player, singer and songwriter in NYC. She is a rep for Electro-Harmonix
- a company that makes effects pedals and tubes. Trained in jazz and
classical music, she loves Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Patti Smith even
more. A total analog freak, she is recording her debut CD on tape
machines at home.
Nikki's website: Nikki O'Neill.com
Are you thinking about buying
effects pedals for your guitar?
In this article you’ll learn about
the different types of effects and how they work.
by Nikki O'Neill
Effects pedals color your sound in addition to the ‘‘dry’’ sound
you get with just a guitar and amp. You can buy single pedals or
multi-effects - a combination of several effects. Multi-effects come as
pedals, which you control with your foot, or as rack-mountable units
with knobs that you dial in (these are better for recording than stage
use).
Pedals are easy to use: they have a built-in footswitch, so that
you can turn the effect on and off with the tap of your foot. That’s
why they’re also called stomp boxes. Multi-effects are programmable and
give you the ability to use several sound effects simultaneously. They
require a little manual reading to get the most out of them.
Does every great musician use multi-effects? Not at all - Slash
sticks to a great sounding guitar and amp + a distortion pedal and a
wah. Prince displays an army of little stomp boxes on stage. Steve Vai,
on the other hand, is a big fan of multi-effect units.
It’s totally up to your preference - and budget. If you have
limited cash-flow, get a good distortion pedal, a delay and a wah. That
will take you VERY far.
Now let’s check out some common effects for guitar players. Some of
them are also used by bassists, keyboard players, violinists and
singers…
Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz
The powerful ‘‘overdriven’’ amplifier sound - which happens when an
amp is overpowered with sheer volume - is one of the most sought after
sounds by guitarists. Overdrive makes your tone sound ‘‘broken’’, but
in the right way! You can get all kinds of flavors - from amp-like
overdrive pedals to rockier and more intense ‘‘dist’’ pedals… or really
brutal pedals for metal sounds.
Some famous brands include the vintage Ibanez Tube Screamer,
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff and BOSS pedals ranging from Super Overdrive
to Metal Zone.
Fuzz tones fall somewhere in between overdrive and distortion. This
effect came out in the 60’s and was used especially by Jimi Hendrix.
Not everybody likes it - fuzz has a stinging, in-your-face quality. But
it’s a must for psychedelic rock sounds.
Some brands: the vintage Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, Electro-Harmonix
Graphic Fuzz.
Equalizer
An EQ is a tone control by which you can shape the timbre of the
sound in different frequencies - low, mid and high range. It’s usually
featured on amps already, but it’s great if you want to create even
more tonal variety.
If you want to accentuate or get rid of unwanted frequencies in
your amp or guitar tone, EQs come in very handy. They can boost your
guitar’s output level if you need a little more volume for a solo. EQs
also help you to eliminate feedback from your amp.
The most common EQ types are graphic and parametric. Some brands:
MXR, BOSS, Electro-Harmonix and the rack-mountable Behringer.
Wah and Envelope Filter
The wah pedal is probably the most popular guitar effect, along
with distortion pedals. Say the word and you’ll get what it sounds
like. Or listen to the intro to Jimi Hendrix’s ‘‘Voodoo Child’’ and
funky disco tunes, like ‘‘Carwash’’. Sly Stone connected it to his
vocal mike in ‘‘Don’t Call Me Nigger (Whitey)’’.
It’s a foot-controlled tone potentiometer - similar to the tone
controls/pots you have on your electric guitar or bass. By moving the
pedal up and down (like on a sewing machine), you shift the tonal
balance around.
Some brands: Dunlop Cry Baby, Vox, Roger Mayer.
Envelope Filters - also called Envelope Followers, Dynamic Filters,
Auto Wah or Touch Wah - allow wah-styled effects without using a foot
control. Once the pedal is on, it will automatically produce a sweeping
wah-like effect.
They usually respond to your picking attack as well (how hard or
soft you hit the strings). Envelope Filters can’t replace a real
wah-pedal, but a lot of funk and rock guitarists and bass players use
them.
Reverb and Delay
Reverb simulates acoustic room sounds. It can make you feel like
you’re playing in a big concert hall. Singers usually like to have some
reverb added to their vocals at gigs. Processed reverb is applied to
all instruments in recording situations. Too much reverb sounds fake
(if you’re not actually playing in a big cathedral), and it causes the
instruments to lose definition in the overall mix.
Most guitar amplifiers have built-in reverb, but you can buy really
sophisticated rack units for studio use. They offer more control and
variables like room size (room, hall, cathedral, etc.)
Some brands: Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail, Alesis Quadraverb.
Delay
is a repetitive echo that samples what you play and plays it back
to you after a specified amount of time. Listen to The Edge from U2 and
you’ll hear what it sounds like.
You can set the number of repetitions and the time (either by
seconds or by bars, beats and tempo). Modern delays have pretty long
minute loops, allowing you to jam and harmonize guitar parts with
yourself. Very cool! If you set the delay with very short time
increments, you get a doubling effect, which can make your instrument
sound fuller.
Some brands: BOSS Digital Delay, Line 6, Electro-Harmonix 16 Second
Digital Delay.
Modulation Effects - Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Vibrato, Tremolo and
Rotary
Modulation effects get their sound from an oscillator, which
creates a repeating sweep of the effect. The rate control knob lets you
determine how fast you want the sweep to be.
The chorus almost gives you the sound of a 12-string guitar. It
creates a doubling effect - the notes you play get ‘‘twin notes’’ that
sweep up and down in the same pitch. Check out old Police records with
Andy Summers to hear this…he used a Roland Jazz Chorus amp to create
his unmistakable sound.
Flanger is related to the chorus, but has a lot more metallic sound
- like a spaceship! Famous examples: Heart’s ‘‘Barracuda’’, Lenny
Kravitz’s ‘‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’’.
Phaser creates a swooshing, gradual sweep. Extremely popular in the
70’s, it was used by singers, drummers, bass players and guitarists.
Eddie Van Halen is a prominent example. You can also hear it in funk
tunes, like Parliament’s hit ‘‘Flash Light’’.
Vibrato was made popular by Jimi Hendrix. The controls resemble
those on phase pedals; the intensity knob controls the degree of the
effect, and the speed knob controls the rate of vibrato.
Tremolo sounds like you have somebody turn your amp volume knob up
and down while you’re playing. It has a classic 1950’s and 60’s sound
and can be heard in all kinds of music today, from blues to country.
Rotary is not the club (!), but a simulation of a Leslie organ
cabinet. A Leslie is a spinning speaker system that creates a haunting,
trembling sound. It’s really popular in surf music. You can also hear
it on Soundgarden’s ‘‘Black Hole Sun.’’
Some common brands of modulation effects: MXR, BOSS,
Electro-Harmonix, Voodoo Lab, the vintage Uni-Vibe vibrato.
Dynamic Effects - Compressors, Sustainers and Limiters
Compression doesn’t affect your tone. It reduces or boosts uneven
signal levels to create a balanced and even sound. If you hit the
strings too hard, it brings the volume down. If you played so soft that
it’s too quiet in the mix, it raises the volume. This is a standard
effect in recording studios for all instruments - especially bass.
Sustain emphasizes the weaker signals. When you hit a note and it
starts to decay, the sustainer gives it an extra push and lets it ring
longer. The problem is that sustainers also boost all kinds of humming
and white noise…
Limiter cuts your volume at a pre-set threshold peak. It doesn’t
change your tone. It’s good to have if your amp ‘‘caves in’’ from your
hard string attacks.
Common compressor brands: BOSS Compression Sustainer,
Electro-Harmonix NY-2A (rack unit).
Octavers, Pitch Shifters and Harmonizers
Octave pedals fatten up your guitar tone by adding a note that’s an
octave above or below the one you’re playing. Some pedals today can
stretch the pitch to two octaves and even let you play chords - which
you couldn’t do before, because it would sound really muddy and awful!
A great tune featuring octavers: Prince’s ‘‘Temptation’’ (which also
has tons of delay).
Common brands: BOSS, Electro-Harmonix’s POG (Poly Octave Generator).
Pitch shifting simulates the dive-bombing sound of a Floyd Rose
whammy bar on guitars. But you can also expand your overall note range
with it… and produce pitch bends and harmony shifts. They usually have
a foot pedal, like a wah. Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) made
this effect really famous. He made his guitar sound like a scratching
turn-table - perfect for their rap-metal vibe at the time.
Common brand: Digitech’s Whammy Pedal.
Harmonizers
have been embraced by guitar wizards like Steve Vai and Brian May.
Unlike the octaver, they can create additional intervals like fourths
and fifths, etc.
Intelligent pitch shifting - or ‘‘smart shifts’’ - perform harmony
by detecting the pitch you’re playing and incorporating the appropriate
interval structure. Conventional pitch shifting just performs the
interval you set, whether it sounds good or crappy with what you’re
playing.
There are many rack-mounted harmonizers out there… some can be
pretty pricey. One brand is Eventide’s Ultra-Harmonizer DSP4000 (this
is the only company who’s allowed to use the harmonizer name).
Noise Reduction
Noise Gates help you quiet all the hissing sounds from amps, long
chains of effects pedals, single-coil guitar pickups, bad wiring jobs
in guitars, long patch cables and fluorescent lights!
Rocktron makes a popular noise reduction pedal.
Other odd-ball effects…
Talk Boxes were really hip in the early 70’s. Peter Frampton is the
most famous user with his hit ‘‘Do You Feel Like I Do?’’. Bon Jovi also
used it on ‘‘Living On A Prayer’’.
It’s made of a long plastic tube that you stick in your mouth. When
you talk or sing, the sound travels to an effects box, and you can
manipulate the tone with your mouth movements. You need to hook up your
mike to a PA system to make it work!
Acoustic simulators change the tonal spectrum and EQ of your
electric guitar so that it sounds like an acoustic one. They sound more
like a plugged-in, thin-bodied acoustic than a Martin. Pretty good if
you don’t want to carry several guitars to a gig.
Finally: How to combine your effects…
Now you need to know how to arrange your different effects to
create the best possible sound!
Check out what happens when you place your compressor before or
after your distortion pedal. An EQ can create sonic wonders - or
disasters - depending on its placement in the effects chain.
Tons of pedals can get quite noisy. Try to be a minimalist and get
the best possible amp sound before you add pedals. Here are some common
set-ups from guitar to amp that you can use as a reference:
GUITAR - WAH - OVERDRIVE/DISTORTION - EQ - AMP (a classic!)
GUITAR - WAH - OCTAVE - NOISE GATE - MODULATION - DELAY - AMP (for
the crazy guitar heads!)
DO NOT:
.. Put overdrive at the end of the chain - all your effects will
sound distorted. Ugh!
..Place reverb before the other effects - this will add reverb to
all the other effects.
Pedal boards are great for keeping your effects neat and organized,
unless you only use one or two of them. They also have several 9-volt
outlets. You don’t want stomp box batteries dying on you during a gig!
Right-angled 1/4 -inch cables are great for connecting your pedals to
each other and the pedal board’s effects loop input jack. Get the best
quality brands (Monster, etc) even if they cost more. They’re well
worth your money…as they reduce noise.
TURN UP THE POWER! GET READY TO PLAY!!! |
