Need some more advice

[HGDUDE]

Yeah, I'm sorta new to electric guitars (I have an acoustic) and I was wondering about effects. What kinds are there, what do they do, and which ones are good?

 

[espskully]

Delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, compression, tremolo, vibrato, distortion, phaser, pitch shifter, octaver, ring modulation, wah, volume pedal...that's all I can think of right now.

It really depends on what you are looking to achieve. I use delay and reverb the most.

 

[TelePaul]

Yeah, I'm sorta new to electric guitars (I have an acoustic) and I was wondering about effects. What kinds are there, what do they do, and which ones are good?

Ah effects....this a science unto itself. I read your other post; I can't emphasise enough the fact that you need to source a good electric and decent amp first; then come the effects pedals.

But in answer to your question, effects come in various kinds. They were originaly conceived as early as the 1950's where a guitar was merely a backing instrument for exuberant brass players. Since then they've come along way. Theres alot to cover but basically they come in two types. Effects Processors, like a multi-fx pedal with digital effects applied to your guitars signal. These vary hugely but you might be familiar with Line 6 PODs and Boss ME 50s. The Line 6 rely alot on on PC interaction for updating effects patches etc, and is strictly digital; the distortion is digital, the amp simulator is a digitised recreation of an amp. Same with the ME 50. the fact that these rey n micro-chips as opposed to analogue circuitry means they can cram alot of effects into one compace housing.

These multi effects are relatively new fangled. Stomp boxes originaly evolved from simple overdrives where a transistor was driven to saturation to produce cipping. Other effects such as reverb, delay, chorus, phase shift, flanger, compression and envelope filters have made their way steadily onto the market forma round 1980 onwards. Practically every effects pedal manufacturer does a distortion or overdrive; these terms are often used interchangably which is incorrect. Both effects force the sound to clip, but the degree of clip defines whether its Overdrive, Distortion, Fuzz, etc.

Modulation effects modulate the sound; chorus fattens it up nicely by giving the guitar and almost 12 string sound, famously heard on The Polices 'Every Breath you take''. Phase shift plays the sound out of phase wiht itself, a truly great sound which is tough to describe; you can get some awesome ascending and descending vibes wiht it. Flanger is similar but more metallic.

Delays are mostly digital these days and echo the sounds; lots of fun and can be used really well if the repeats are set to the songs tempo. Check out U2's The Edge, hes a big fan of his delay.

reverbs staright forward, gives the sound of reverberation making the osund seem fuller as if you were playing in a tiled room etc.

Envelope and EQ are filters...basically theyll dictate the highs and lows (treble, middle and bass) they can come in many forms, most popular being Wah pedals; check out the Jim Dunlop Crybaby, and if you only buy one pedal get this! Otherwise theres notch filters and boss do a nice 7 and EQ compact pedal to tweak your tone.

Compression is a nice effect to use when recording. It evens out the volume discrepancies of a sound osurce (for expample, your b and e strings are less dense than your g, d, a and low E strings, and therefore will naturally be quieter. Compression can fix this.) Compression squashes the bandwave and takes away the front of the note (attack) and increases the end of the note (decay). Its a black art, but good if you can use it.

Theres so many variations on the above, i've only scratched the surface. In my opinion, you cant beat Boss compact Pedals. Theyre reliable and sound great and are reaosnably priced.

 

[travelin travis]

Ah effects....this a science unto itself. I read your other post; I can't emphasise enough the fact that you need to source a good electric and decent amp first; then come the effects pedals.

that's probably the best advice anyone could give concerning effects. it's really tempting to get an all in one box, and hell you might as well try one out, but generally you will get better quality effects by getting something that does one thing really well. i would take a good transparent overdrive over any multi overdrive/distortion/fuzz box any day. those multi effect boxes will rob you of your pure tone. the thing is, you probably won't notice it unless you've made a good effort at finding a good tone or tones that work for you. effects boxes will always degrade your tone but the things to look/listen for are effects that are as transparent as possible when not in use and sound good. like telepaul mentioned, if you spend some time working on your basic guitar tone, your ear will learn all of it's little nuances. slap that poka dot cosmo delay in your signal chain and you might hate how it burries those nuances even when it's not being used.

beside the effects already mentioned, there are signal benders, synths, speaker rotation simulators.................gobs and gobs of stuff out there. the cool thing is that you can change up the order of effects and come up with completely different sounds. if i were you, i would work on your guitar tone and then start the effect thing with a good delay. a delay can do alot of things and alot of other effects are based off of delay like chorus, flanger, etc. check out some of the manufacturers web sites for sounds clips to get some examples of things that you can do with effects. there really is no end to it all.

 

[Dani Pace]

The problem I have with the multi efx units is that while some of the efx are fine, some sound like garbage. Also the multi efx units tend to be rather noisy. For me a good tone from the amp with a little compression and maybe some delay is usualy enough. When I was younger I thought pedals were the answer to sounding like a pro, then I learned how to play. The better I got, the less i relied on pedals to cover my mistakes.

 

[rpe]

The problem I have with the multi efx units is that while some of the efx are fine, some sound like garbage. Also the multi efx units tend to be rather noisy. For me a good tone from the amp with a little compression and maybe some delay is usualy enough. When I was younger I thought pedals were the answer to sounding like a pro, then I learned how to play. The better I got, the less i relied on pedals to cover my mistakes.

Good answer Dani.

It is remarkable how much improvement in tone you get when your technique is refined. A little reverb and delay can go a long way. Keep practicing!!!!!!!!!!!