------------------------------------------------------------------------Guitar pedals
------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are many different foot pedals on the market today, some of them can significantly help enhance your guitar sound, creating a song with a lot more variance and uniqueness! But what’s actually out there? And what can they do for your guitar sound?
A Foot Pedal is kind of like a small processor that provides you with different facilities and effects. It has a record option, and also contains some other facilities like multiply, insert, mute, undo, etc.
One commonly used foot pedal is a Footswitch. A footswitch is a gazette that can help you control the selection of loops. As well as this, it gives you a hands free comfort to change the modes. It’s got an option which gives you the ability to start and stop it automatically, if you want to of course. It also provides you with the system to record automatically.
A remote control pedal is basically a more advanced version of conventional pedals. They have some unique facilities which can often make playing a lot more comfortable and enjoyable. It also only has one pedal which can fulfil the major functions of to amplifier foot switches. This is a fantastic tool allowing a more fluid sound due to less foot pedals to worry about!
A lesser used pedal is a mini amp and distortion. This has a very powerful inbuilt speaker in the pedal. After the amp is attached, it then becomes a very strong distortion box. Generally, this has come to mean everything from smooth tube overdrive to all manner of nasty, dirty, "my amp is exploding" tones and "scooped mids" pedals for death metal madness.
Wah pedals, once described as ‘war toys’ by critics, tends to yo-yo in and out of fashion when it comes to guitar sound enhancement. The best way to describe this effect is that it sounds as if the guitar is saying "wah-wah" as the guitarist moves his foot back and forth. Jimi Hendrix in the late 60's and funk music in the 70's made this effect famous. Using a Wah pedal can give some truly intense guitar solos, and it’s definately worth experimenting with your Wah pedal, to see where it works best for you.
One pedal a lot of new guitarists raise an eyebrow to is a Flanger Pedal. The earliest "flanger" effects were produced by playing back the same sound on multiple tape decks, while the engineer used a finger on the tape reel's edge (or flange) to speed up or slow down the duplicate signal. The effect was eventually duplicated using advanced digital delays set to extremely short delay times, and inverting the signal’s phase. Flangers can enhance your guitar sound by achieving the double affect, and offering adjustable vibrato rate, effect depth and resonance controls.
Chorus pedals give you a thick and lush sound by duplicating your original sound; adding some delay to it and then mixing it back with your original signal. This ends up making your guitar sound like "chorus of guitars". Chorus pedals are widely used, as they can practically double the amount of guitars you hear on the track, without having to physically double the guitars used in your band!
A volume pedal does exactly what it says on the tin. It raises and lowers the volume. You can tip the pedal backwards and forwards with their foot. A volume pedal can lend some dynamic range to the guitar which it usually doesn’t have, this can greatly enhance expressiveness.
This is just a small fraction of the effects that are available to you, the best tip I can give is to study your own guitar sound, or do a little research into some of your favorite guitar players and find out what effects they use. For example if you were into hard rock or heavy metal, it would be a good idea to start off with a distortion pedal. Good luck, and rock on!
A Foot Pedal is kind of like a small processor that provides you with different facilities and effects. It has a record option, and also contains some other facilities like multiply, insert, mute, undo, etc.
One commonly used foot pedal is a Footswitch. A footswitch is a gazette that can help you control the selection of loops. As well as this, it gives you a hands free comfort to change the modes. It’s got an option which gives you the ability to start and stop it automatically, if you want to of course. It also provides you with the system to record automatically.
A remote control pedal is basically a more advanced version of conventional pedals. They have some unique facilities which can often make playing a lot more comfortable and enjoyable. It also only has one pedal which can fulfil the major functions of to amplifier foot switches. This is a fantastic tool allowing a more fluid sound due to less foot pedals to worry about!
A lesser used pedal is a mini amp and distortion. This has a very powerful inbuilt speaker in the pedal. After the amp is attached, it then becomes a very strong distortion box. Generally, this has come to mean everything from smooth tube overdrive to all manner of nasty, dirty, "my amp is exploding" tones and "scooped mids" pedals for death metal madness.
Wah pedals, once described as ‘war toys’ by critics, tends to yo-yo in and out of fashion when it comes to guitar sound enhancement. The best way to describe this effect is that it sounds as if the guitar is saying "wah-wah" as the guitarist moves his foot back and forth. Jimi Hendrix in the late 60's and funk music in the 70's made this effect famous. Using a Wah pedal can give some truly intense guitar solos, and it’s definately worth experimenting with your Wah pedal, to see where it works best for you.
One pedal a lot of new guitarists raise an eyebrow to is a Flanger Pedal. The earliest "flanger" effects were produced by playing back the same sound on multiple tape decks, while the engineer used a finger on the tape reel's edge (or flange) to speed up or slow down the duplicate signal. The effect was eventually duplicated using advanced digital delays set to extremely short delay times, and inverting the signal’s phase. Flangers can enhance your guitar sound by achieving the double affect, and offering adjustable vibrato rate, effect depth and resonance controls.
Chorus pedals give you a thick and lush sound by duplicating your original sound; adding some delay to it and then mixing it back with your original signal. This ends up making your guitar sound like "chorus of guitars". Chorus pedals are widely used, as they can practically double the amount of guitars you hear on the track, without having to physically double the guitars used in your band!
A volume pedal does exactly what it says on the tin. It raises and lowers the volume. You can tip the pedal backwards and forwards with their foot. A volume pedal can lend some dynamic range to the guitar which it usually doesn’t have, this can greatly enhance expressiveness.
This is just a small fraction of the effects that are available to you, the best tip I can give is to study your own guitar sound, or do a little research into some of your favorite guitar players and find out what effects they use. For example if you were into hard rock or heavy metal, it would be a good idea to start off with a distortion pedal. Good luck, and rock on!
| Get a free hit counter here. |