From open-mic night performers all the way up to arena-filling rock stars, every guitarist loves and relies on their pedals – and in this bookazine, we explain how to get the best from your effects, build your own pedalboard, power your board and more. Also inside, we'll take a look at the rigs of some of the world's greatest guitarists, and provide you with a guide to some of the best pedal options on the market today.
The Guitarist’s Guide to Effects Pedals
Welcome to the Guitarist Guide To Effects Pedals
THE FX EVOLUTION • The search for the perfect sound has taken guitar-kind from the primordial swamps of the first motorised vibrato to the technological skyscrapers of digital ‘perfection’. As we stand at the crossroads, with some manufacturers harking back to a glorious past and others pressing ever onward, we chart the unstoppable rise of the stompbox
THE 50 GREATEST EFFECTED GUITAR SOUNDS • Clever use of a stompbox can transform even the most ordinary guitar part into a classic. Here’s our pick of 50 of the most imaginative, memorable and exciting uses of guitar effects on record…
EFFECTS EXPLAINED • For newcomers to the wonders of effects pedals, the jargon used to describe them, the sometimes obscure differences between them and even the sheer range on offer can be confusing. Here, we examine each of the main types of effects in turn, and explain what they sound like and the basics of how they work – plus, we offer some buying pointers for different budgets. Time to get stomping…
Overdrive • The singing tone of an amplifier on the edge of breakup… in a box
Distortion • The snarling, aggressive bite that gives rock and metal its edge
Fuzz • The 1960s effect that launched a thousand riffs is still going strong
Boost • Louder is obviously better – but it’s not as straightforward as it seems
Compression • Compression is the great leveller – quite literally!
Wah • This expressive filter effect is why pedals are called pedals
EQ • Bass, middle, treble and everything in between
Talk Box • Tube in the mouth, pedal on the floor. We should talk…
Chorus • The smooth shimmer effect that adds width to your tone
Phaser • A psychedelic bath of trippy modulation
Flanger • Is your sound ready to take off to jet-like altitude?
Vibrato • How about some wobbling fluctuations in pitch?
Tremolo • Throbbing or choppy, this is about volume ups and downs
Rotary Speaker • The rotating-speaker organ effect that was hijacked by guitarists
UniVibe • The king of vintage modulation pedals, as used by Jimi
Reverb • This quintessential guitar effect adds warmth, space, character and class
Octave • Jimi liked his up, others like them down. Why not have both?
Ring Modulation • Because sometimes you just have to sound like a robot
Pitch Shifter • Shift and glide a note impossibly high or low, or create harmony parts
Tape Echo • The lustre of slowly decaying repeats, the analogue warmth…
Delay • Analogue and digital delays will keep you coming back, time and again
PERFECT PEDALBOARD • Here’s what you need to consider to get your pedals to play nicely together on your ’board. Plus, FX-pert Daniel Steinhardt explains the ins and outs of five high-performance pedal layouts
STANDARD LAYOUT • Our first pedalboard layout is a good place to start if you’re after a general-purpose ’board with a bit of everything – from wah to delay – while flattering the tone of each pedal
MULTI-OVERDRIVE LAYOUT • What’s the best way to arrange your pedals if you want more than one overdrive? We find out how to stack gain without the pain…
FUZZ-FIRST LAYOUT...