Guitars & Basses » Effects

Effect pedals are essential for the guitarist who wants to find a unique and personal sound. How do you choose from the so many guitar pedals? Find out about all the models and their features. So, will you prefer an Overdrive, Distortion or Fuzz pedal?

Saturation pedals: Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz

The Overdrive effect reproduces the overall sound of a tube amp in saturation. It will tend to add texture and gain to your sound. If you want a heavier, more powerful sound, the Distortion pedal is the answer. It's the aggressive version of the Overdrive, providing over-saturation and over-compression, a must for rock and metal guitarists. As for the Fuzz effect, its sound moves away from that of the tube amp to offer a more granular and thicker sound.

Modulation pedals: Chorus, Flanger and Phaser

The purpose of these effect pedals is to shape your sound and add depth to it.

• The Chorus effect will, as the name suggests, create a choir-like effect. You will have the feeling of hearing several guitars at once while only one guitarist is playing. This pedal will thicken the sound and add harmonic richness.
• Flanger pedals will double the original signal, delay it slightly, and feed it back with delay modulation. Frequently played by psychedelic rock bands, this effect pedal creates a very distinctive swirling sound. 
• Similar to the Flanger, the Phaser pedal is more subtle in its action on the signal. It plays on variable frequency filters.
• The Delay pedal will, as its name indicates, double the original guitar signal and repeat it with a more or less important delay that can be adjusted, as well as its intensity.
• The Reverb effect allows to give amplitude to the sound and to find the atmosphere of a more or less large space. The Reverb pedal works in a similar way to the Delay pedal, except that the original signal and the delayed signal are no longer separate, but are combined.
• The Tremolo pedal offers the possibility to vary the volume of the note or chord played. It will give a slightly trembling sound like the tremolo of the voice. Depending on the pedal you can vary the speed, depth and length of the tremolo.
• With the Looper, you can record a riff, a chord progression, from a few seconds to several minutes and play it in a loop, allowing you to play over it, and stack the layers almost endlessly. This pedal is very effective for practicing, doubling guitar parts and working on solos..
• Finally, the Equalizer pedal allows you to redefine and sculpt the sound to your liking by managing the highs, mids and lows or by frequency band.

And you, what effect do you want to bring to your playing? Check out all of our guitar pedals.