Blind-Summit
THE GUITAR PLAYERS COMMUNITY

Know Your Effects

This article aims to help differentiate between your different effects units. How many of you often use distortion and overdrive indifferently? Ever since the magnetic pickup was placed onto a guitar, players have sought ways to alter the source to give new and interesting sounds.

Imagine Jimi Hendrix without fuzz, The Edge without delay or Dick Dale without reverb - these players have a trademark sound created through the use of a variety of these effects units.

Guitar pedals offer a variety of interesting sounds and this can be increased to a staggering size by combining the effects of more then 1 pedal together. This article is a brief look at the generalised groups. Because of the advances in technology, and the many different electronic components available today - a phaser made by one company will most certainly have a different properties to that of another manufacturer.

Boost & Distortion

The first, and probably most common effects units are boost and distortion. Here are a small selection of units:

Gibson Maestro Fuzztone	Colorsound Tonebender	Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
Ibanez Overdrive	Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer	Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer

These pedals overdrive your amplifier with a boosting circuit, or provide distortion or fuzz without adjusting the pitch. The valves inside tube amps could provide this effect naturally at higher volumes. By cranking up the amp, the tube would warm up and the electrical properties would change creating a natural distortion. When players required these effects without having to blow out their ears, manufacturers began to create special units to recreate these sonic qualities.

The Gibson Maestro Fuzztone was arguably the first commercially produced fuzz guitar pedal. This unit was allegedly the one used by Keith Richards to create the sound on ‘Satisfaction’. The Gibson pedal features a volume knob to control the level of the pedal, and an attack knob to alter the amount of distortion.

The Tonebender was first produced by a company called "Sola Sound" before being renamed to Colorsound. This unit was used by Jeff Beck, and has three controls; a volume control, a tone control, and a fuzz control. The fuzz is essentially the same as the attack knob of the Gibson model.

A more commonly known pedal is the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. This was first produced in the late 60s and has been restyled 4 times. The third version is most common, and it’s this model that has been re-released. It features a volume, tone, and sustain control knob. The first two controls are as with the previous units. The sustain is also similar - the level of distortion effects the sustain. The late 70’s version featured a compression control (compression discussed later on). This unit is mean and created a dense fuzz!

The last 3 pedals are produced by the Japanese company Ibanez. Better known for their electric guitars, they began to produce pedals in the early 70s. The first was produced by the Maxon company and was called the "Ibanez Distortion". Like most fuzz pedals, this had a volume, tone, and distortion control knob. This pedal began to evolve and later became the renown TS-808 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro as use by Stevie Ray Vaughan. The unit produces a smooth overdrive recreating the natural tube overdrive. The 808 has been succeeded by the TS9 model as of the early 80s.

The Dallas/Arbiter Fuzz Face was introduced around the mid 60’s and gets it’s name from the design of the pedal. This unit has just a volume and fuzz control, and because of this is really is a pure fuzz effects pedal. The more the volume is increased, the more the fuzz breaks up and compresses. This unit was used by Jimi Hendrix although he did also use the Big Muff pedal.

Boss OD-1 Overdrive

The first series of small case pedals, that we see so frequently today, also came from Japan. The Boss OD-1 overdrive is a compact and great sounding little unit used by Pete Townshend. This again has just the two controls: Level, which was previously termed volume, and the overdrive control.

Compression Effects

These units amplify any sound above a given level to add sustain and squash to the sound and also boost lower volume levels. This unit allows you to maintain a constant volume level by adding sustain and definition to jangly arpeggiated chords and adding a little warmth to cutting lead lines.

MXR Dynacomp	Ross Compressor	Edward the Compressor

One of the most well know is the MXR Dynacomp. This has been around for many years and features two controls: A volume, and a sensitivity control to alter the amount of effect. It can be used as a simple booster if the volume is set to high, and the sensitivity is set low.

The Ross compression from the early 80s has been regarded as an improvement over the Dynacomp. This unit is hard to find and features two controls to alter sustain (the amount of compression) and the level. It has been used by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio.

Compressors are often misunderstood and as such, do not feature with guitarists effects collections. Marshall have however, introduced "Eddy the Compressor" in their recent (ish) spread of stomp boxes. It carries more controls that other compressors with a knob for emphasis, volume, attack, and compression.

Modulation Effects

Covering many more commonly used terms, modulation is the effect of altering all or part of the pitch of the original sound. Some examples are chorus, flanger, phaser and octave effects.

In early days, a chorus effect was close to that of a vibrato, which is the modulation of pitch upwards and downwards of a note.  Massive rotating speaker cabinets as produced by Leslie tried to better create this effect. Later on, Uni-Vox’s created a better, more compact version in the form of the Uni Vibe. This unit has a selector switch to change between the chorus or vibrato effects, and a footswitch to control the rate. This unit was used by Jimi Hendrix on "Machine Gun" and "Star Spangled Banner" to produce the whooshing sound.

Advances in technology have allowed these bulky units to be replaced with smaller "stomp boxes". They achieve the same effect by splitting the sound and modulating the pitch of one part slightly in relation to the original. When the sound is blended back together, a multi-voiced sound is produced.

Boss CE-1 Chorus	Boss CE-5 Chorus

Boss started to make pedals in the late 70s in large metal boxes. An example being the CE-1 chorus / vibrato as used by artists ranging from Lenny Kravitz to the late Dimebag Darrell. The unit was replaced with the CE-2 version.

Small Stone Original		Small Stone Re-Issue
MXR Phase 45	MXR Phase 90	MXR Phase 100

Phaser pedals appeared slightly before modern style chorus and flanger pedals. They recreate the tape based effect of two tracks played very slightly out of sync with each other.

Electro-Harmonix Introduced the Small Stone in the early 70s and has a colour switch to add more depth to the effect as well as a speed control to adjust the phasing rate.

When MXR introduced the 45, 90, and 100 phaser units - they were an instant hit - the 90 being used by the Clash on the London Calling album.

Electric Mistress Deluxe	Electric Mistress	Ibanez Flanger
MXR Flanger	Ibanez FL-301	Ibanez FL-303

The Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress (what a name!) is described (on it’s case) as being a Filter / Flanger Matrix and sounds like no other pedal. It has three knobs to control rate (of the flanging), range (the distance the flange moves) and colour to control the amount of effect.

MXR’s Flanger has four controls as with the FL9 however "delay time" was named "Manual".

Ibanez made a host of flangers from the 70s onwards, such as the FL-305, the FL-303, and the FL-301 which comes from the same series as the TS-808 Tube Screamer overdrive.

MXR Blue Box	Boss OC-2 Octivider

Octave dividers add a sound one or two octaves below that of the note played. The MXR bluebox has a control to blend the amount of dry (original signal) and effect (the lowered note).

Time-Based Effects

Time based units recreate the original sound without altering the tone or pitch and include delay, tremolo, and reverb. Delay is a widely used effect and simply repeats the original signal at a controlled rate and set number of repeats.

The first models used a moving tape and recorded and played back the sound with different tape heads. The further away the tape head from that of the recording head - the longer the delay. Analogue systems could typically produce a 500 millisecond delay, whereas digital version can produce several seconds of delay.

Boss DM-2 Delay	Boss DD-5 Delay	Electro-Harmonix Memory Man

As with previous effects, Boss also brought out a line of pedals. The early DM-2 and DM-3 analogue units now replaced with digital versions such as the DD-3 and DD-5. The DM-2 having three controls for repeat time between the original and delay, intensity for the amount of effect, and Echo for the number of repeats. The DD3 improves on this with longer available delay times, and four controls to alter the feedback, delay, time, and hold. Hold is used to set the initial delay time from the signal to the first repeat.

MXR, Ibanez and Electro-Harmonix all made delay units - Electro Harmonics producing the Memory Man as used by ‘The Edge’. This unit has been reissued and features three controls for Blend (the ration of signal and effect), Feedback, and Delay.

Selmer Tremolo	Boss PN-2 Tremolo	Nobels TR-X Tremolo

Tremolo is a favourite amongst many players, but if often confused with vibrato. Vibrato as explained earlier is the alteration in pitch of a note in a rhythmic way, whereas tremolo is the alteration of volume of a note - also in a rhythmic way. The Boss PN-2 is no longer in production, can be used as a straight out tremolo unit, or the pan feature allows sound to be moved between the left and right field. It had controls to alter the rate, depth of effect, and a mode control. Four modes were available (two tremolo and two panning). The Boss TR2 pedal has replaced the PN-2 but does not feature the pan facility

Nobels TR-X Tremolo has four controls to set Depth, Speed, Tone, and Level as well as a four way switch to set the hardness and shape of the tremolo effect.

EQ-Based Effects

An EQ based effect alters the frequency of a signal’s range and includes EQs and Wah pedals.

Vox Wah	Colorsound Wah-Wah	Dunlop Cry Baby

The Wah pedal is in concept, a very simple device, yet it provides the player with some pretty unique effects. Essentially it is a potentiometer that alters the tone of the signal -almost identical to the tone control of the guitar itself. The Wah allows a greater range of effect however, and also lets the play keep both hands on the guitar.

Colorsound added a fuzz effect in their Wah pedal, and this was activated via a second switch.

The Boss T/Wah was a big success in the 80s. It is a sensitive unit with three controls for Sensitivity and Peak (to set the amount of effect, and the range) and a Drive setting to switch between presets. This has now been replaced with the Boss Auto-Wah.

MXR Envelope Filter	Mu-Tron III	Ibanez AF201 Auto Filter
Electro-Harmonix Dr. Q	Electro-Harmonix Queen Triggered Wah

Many players consider the Mu-Tron III to be one of the best sounding envelope filters around. It has three knobs for Mode, Peak, and Gain. It also has three switches for power, one for drive, and one for range.

The AF201 by Ibanez had three switches (two for mode, one range) and had two slider controls for Sensitivity and Peak. The unit has been superseded by the AF-9.

Electro-Harmonix manufactured the Dr. Q envelope filter along with a deluxe version - The Zipper. Dr. Q had a slide switch to augment the bass response and a "Q" know to control the range of the effect. The Zipper had a switch for a high or low range, and a Range control to alter the coverage of the sweep and again a "Q" control for sensitivity.

MXR made their envelope filter in the late 70s and has since been re-issued.

One of the rarer Electro-Harmonix pedals is the Queen Triggered Wah. The unit can be used as a standard Wah pedal, or an envelope filter / auto-wah. The unique factor here is the use of the footswitch in the auto-wah setting. The position of the foot switch will determine the tonal range - fully upright accesses the lower registers, and vice versa for the fully depressed position.

A new take on this Wah effect is known as the Auto Yah. It essentially follows the style of a standard Wah pedal but instead of the "wah-wah" sound, it produces more of a vocal quality. I believe Slash used it on Live In Tokyo guring a guitar solo.

The Shinei Siren / Hurricane effect pedal

One final effect shown above is the Siren / Hurrican effect from the Japanese company Shinei. This is a truly bizarre pedal allowing for white noise, pink noise, or even a police siren!

Multi Effects

Does exactly what is says on the tin. These units combine many of the above effects into one single unit and usually offer a very wide range of controls or settings to achieve the maximum number of signal effects as possible. These seem a recent invention, however they were around in the early 60s. The only real difference is the models we know today are constructed from modern electronics.

The greatest popularity has been with multi-effects pedals or "floor boards". These combine the processing power of rack mount units but in a portable fashion without the need for huge bundles of cables. They also allow instant effect or parameter changes through one or more foot switches or a foot pedal.

Most of the big names like Zoom, Boos, Korg, and Digitech have released a multi-effects pedal.

Zoom GFX-4

The Zoom GFX707 offers capabilities that some 10 years ago would have sounded impossible - up to 9 simultaneous effects, multiples user and factory presets as well as an inbuilt drum machine.

Boss GT-3

Many guitarists prefer the old vintage sound of analogue effects boxes. This may be good for the purists, but they do have disadvantages. Analogue effects are noisy and when stringing more then one together - they can produce a lot of hiss or white noise. As well as that - to cover the range of modern day units such as the Boss GT-3 you would have to chain an unimaginably long amount of stomp boxes together.

Johnson J Station

As a final word, this article has covered just a very small selection of the products on today’s (and yesteryear’s) market. If you are looking to buy, or in some cases, invest in an effects unit - then the old try before you buy rule is a must.

I hope to add some media plug-ins to the page to give examples of the different effects in action - these will follow shortly.