Effects Pedals & Stomp Boxes - Learn What they Sound Like
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Effects pedals are signal processors that contain one effect. They are designed to be placed on the floor and switched on and off with the player's foot. The sound quality of the individual effects ranges from bad to very good with price almost always being the determining factor. The advantage to using pedal effects is that they require no programming, and are very convenient to set up. Click on a pedal below to hear the effect it produces.

overdrive

distortion

chorus

delay

Overdrive is an effect which uses a preamp to overdrive an input control resulting in soft clipping or distortion. Technically, all distortion is created as a result of overdriving a circuit. Distortion, in the effect world, is more aggressive than traditional overdrive. Chorus is a time delay effect which enhances richness similar to that of a 12 string guitar. It's a subtle effect that nearly every guitar player should have. Delay produces an echo. It can be either very quick or long enough to play back entire phrases.

flanger

phaser

octave

auto-wah

Flangers produce a time delay effect that is more aggressive than that produced by Chorus.

Phasers produce an effect similar to a Wah, but which cycles at specific intervals. It's not a wah, but is appropriate in many of the same playing situations.

Octave is a pitch shift effect which adds ads a second note one octave below the original. Some produce more than one octave.

Auto Wah produces a wah effect (ALA Hendrix) which is responsive to how hard notes are played. It is also called an envelope filter.

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