Using Guitar Effects

Guitarists are able to alter the signals of their electric guitars into a variety of sounds by using guitar effects. In modern times, guitar effects had evolved into a complex variety for sounds (distortion, chorus, delay, flanger, reverb, wah, phase shift……..etc). Typically, guitar effects are housed into small effects pedals which are placed on the ground and activated when the guitarists steps onto them.

Using guitar effects has been made easier with the multi effects pedals available in the market. Most of these units can be pre-programmable to store different chains of effects settings. This is particularly useful if you are playing live and if you would be able to recall the settings with the flick of your footswitch (instead of squatting down to tune the settings on individual pedals). One of the most powerful multi effects pedals is the BOSS GT-10. Take a look at the video demo.

On the other hand, the advantage of using many single effects pedals is that you are able to choose the best effects units of your choice across many different brands. This is as opposed to using a multi-effects pedal whereby you are stuck to what you get in the bundle. So prior to purchasing effects, you should have a clear mind of what you want.

In this lesson, I am basically going to introduce 3 of the most commonly used guitar effects ( Distortion, chorus and delay) in electric guitar playing.

Distortion

Guitar distortion effects can be found in all kinds of music. On a typical distortion effects pedal, you will see the following knobs.

Drive (aka Gain or Distortion) – This setting controls the amount of distortion. If you are playing lead or heavier songs, you should set this higher. On the other hand, if you are playing rhythm or blues, this knob should be set lower. Otherwise, you’ll get a poorly defined sound.

Tone   (aka EQ) – Lets you determine the treble content and modify the tone of the sound.

Level   – Sets the final output volume of the effect. 

Chorus Effects

EQ – Controls the tone of chorused sound

Level – Controls the volume and amount of the chorus effect. 

Rate (aka Speed) – The rate refers to the speed at which the pitch variation takes place. Play around with the knobs and hear for yourself how the effects changes.

Depth – The depth refers to how “off-tune” and the degree of swelling effect you want for the chorus effect. Lower settings are preferred for rhythm playing. For clean plucking of strings, you may want to try a higher depth.

Digital Delay

On a typical delay pedal, you would see the following:

Level – Controls the volume and amount of the delay effect. 

Time  – Sets the time before the delayed sound is heard. The typical values are from 300milliseconds to about 2 seconds. Be careful with this setting as it might throw your delayed sound off with the timing of the band. If you use very small values from 15-35 milliseconds, you probably get a choruslike sound effect. The best gauge is to hear the sound and play it out for yourself.

Feedback  - This knob sets the number of repeats for the effect. I do not recommend setting this value very high unless you want your music to go into an endless loop of repeats.

Guitar Effects Order

There were some queries from some of you guys on how to determine the effects order. Let me give you a brief guideline for placing your effects order.

1) Filter effects (e.g.: Compressor, EQ, Wah-wah)

2) Distortion

3) Pitch Modulation Effects (e.g.: Chorus, Flanger)

4) Echo Effects (e.g. Delay, Reverb)

There are no hard and fast rules for the order of effects. If you jumble up the order of effects, use your ears as a judge to determine whether it works out or not.

Guitar effects are really fun and cool to play with. One last piece of advice I have for you is to go easy on using guitar effects. If you want a prolonged use of an effect, you should use very “light” effects. To create a short and impactful sound, you should use intense effects (such as heavily delay or chorused sounds) very briefly.