Guitar Effects

When you are creating music with your guitar, be it in the studio, your bedroom or at a rehearsal, you may find yourself looking to add something more to your sound.  A widespread ingredient to add more flavour to your playing would be the use of guitar effects.

Effects can add a whole host of dynamics to your playing and also allow you to get more out of your instrument, as well as being fun to use and experiment with!

In this short blog post, we will break down a few of the more commonly used guitar effects briefly detailing what they do as well as where you might have heard them before!

Chorus: This effect creates the illusion of two guitars playing the same tune, similar to double tracking. It can fatten up a sound and sounds absolutely amazing when used correctly. For a good example of Chorus, have a listen to Andy Summers, of The Police, who actually had a customised chorus switch built into his guitar.

Distortion: Originating from the sound of a valve amp being pushed to its limits, distortion adds a very aggressive and ‘fuzzy’ tone to your sound which can range from a slightly distorted sound with a lot of warmth to full-on heavy metal sounding tones!

Delay: Evolving from the days of Tape recording, Delay will repeat a played note. With the advance of digital technology, you can have a great deal of control over your delay, from the number of repeats to the decay of the sound, although a lot of older players regard old Tape delay units as the Holy Grail of the effect. Famously used by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, the effect is instantly recognisable on most of his solos.

Reverb: Reverb is the effect of a slight echo or ‘space’ around the sound. Different to Delay which repeats, Reverbs add a live quality to the sound of your instrument. Immensely popular amongst musicians who like a nice clean sound, it can really make your tone pop!

If you would like to browse our range of Guitar Pedals, click here or you can come into any of our UK stores and browse around and really have a feel for it yourself!