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How To Improve The Way You Sound By Using Effects Pedals

Let's get into effects!

This is one of my favorite areas of guitar playing as I religiously plug my effects pedal in whenever I play my guitar!

Now for those of you who don't know -- effects pedals manipulate the sound of your guitar (in a good way!)

So for example if you place the effect "REVERB" on your guitar it will make it sound like you are playing in a large concert huge hall.

If you place the effect of "DELAY" on your guitar, it will constantly repeat what you play over and over.

If you place the effect of "DISTORTION" on your guitar, it will distort the sound of your guitar and make it sound either crunchy, wheezy, hard metal sounding or just rough as nails!

Now there's a million effects pedals out there, but let's cut straight to the bone here...

Firstly if you want to hear some examples of effects, check out my site over at:

http://www.guitartips.com.au/subpages/guitarlessons_4.htm  

....where I sat down and recorded a few main effects for you. Please don't ask me which pedal I used to record those sounds as I go through hundreds each year!

Now if you want to get into effects pedals, there are 2 types you can go for.

The first is a SINGLE effect pedal. They contain only 1 effect and cost usually around $50 - $150 per pedal to buy. Here's what a single effects pedal looks like... Very simple and straight forward with 4 knobs to adjust the effect, and an input and output jack. To turn the effect ON -- use your feet to press down. To turn the effect OFF -- do the same thing! The only trouble is if you want 5 or 10 pedals, you'll need to by 5 or 10 of these things and it can get expensive, not to mention connecting all these up in a line when you go to play on stage!

The second is a MULTI - EFFECTS Pedal. It's exactly what is sounds....'multi' meaning many effects in one unit.. They offer a lot more options and effect settings. Many allow you to create / combine your own effects also! These are recommended for advanced players as they can get a bit complex to operate. They also allow you to program different effects in and save them to each pedal. So during songs you can switch from one effect to another. Very hot tool.

There are slightly smaller ones that are still multi effects pedals but instead of having 4 pedals, they have 2. They are about half the size of the above image and slight cheaper also.

To check out a few effects pedals and get a rough idea on pricing, go to:

http://www.instrumentpro.com/?AID=10361899&PID=1466176

....they usually have a few great deals on as well as match other stores if you see the same thing for a cheaper price!

Bottom line -- get into effects pedals. They add spice to your playing and make you sound like a rock star -- even if you're only in your bedroom!

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