The continuation of The Backdoor Guitar Guru’s education on guitar effects; and for those of you that couldn’t catch the first installment you can read it by clicking here.

Pitch Benders (Pitch-based effect)

This digital effect is designed to mimic a whammy bar by manipulating a foot pedal. This is done by using a pitch shifter, where the degree of shift is controlled by the foot pedal. The pitch bend is usually set after compression and before overdrive and time-based effects.

Vibrato (Modulation effect)

This type of effect smoothly varies the pitch between slightly flat and sharp and is similar to the fingerboard technique of string bending. This effect is often confused with Tremolo, which is a volume modulation, not a pitch modulation. Modulation pedals work best when placed after compression and overdrive pedals but before time based pedals.

Flanger (Modulation effect)

Flangers mix a varying delayed signal with the original sound to produce a series of notches in the frequency response – similar to the phaser effect but with more resonance. The difference between phasers and flangers is that the flanger produces a large number of notches and the peaks between the notches are harmonically related. A phaser produces fewer notches and they are evenly spread across the frequency spectrum. This effect produces the “air plane” sound. It is best when place after compression, but before time based effects.

Chorus (Modulation effect)

The chorus effect works the same way flanging does and it has a similar sound however it uses a longer delay than flanging so the listener has a feeling of “space.” This is particularly good in stereo and there is little feedback. This effect is subtle and is usually placed after compression and overdrive.

Noise Gate ( Level/dynamics)

In simple terms, a noise gate is simply a switch that removes noise from a signal by muting the excess sound. This reduces the level of noise in the signal. Although the noise is usually masked at higher levels, since noise is at a lower level, it becomes apparent once the signal fades away. This becomes quite annoying and unappealing to the discerning ear. A gate works by fading out the signal when the level falls below a specific value, muting both signal and noise. It is usually placed after effects which produce noise, like overdrive.

Limiter (Level/dynamics)

This effect is similar to compression at high volumes but a limiter does not boost low level signals. It is used to even out peaks in a sound and is often not used in guitar setups. It is placed anywhere in a signal chain where it is needed to control peaking.

Volume Pedal (Level/dynamics)

This is a simple device which gives the user the ability to control the volume of the guitar signal with his/her foot. It is usually placed after a compressor and must always be placed before time based effects. If a volume pedal is placed after an overdrive pedal then it will only control level.

Tremolo (Modulation)

This effect produces the sound obtained if you were rapidly turning the volume knob on your guitar. Different tremolo pedals use different waveforms to modulate volume levels. Sine waves and square waves are the most common used. A sine wave produces an even, smooth effect with the volume fading in and out, whereas a square wave will produce a pulsating sound, changing volume levels abruptly. These pedals work best when place after compression and time based effects.

Panning (Modulation)

Panning is a stereo effect which moves the guitar signal from the left audio path to the right audio path. It is basically 2 tremolo effects, one for each channel; left and right. When the volume is high on one channel, it is low in the other and vice versa. This type of effect is best placed after time based effects and reverbs.

Reverb (Time based)

Reverberation is the persistence of sound heard when sound waves bounce off objects, such as walls, after the initial sound has stopped. Guitar amps often feature “spring” reverbs which use 2 or more long springs connected to 2 transducers. The first transducer makes the springs vibrate, as it acts as a speaker and the second transducer picks up the resulting sound and mixes it back with the original signal. Nowadays, various pedals offer digital reverbs with many different settings such as hall, room, studio, church and bathroom, each of which produces a different type of reverberation. Reverb is usually the last effect in a signal path and since these effects produce low noise, they should be placed after a noise gate.

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