Getting the Best Electric Guitar Pedal for You

Guitar pedal, otherwise known as stomp-box guitar effect is a sort of a block effect that is controlled by the musician. Usually, guitar pedals are placed on the floor and are operated with the musician’s foot, hence the name pedal.

The role of the electric guitar pedals is to change the electric signal that is coming from the instrument. That way, the one who’s playing the guitar can control the “color” of the tone that they’re producing. In most cases, pedals are used for electric guitars of all kinds, including bass guitars. However, some artists use pedals for acoustic instruments.

Knowing what kind of guitar pedal to get is impossible without knowing more about separate pedal types. In the following article, we will provide you with the essential tips on how to choose the best of every type of guitar pedals.

Boost Pedal

For those just starting to play guitar, our number one recommendation is boost pedal. This type covers so many things, making it the most useful sort of guitar pedals. In layman terms, the boost pedal will enhance the signal coming from your guitar. So, if you have a low-output piece, you can aliment it by getting a high-quality boost pedal.

Noise Gate

This is another great type of pedal if your electric guitar is not of a super quality. The noise gate pedal eliminates every bit of murmur in the signal. Gate expands the signal, making quiet sounds even quieter. Because of that, this pedal is also called the expander.

Compressor

Compressor will stabilize the signal, eliminating levels that are too high, but also those that are too low. This type of electric guitar pedal is almost mandatory when it comes to playing electric bass guitar. The reason why most bass guitars require compressor is the big difference in the thickness of the wires.

A good compressor will make the sound of your guitar better when performing live, while it is compulsory for recording. MXR Dyna Comp, Boss CS-3, and Keeley Compressor are probably the best compressors on the market.

Delay

If you are a beginner, you are likely to use delay pedal mostly for creating echo. However, there is much more to this kind of electric guitar pedal. Usually, there are two knobs on the pedal. The first one is “time” and the other is “repeats”. The first one will increase or decrease the time interval between two repeats, while the later one will set how many individual echoes are heard. Again, MRX is the leader when it comes to pedals and their Carbon Copy model should cover all of guitarist’s needs.

Octave

By pressing the button on the octave pedal, you can either raise or lower the pitch by an octave. That can make a huge difference on how your guitar sounds. By adjusting the octave levels, you can make your guitar sound deep and huge, or create a fiery, piercing sound. You can check out how octave pedal works if you listen to music of Tom Morello, for example.

Fuzz

The popularity of this type of pedal reached its peak in the late sixties, when it was extensively used by Jimmy Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Fuzz boxes can be used to produce a higher distortion sound, thus changing the sound of the amp. In order to avoid that, you can get yourself a better fuzz box, which should come with a sonic makeup. One of those is certainly the Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff.

Reverb

Because reverb is essential these days, this type is often included in the amp. However, if your amp doesn’t have it, you ought to buy one. Reverb is used to create a feeling of a large space in which the sound source is located. Back in the golden days of rock’n’roll, mechanical reverbs were used, while these days, you can get a high-quality digital reverb.

Chorus

As its name implies, this guitar pedal simulates the effect that chorus produces. It introduces the variations in time and the frequency into the original signal, thus creating the feel that there are multiple musical instruments involved.

Phaser

This type of pedal can be used for a variety of things. For example, Eddie Van Halen famously used it for his solos, while funk musicians use it to produce bright rhythm sound. The reason why phaser is used in different genres is that this type of pedal makes a change in frequencies. It changes the phase of the signal and produces a mix, in which some frequencies are stronger than before, some weaker.

Wah-Wah

Wah-Wah pedal is a potentiometer that determines how much a certain range will be heard, thus producing a “wah-wah” effect. This type of electric guitar pedal is very popular among those musicians that play long solos.

Flanger

You can produce an effect similar to jet engine or a space ship by using a flanger pedal. This pedal mixes two signals, one of which is delayed a bit. That creates a unique sound of your instrument, making it seem like you’re playing a cross between a guitar and a synthesizer.

 Equalizer

Equalizer might be the best recommendation as it should satisfy all the needs of an average guitar player. Basically, equalizer is made of several frequency filters. Depending on the quality of equalizer, the guitarist can shape the signal their piece is producing to perfection.

Conclusion

There are so many factors to count for when choosing a guitar pedal. In fact, there isn’t a definite answer to the question which guitar pedal is the best. It all depends on the genre of the music you’re playing, but also on whether you’re an amateur or a pro.

To be clear – you won’t be wrong whichever pedal from this list you choose, but some may work better for you than other. For beginners, it’s probably best to go with universal pedals, which can be used for all sorts of things in all kinds of genres. Those include the boost pedal and the equalizer.

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