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In the mid-60s, the sound of the electric guitar changed due to the influence of young rock musicians, above all Jimi Hendrix. Before that, electric guitars were only amplified to keep up with the volume of bands and orchestras. With rock'n'roll, a new sound aesthetic developed: a compressed and distorted sound of a hard-working tube amplifier was specifically used here. For many musicians, the crunch and overdrive behaviour of the guitar amplifier was not enough and so the distortion pedal was one of the first external effects to be used at all. In his time, Mr. Hendrix already had a whole range of effects, such as a Fuzzface distortion, Univibe Phaser/Pitch-Shifter/Leslie, Cry-Baby Wah-Wah pedal and Dunlop Octavio, which we can still find on many a guitar "stress board" today. In addition to overdrive and wah effects, effect pedals for delay/echo and modulation effects such as chorus/flanger or a phaser pedal definitely belong to the standard.
In the meantime, the effects market has developed in many different directions: The classic "floor pedal", which serves a specific effects category, is nowadays available from established suppliers such as Boss, Yamaha, Ibanez, MXR, T.C. Electronic or Electro-Harmonix, as well as from many small manufacturers, some of whom even produce their high-quality guitar effects by hand. In addition, various manufacturers such as Mooer, Fame, Ibanez, MXR or Hotone now have miniature pedals in their range, which often only need half the space on the effects board for the same performance. Of course, there are also many different effects pedals for bass guitar. In contrast to an effects pedal for guitar, the effects pedal for bass works in a different frequency range. Often, the low frequencies from the bass pass through the effect unprocessed, so that the bass sound retains its punch despite being influenced by the effect pedal. Effects pedals are also used in a wide variety of areas - you can find an overview here.
From a technical point of view, guitar effects modify the original signal of the electric guitar, e.g. by overdriving, delaying or modulating, to name the most important disciplines of effects pedals. With these quite simple techniques of signal processing, however, a huge range of the most common guitar effects can already be realised: Fuzz, distortion or overdrive pedals are among the absolute classics and are based on the processing principle of signal overdrive. Delay, echo and reverb are not the only effects that make use of the time offset caused by the signal delay - as you would think - but also chorus, flanger and phaser effects - only these work with much shorter delay times. The cyclic modulation of the delay time then creates the famous beats that produce the rich, full sound of a chorus effect. A classic modulation effect that is not only popular with guitars is, for example, a dynamic filter like the one used in the wah effect - the centre frequency of a bandpass filter is controlled dynamically via the expression pedal. With most effect pedals, the modulated signal can be mixed with the original signal of the electric guitar via a MIX control. Classic effect pedals of the 60s and 70s are built in analogue technology. With the advent of the DSP (Digital Signal Processor) towards the end of the 80s, new forms of guitar effect pedals developed. Digital modulation effects, loopers, pitch shifters, delays with long echo times and, of course, multi-effects units as floorboards that can emulate all effects of the signal chain, stompboxes, amplifiers and microphone recording are now available in a wide variety of versions.
Today, the FX selection for guitar is sheer overwhelming. Besides the classics distortion, chorus and echo and wah pedal, the guitarist can find every conceivable type of guitar effect, be it in classic analogue or modern digital design. One of the effects specialists of the first hour, Electro Harmonix, whose "Big Muff" distortion and "Small Stone" phaser already achieved cult status in the 70s, is today one of the most innovative manufacturers on the market. In addition to the classics mentioned above, you will find such unusual items as the B9 Organ Machine, the 4-track Multi-Track Looping Recorder 45000 or the Microsynth guitar synthesiser.
Once you have more than three floor effects, the desire for a practical solution for cabling, power supply and transport of your effects pedal arsenal quickly arises. The Guitar Shop in the MUSIC STORE carries a well-assorted selection of suitable accessories such as pedal boards for guitar in various sizes, power supply solutions for several guitar effects, short patch cables with angled plugs, fasteners, or loop switchers for managing effects chains. There are also specially designed effect units for the special requirements of the acoustic guitar, which offer high-quality modulation effects, reverb and suitably designed equalisers instead of distortion.
