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Guitar Effects Pedals: 5 Pedals Everyone Should Own

Author: David Wilson

So, you’ve got your guitar rig, amp, and some skills under your belt. You’re looking to spice up your sound a bit with some effects, but you’re not sure what kind to get, what they do, or anything else about them for that matter. Not to worry, choosing pedals is relatively simple. There are only a few major types, and though you can get many others kinds, keeping things simple is usually the best approach. In this article, I will outline the different types of pedals available, what you can expect from them, and how to choose the best model.

First and foremost, a gooding tuner pedal is an essential accessory for any gigging musician. Sure, you might be able to tune by ear just fine under normal circumstances, but things might get a bit harder on a noisy stage. A tuner pedal cuts off the signal from your guitar (so your audience doesn’t have to hear the tuning process), and gives you visual indicators as you tune your string, allowing you to keep in perfect tune even in the most difficult of conditions. Though this isn’t an “effects pedal,” its such a key item that I still needed to mention it.

A reverb pedal is perhaps one of the best basic pedals you can get. Unless you’re fortunate enough to own an amp with high quality built in reverb, you probably don’t have a really good reverb sound available. Reverb adds a lot of depth and atmosphere to a piece of music. Of course, like many effects, it can be easily over used, but in moderation it is excellent. There are many types of reverb, ranging from high tech digital designs to really basic technologies. One of the most sought after reverb types is modeled after the spring reverb found in early Fender amplifiers. These are expensive, but they do give a very lovely vintage tone. If you’re interested in a reverb unit, be sure to listen (and play through, if possible) each pedal to see if it has a sound that suites you well.

The most commonly desired pedal by many players is the distortion pedal. A distortion pedals, as its name implies, distorts the signal from your guitar to give a distinctive sound. Of course, there are many ways of accomplishing this distortion, so every pedal has its own unique sound. It’s hard to give general guidelines for choosing a distortion pedal, since every one is completely different, but you should definitely make sure that your pedal does not sound too harsh. This harshness is a common flaw with cheaper or lower quality distortion pedals, so try to buy quality.

Another essential pedal is the delay pedal. A delay pedals plays back your guitar sample in a loop, with a given decay. It’s a little hard to explain, but if you listen to almost all songs by U2, or “Run Like Hell” by Pink Floyd, you’ll hear the effect clearly. It’s a fairly complicated effect and requires precise timing to get the repeated loops to sound in rhythm, but the final effect is worth it. Definitely a pedal to check out. One of the most important aspects of choosing the delay pedal is that it has intuitive controls. You don’t want to be fussing around with a bunch of fiddly controls on stage.

For the final pedal, I recommend getting whatever you want. This may seem like a copout on my part, but I can’t speak at all to your personal sound and style. If you’re going for a trippy sound, try a flanger. If you need a wah pedal, by all means get one. The point is, sound is very personal, and nobody else can tell you what to get. Shop around, play around, and you’re sure to get the pedal board of your dreams.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/guitar-effects-pedals-5-pedals-everyone-should-own-449354.html

About the Author

David Wilson is a musician and webmaster. He encourages you strongly to visit Guitar Effects Pedals to get great deals on guitar effects pedals, as well as read some more articles on the subject.

5 Tips For Choosing The Right Electric Guitar

Author: Al Wielder

Purchasing an electric guitar is very exciting and fun. The process can be made more efficient by following several basic guidelines and using several tips provided below.

Are you new to guitars and ready to make your first electric guitar purchase? Are you a seasoned player who owns several guitars and you find yourself adding to your guitar collection? No matter which category you find yourself in, getting the most from your instrument purchase is very important. It is also important to understand the types of electric guitars available.

The choices include:

1. Solid Body Electric Guitars
2. Hollow Body Electric Guitars
3. Semi Hollow Body Electric Guitars
4. Acoustic/Electric Guitars
5. Pedal Steel Guitars
6. Hawaiian Style Lap Guitars

Guitars, and particularly electric guitars are not created equal. There are many brands of electric guitars to choose from. Making the right choice when purchasing a guitar will depend on some basic factors, including:

1. Your particular situation

2. The specific application when using the guitar.

For example, if you are a beginner, there is little reason to consider investing several thousands of dollars into a pro level guitar such as a custom Les Paul or a Paul Reed Smith. Another example regarding a specific application would be if you are a traveling musician. Traveling guitarists may want to consider a slightly less expensive guitar to take on the road while saving their finest instrument for a studio environment. Regardless of your situation or the application, the bottom line is there are several factors to consider. Understanding your position as a potential guitar buyer will help you make the right decision and ensure that you make an informed purchase.

Here are 5 tips to help you in choosing the right electric guitar.

Tip 1. Evaluate your level of committment to the instrument and the art of music.

Before you choose your electric guitar be sure you understand the level of committment that you are prepared to invest into the instrument. Electric guitars can be expensive and understanding the level of dedication you plan to invest in the instrument should play a vital role in choosing your guitar.

Tip 2. Identify your particular application for the instrument.

If you are a beginner and just learning to play the instrument, your application will be quite different from an intermediate or advanced guitarist who is adding to their collection. Determine your particular situation and application for the guitar you will purchase. Consider whether or not you will be keeping the instrument at home or frequently traveling with it. For example, if you plan to keep the instrument at home for recreational use, you may want to consider including a less expensive case for the guitar. Road cases can be costly and will not be neccesary if you do not travel with the guitar.

Tip 3. Identify your budget and include patience regarding your guitar purchase.

Many aspiring guitarists have wandered into the local music store only to be overwhelmed by the vast choices and different price ranges of guitars. As with any purchase, pre-planning and understanding your budget is critical. Prices for electric guitars range from a few hunderd dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. If you are serious about playing the guitar, selecting your instrument will be one of the most important decisions you make. Be sure to take ample time during this stage of the process. Patience is more than a virtue when selecting your guitar.

Tip 4. Consult a professional to get tips on guitar quality and performance.

It is a good idea to take the time to visit several musical instrument dealers in your area. Retail
guitar shops will be more than happy to help you understand what to look for when buying an electric guitar. Get several opinions if you are new to guitars. Most guitar outlets will have seasoned players on staff who will be happy to impart their experience and wisdom. Ask questions. Find out what you need to consider when selecting an electric guitar. Getting several opinions in this area will shed light on the overall picture and will be very beneficial information when it comes time to buy.

Tip 5. Include additional items and training resources to help you get started playing the guitar.

Once you have made the right guitar purchase, be sure to have additional items on hand that will be vital to the process of learning. You will need an extra set of guitar strings, some extra picks, a tuner and a stand for your guitar. It is also very important to purchase some beginner books that include chord charts, guitar tab and chord progression exercises.

Learning to play the electric guitar is fun and exciting. There are few things in life that will provide the relaxation and feeling of accomplishment you can experience by becoming proficient with guitar chords, guitar tabs and guitar chord progressions. Applying the knowledge you gain from the right learning resources to your favorite style of music is very rewarding. Carefully select your electric guitar. Be sure to practice to develop skill, musical knowledge and basic music theory concepts. Apply what you learn on a daily basis and you will be amazed at the progress you will make with your new electric guitar.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/5-tips-for-choosing-the-right-electric-guitar-18604.html

About the Author
Al Wielder is a host and instructor at Riff TV. Contact Al Wielder at Riff TV.com, your source for guitar tab, guitar lessons and free video guitar training.

Guitar for Beginners – Electric of Acoustic?

Author: Dave Porter

When choosing a guitar for beginners you’re faced with the alternatives of buying an electric of an acoustic guitar. Which one is best to learn on? Which will you get more use from during your time as a guitar player? Which will cost more? These are all questions you should be asking yourself before you spend a dime on a guitar, and I’m going to help you evaluate each of those question in this article.

After reading this you’ll know which type of guitar, electric or acoustic, will be better suited to your expectations as a guitar player, budget and style of play.

Know Your Type of Music

Are you a hard rock or metal fan? Or do you prefer the quieter sounds of a singer songwriter style? This isn’t going to matter right away as you learn how to hold, tune and strum your guitar, but it is going to make a difference once your start playing chords.

For those of you who enjoy harder rock you’re going to want that gritty sound you get of a distorted over driven electric guitar. It’s the sound you enjoy, and likely the style of music you’re wanting to learn to play from your guitar lessons. It makes sense then that you’re beginner guitar be an electric with a small practice amp that has overdrive aka. Distortion capabilities.

If you’re more into the mellow sounds of todays acoustic rock & pop tunes then an acoustic guitar is definitely the way to go.

Some people make their decision only on price or what a friend tells them. How ever you can end up disappointed pretty quickly if after you begin to learn you realize you can’t play the sound you want to.

What’s your Budget?

It’s unfortunately impossible to avoid the price discussion here. In a perfect world we could all afford what ever guitar, or even two of them, that we want. Of course nothing is perfect and you must make a choice. 99% of the time hands down an acoustic guitar is less expensive for beginners. You don’t need an amp with it and you can often get a soft case thrown in.

When buying an electric you can often get the case but you should also purchase a small practice amp and patch chord to get the most out of your new instrument. Apples to apples an acoustic and electric guitar is a similar price point. The amp is what puts the electric guitar in the higher price bracket.

If you’re penny pinching to start learning guitar then an acoustic is the way to go. If you know you’re going to want to play harder music when you advance your lessons go on the cheaper side of an acoustic knowing that it’s just to start your lessons and you’ll be moving to an electric later on.

What’s Easier to Learn on?

Most teachers will tell you that an electric is easier for beginners. Why is that? Primarily because when you first start you don’t have an calluses built up on your finger tips. As you learn to play guitar you’re going to harden the ends of your finger tips from pressing down the strings. Until this happens your fingers are going to be quite sensitive and you won’t be able to play for long.

The strings on an electric guitar are lower to the neck and a lighter gage. This means easier on the fingers. Of course the because of these lighter gage strings an electric guitar not played through an amp is very flat sounding and quiet.

In contrast the strings on an acoustic guitar are a heavier gage (thicker) and are raised higher from the neck (higher action). This gives a fuller sound that’s also louder.

For a new beginner an electric will be easier to get started but after about the 3 month mark of practicing religiously you’ll be good with either or. If you start with an acoustic just consider yourself in the beginner guitar school of hard knocks. You’ll feel a bit more pain now, but your fingers will be tougher in the long run.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/guitar-for-beginners-electric-of-acoustic-1397177.html

About the Author

To get started with some award winning beginner guitar lessons visit our learn to play guitar DVD review, and for more beginner guitar tips visit our blog.

An Introduction To Learning To Play The Guitar

Author: Evert DuToit

The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is played by plucking or strumming the strings, while the fingers hold down the strings in certain combinations, to play the notes. Most guitars have six strings that are tuned on the scale E A D G B E. There are two broad categories of guitars today, acoustic and electric.

Acoustic guitars have hollow bodies, called sound boxes, which produce the sound, and thus do not need amplification. However, some modern ones do come with the electronics so that it can be connected to an amplifier. On the other hand, the body of an electric guitar is solid on only semi-hollow and needs to be connected to an amplifier to be heard.

Thanks to the electronics you can produce all kinds of effects and sounds with an electric guitar that is very hard or impossible to reproduce on an acoustic guitar. Samples of the special effects that can be produced on an electric guitar are: distortion, wah, phasers, compression, vibrato, flanging and chorus effect. These effects cause the sound produced by the same note to be different. For example:

- Distortion effect. This will produce a distorted and very heavy sound, as often used in heavy metal and rock music.

- Wah effect. The frequency of the note goes up and down each time you hit the foot pedal.

- Flanging effect. This effect causes a pause in the signal, followed by a series of the note originally played, sounding like an echo.

The guitar is used to play almost any kind of music, and is usually a big part of the music played by a band. Learning to play a guitar can be exciting and is a great way to entertain yourself and your friend.

When you decide to learn to play the guitar you will also have to learn tablatures and sheet music. Guitar sheet music is useful to guide you when learning to play the guitar, as you just have to follow the notes and tablatures illustrated on the sheet music. It is a great tool to help you play your guitar. By practicing frequently and being dedicated to learning the notes, you will soon be playing like an expert.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/an-introduction-to-learning-to-play-the-guitar-104197.html

About the Author
To get more information about guitar music, and want to learn to play guitar online, please visit us at www.guitarmusicinfo.com.

Learn About How A Guitar Works And Makes Sound

Author: Gray Rollins

How Guitars Work

Many people, guitarists included, have probably wondered how exactly guitars work. However, they probably also are confused by all of the terms used to describe how a guitar produces the sound we hear. There is quite a bit of physics involved in it, and those who haven’t taken a day of physics in their life probably wouldn’t understand it. This is where this article comes in handy. In this article, we will describe how both Acoustic and Electric guitars work in terms that everyone will understand.

How the Acoustic Works:

To start with, when a string vibrates (when you play it), it produces vibration at a certain frequency. The frequency at which a string vibrates is determined by the weight, length, and tension of the string.

The body of the guitar takes in the vibration of the strings and then puts the sound out into the air. This is the sound that is heard when the guitar string is played.

On an Acoustic guitar, there is a soundhole. This soundhole serves to amplify the sound of the vibration produced by the strings. Without the soundhole, the sound would be practically inaudible, which is the case with a solid body Electric guitar.

To alter the length (and therefore change the sound that is heard) of the string, you’ll alter the tension of the string. You do this by pressing down on the string on any of the frets and then playing that string. Doing so changes the frequency of the vibration, which, in turn, alters the sound that is heard.

How the Electric guitar Works:

Electric guitars really aren’t that much different from Acoustic guitars. In fact, the main difference between the two is that one is made of solid wood (with no holes), while the other has a hollow-body (with a soundhole). How Electric guitars work is a bit different than how Acoustic guitars do.

Just like with the Acoustic guitar, when a string is played, it vibrates. That vibration produces the sound that we hear. The frequency of the vibration is, again, determined by the weight, length and tension of the string.

With no soundhole, the Electric guitar is unable to self-amplify the sound produced by the vibration of the strings. Thus, the sound heard from an un-amplified Electric guitar is minimal. This is why guitar pickups and amplifiers are necessary to produce the sound loud enough for people to hear.

Pickups basically take the vibration of the strings and convert it into a useable electrical current. This current is then fed into the amplifier by way of a cable which is then interpreted by the amplifier. The sound that results comes out of the amplifier speaker.

Amplifiers that have pre-built distortion (and practically all of them do now) can distort the electrical current (vibration) by clipping it. The sound that results from this clipping is what is called distortion.

Other types of guitar effects found on amps and pedals do pretty much the same thing-they alter the electrical current which is fed to them by the pickups of the guitar.

And there you have it. That is, in a nutshell, exactly how guitars work. No physics necessary.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/learn-about-how-a-guitar-works-and-makes-sound-92991.html

About the Author

Gray Rollins is a featured writer for GuitarsLand.com. If you’re interested in learning in more detail how a guitar works or the parts of a guitar, then please visit us.