Guitar Effects Pedals can really transform the sound and tone of your Guitar allowing you to really make the sound your own or apply some crazy effects to your music. Read More/Less
Guitar Effects Pedals come in two primary forms. You have Single Effects Pedals (often called stomp boxes) that are designed to do one job which is produce one guitar effect. This could be a delay pedal, a chorus pedal, a distortion pedal, and the list goes on and on… These Guitar Effects Pedals can be chained together and individually switched on or off at your pleasure allowing you to combine multiple effects or using them one at a time to get the sound that you need.
The other primary type of Guitar Effects Pedal is the Multi Effects Pedal. Here you will have a unit with one or more physical pedals on it. As the name suggests, a Multi Effects unit will combine a whole multitude of guitar effects for you to play with, allowing you to tweak away to get the sound that you want.
Taking the above into account it is hard to see why any guitar player would choose a single Guitar Effects Pedal over the Multi Effects Pedal. Clearly the Multi Effects Pedal does all that the Single Effects Pedal does and more, and you could spend hundreds and hundreds of pounds on individual pedals whereas there is just a one off investment for a Multi Effects Unit.
Well it comes down to a matter of preference and taste. You have to consider that a single Guitar Effects Pedal is designed to do one job really well. It would be very difficult to recreate that circuitry inside a Multi Effects Pedal. You also have to consider the fact that, in the world of both Multi Effects and Single Effects Pedals, different manufacturers pedals will create different sounds. You may love the Boss DS-1 sound, and you may find that you cannot get close to it on your Multi Effects Pedal. With Single Effects Pedals, you will have the option to swap any sound you don’t like for something you prefer – you will have total flexibility.
Another negative point about Muti Effects Pedals is that there is so much crammed into one space, that it may not be easy to turn one effect on, combine distortion with chorus for a section of a song then quickly switch back to a clean sound. Again with the single pedals, you can easily set up your floor space as you wish and easily turn on or off any guitar effect at any time.
Now onto the positive points about Muti Effects Pedals! In addition to the fact that you have a whole arsenal of sounds to play with, you will also find that you have an ultra portable device. Single Effects Pedals can be a complete pain to transport around. You have patch cables between them that can easily become damaged, zapping tone, creating hum and causing all kinds of other headaches. Muti Effects Pedals generally have an input and an output with only one power supply required and that is all.
There are some really good Multi Effects Units out there. Some can even recreate the sounds of single Guitar Effects Pedals pretty well. There are units with multiple pedals that you can assign different presets to which makes it much easier to switch between effects quickly!
Generally the most popular Guitar Effects Pedals that people use is overdrive or distortion though this can often be created using your amplifier. If you like playing lead guitar then a delay pedal is a fantastic choice that can really make your playing sound great! Wah Guitar Pedals are also really popular. If you are more into rhythm then a chorus pedal can add a really nice depth to your tone!
Be sure to check out youtube videos to see what can be done with your chosen guitar effects! This will give you a great idea on where to start with creating your own tone!
Whatever Guitar Effects Pedals you require, you will find a huge range here at Olly’s Guitar World!