Experimenting with and using effects can be one of the most enjoyable things about playing the electric guitar. Using them on recordings can add sparkle to your guitar tracks, and using them live can add a whole new dimension and “wow” factor to a performance. It can often become addictive to have a whole rack of effects, purely just for messing around with. Some effects don’t even have much use in songs, but are still enjoyable nonetheless.
The aim in this section is to help familiarise yourself with the most commonly used effects, such as chorus, flanger, phaser, wah-wah, delay, and reverb; from which you can usefully apply them to your own guitar playing.

Chorus: One of the most commonly used effects. Creates a spacious and almost doubled sound. Great for rhythms and cleans.

Flanger: A slightly more intense version of the chorus effect, using different waveforms for a different sound.

Phaser: Bring on the helicopter sounds! Creates phasing for a truly unique sound. Van Halen anyone?

Wah-wah: Basically a foot controlled tone control. Probably the most distinct sounding effect used. Jimi Hendrix pioneered the sound of this effect on songs like Voodoo Chile.

Delay: As the name suggests, the input signal is delayed to create an echo type effect. This can add a new dimension to your sound and make it sound bigger.

Reverb: Artificial reverberation. Emulates various reverb effects, including spring, room, and hall. Very useful to give your sound a bit of lift.

As with all guitar effects, each one will have its own set of controls where you can adjust the effect to your preference. For example, a chorus will have speed, depth, and mix controls, and a delay effect will have feedback, time, and level controls.

Effects will usually sound different depending on their placement in the effects chain. Placing a phaser before a distortion is going to apply the phaser effect, and then distort it. Doing this the opposite way will give a more subtle phaser effect. These placements are referred to as “pre” and “post”.

I hope this section has given you a better idea of what these effects sound like, and how to use them in your playing.

Experiment with different placements, and with different settings, with multiple effects on at once. I guarantee you will find some totally new sounds!

Please click on the links below for sound samples.

chorus

flanger

phaser

wah

delay

reverb