Stompboxes for Dummies

Stompboxes are probably the most widely used and easily costumizable guitar effect units. The two main branches are analog and digital effects (analog/digital circuitry). Analog effects are generally believed to be of higher quality, because of their natural sounds; they simply alter the signal due to its components' characteristics, for example, germanium transistors create a fuzzy distortion. Digital effects on the other hand use microprocessors to convert the signal into a digital one, which then gets altered by the effects unit. The way you can look at it is that a digital effect is a mini-computer, which can only do one thing, but it is (hopefully) really good at it and does its job real fast, without noticeable latency.

Also, apart from the single, one-trick pony effects, there are multi-effect pedals (typically digital), which offer multiple types of effects, but they are generally less costumizable than their single-effect counterparts, however, you can get them a lot cheaper overall. BOSS is manufacturing quite a wide variety of multi-effects, you can take a look at them at http://www.bossus.com/gear/productlist.php?ParentId=248.

Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz effects are the most widely used ones, they create that dirty, crunchy sound that almost all rock/metal bands have. The way they work is that they clip the soundwaves' peaks, creating overtones. Fuzz effects differ in a way that they are transforming the waves almost into squarewaves, giving them a tighter, heavily distorted sound. Famous pedals include the Ibanez TubeScreamer 808 or 9, the ProCo Rat Distortion, and the EHX Big Muff.

Modulation effects alter the sound in different way, including timbre and pitch change, adding a second signal, slowing down a track, while leaving the other untouched, rapid volume changes, etc. Flangers, Chorus pedals, Tremolo pedals, and Phasers are part of this group. We will discuss them individually later on.

Filter effects alter the frequency, usually boosting one region, while reducing the other. Filters include the Wah-wah and the Talk Box, which we'll try to build from cheap materials soon.

Dynamics effects modify the volume of your signal. Boosters (as you might have guesses) increase the volume to make up for the loss in your rig or to give that extra kick during solos (up to 11). Compressors even out the volume of your notes, while Noise gates reduce the unwanted hums and hisses.

Lastly, the Time-based effects include Delay pedals, which repeat sounds, creating an echo-like sound; Reverb effects (amplifiers often have built-in reverb effects), which emulate sounds in an echo-chamber; and Loop effects, which can record a certain part that can replayed later.

Of course, there are many other effects, these are just the most common ones. When we'll be looking at individual guitar sounds, we'll go into smaller details regarding a given pedal.