Hello, I am an amateur guitar player and I was looking into accesories like wa-wa pedals, whammy bars, and other distortional gadgets. I was hoping someone could give me some information on these items as mine is practically nothing. Advice on what brands to buy, what does what and the average cost would be very welcome. Thank you.

Try your local guitar shop. The staff there should let you play on the effects pedals they stock, if you ask them nicely.

If the shop is run by an assmaster, they will try to sell you a digital multi effects pedal which can do everything. The problem for you is that the digital multi effects pedal which can do everything sounds like diarrhea.

This pedal won't keep it's value, and you will want to sell it in the future.

On ebay.

Wah-wah pedals make a wishy-washy effect on your guitar sound. Jimi Hendrix used one to make his amazing guitar playing sound wishy-washy. Frank Zappa used one to choose a sweet frequency between wish and wash, and so did Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai.

Flanger effects used by dub music remixers like King Tubby and Scratch Lee Perry sound really cool. Nearly nobody else in the history of music has made a flanger sound good on a recording. The effect changes the pitch of the sound in a strange way by using a short delay.

Kurt Cobain used Boss distortion pedals sometimes, according to this website: http://www.nirvanafreak.net/faq/faq1.shtml#effects
but why buy a distortion pedal when your guitar amplifier can do it? Suck it and see.

Someone else can tell you about the rest of them. Like spring reverbs, vibrato, and Zoom 505 II.

Breadvan wrote: but why buy a distortion pedal when your guitar amplifier can do it? Suck it and see.

the single reason for this would be to switch between distorted and clean mid song.

pressing that gay little button next to your tone nobs mid-barre chord can fuck up your song, kids.


now as for whether you should be employing that tactic in your music to begin with... i'll leave that one to your imagination.

thebookofkevin wrote:

Breadvan wrote: but why buy a distortion pedal when your guitar amplifier can do it? Suck it and see.

the single reason for this would be to switch between distorted and clean mid song.

There are plenty of things my distortion pedal (EH Hot Tubes) can do that my amplifier can't....like, well, for one, it can feed a very loud signal into the amp. Clearly that makes noises that my amp can't do on its own.
Lately I've been using the subtler amplifier distortion (no gain switch, just playing at high volumes), mostly because the dynamic range isn't as squished as it is with the pedal. It has more punch that way.
Reverb ought to be spring, preferably built into the amp. I've never heard a digital pedal I've liked, but I'm a bit biased on that matter.

-Noah

One more thing: If you do choose to use your amplifier's loud volumes for distortion, the size/power of the amp will matter.

Noah wrote:There are plenty of things my distortion pedal (EH Hot Tubes) can do that my amplifier can't...

sure, you and your electroharmonix can do things that amps can't, but i was thinking more of a Boss Overdrive pedal or something. in considering buying those, i'd suggest drugs first.

thebookofkevin wrote:pressing that gay little button next to your tone nobs mid-barre chord can fuck up your song, kids.

Foot switch perhaps?

whammy bars? hrm. i would recommend the washburn Wonderbar, which you can find on ebay, as it kicks major ass. as with any whammy bar bridge, you'll probably want a skilled tech to put it on your guitar.

do a search on "distortion pedal" and click the button for "search for all items" and you'll find the threads where lots of people already said lots of things you might find useful.

Breadvan wrote:The problem for you is that the digital multi effects pedal which can do everything sounds like diarrhea.

Not to a self-described noob.

I'd say a digital multi-fx is the way to go. Then, a year or whatever down the line, you'll decide to buy better pedals and you'll know what ones you like.

BanjoBoy wrote:Hello, I am an amateur guitar player and I was looking into accesories like wa-wa pedals, whammy bars, and other distortional gadgets. I was hoping someone could give me some information on these items as mine is practically nothing. Advice on what brands to buy, what does what and the average cost would be very welcome. Thank you.

Hello. Here's my two cents:

As far as distorition goes, it's important to avoid the digital effects pedals. They sound awful, and once you've heard the difference you'll understand what I mean.

I would consider the "industry standard" distortion/overdrive box to be the ProCo Rat distortion. I have one, I love it, and I'd get another if I lost it. As far as fuzz distortion, the Big Muff has always been a favorite, and they're pretty cheap.

Two digital pedals you might find interesting are the Digitech Whammy pedal and the Line 6 Digital Delay mutli-effect. The advantage of a whammy pedal vs a whammy bar is that whammy bars have a tendency to knock you out of tune very quickly. Obviously, a pedal effect will not do that.

The delay pedals can offer alot of variation as far as really long echo,huge reverb, and crazy looping effects, among other things. Anyway.. worth checking out.

Hope this helps.