When I first discovered the awesomeness of guitar effects pedals, I think I was 11 years old. I would venture to the local music store where the owner of the place, Bill, would greet my friend Jimmy and me at the door with the resounding “How’s it going gold dust there?” Bill was a great guy and we literally visited his store every Saturday without exception. He was great at allowing us to take the guitars off the rack and turn up the noise, he actually encouraged it! It was there that Bill showed me a Harmonix Bad Stone Phase Shifter, the first guitar effect he had ever seen. He showed me how to hook it up, and from the first note I played with that bad boy, I knew I had to have this. It was what started my endless obsession with tone and the overwhelming desire to match it correctly to the piece being played. Although I’m not the only one. This is pretty much what comes with the territory when you decide to play guitar seriously. Today, of course, there are so many different options and directions you can go to carve out that perfect sound, that it can be overwhelming at times. Over the years, there have been some consistent discoveries that I have found to narrow down my preferences. Of course, these are my thoughts presented in an editorial context and may or may not reflect your own sentiments.

For starters, the style or genre of music is important when deciding what effects will be needed. The second decision is whether to use an all-in-one processor or use separate chained effects. There are some pros and cons to both, and I’ll go over a few of them. My own experience with guitar processors starts when I first bought one. It was the Line 6 kidney bean POD. This was the stuff when it came out. It acted as a direct box modeler and guitar amp. I can make my amp sound like a number of different top notch setups. It also had some built in effects, chorus, delay and reverb. After a while I graduated to the POD XT Live, a stage version that had more bells and whistles. It had a wah pedal, plus amp models, effects, and options all in one unit that could be placed in front of you while you were on stage. I used it for 5 years playing gigs, and it worked great until I broke my wah pedal in the middle of a show. I had it repaired, but it was never the same again. Anyway, I wanted to go in a different direction with my sound, so I started experimenting with individual effects pedals. There are many people who will simply chord effects together, connecting the last output to the input of their amp and their guitar to the input of the first effect in the chain. That will work for some effects, like distortion, compression, and wah pedals, but it doesn’t work as well for ambient effects like chorus, delay, phase shifters, signal boosters, and flangers. For those you need to run them through the effects loop, usually at the back of the amp. Simply connect the effects as you normally would, with the outputs connected to the inputs, and play a chord from your “effects send” jack to the input of your first effect. The “effects return” jack should be connected to the output jack of the last effect in the chain. There is usually a control knob for the FX Loop that controls how much of the FX Loop’s effect is put into your sound. This setup will give you the distortion, wah and such before the signal is amplified, running them in front of the amp, and the ambience effects for the signal after it has passed through the amp on its way to the speaker. As an example of why this is the way to do it, try running a power boost such as a Boss GE7 EQ in front of the amp. When you step on the effect, which has a 15db boost (or cut), it will do nothing but muddy the signal. Put it in the effects loop and viola, you’ll get a killer boost to help you cut through the mix during solos. This is important to know and something every teacher should add to their online guitar lessons.

So in conclusion, the pros with a processor, are all in one unit and are usually cheaper than a properly set up effects matrix, and usually have plenty of options for amp models and tones. The cons? You can’t run ambient effects through the effects loop, nor can you control the order in which they’re set, and that can make a world of difference. The pros with an à la carte effects setup are total control, reliability, and versatility. The cons? They are much more expensive to install. To get it right, you’ll need to mount all your effects on an electric pedal board, so you can open it up, place it in front of you, and plug in the chords. My personal setup was over $1100 and I only have 6 effects. They can also hum, although you can remove this with a simple filter. Again, to avoid learning by trial and error, be sure to ask your instructor during your online or in-person guitar lessons about this important aspect of tone creation.