A guitar effects pedal is connected into a signal chain using two 2-conductor (conductor and shield) instrument cables with 1/4″ jack plugs (or “phone plugs”). The input jack is usually on the right side, and output on the left; thus the signal path for a chain of pedals is usually right-to-left. Some effects pedals have stereo out via two mono out signals, and a few have stereo input jacks as well as stereo output jacks. Several pedals can be linked together in a chain. An effects chain can be placed between the guitar and the guitar amplifier’s preamp section, within the guitar amplifier’s effects loop, after a guitar amplifier’s Direct Inject (D.I.) line-level tap jack, after a “dummy load” attached to the guitar amplifier’s output jack, or at the mixing board to process the miked guitar-speaker signal.

When a pedal is off or inactive, the signal coming in to the pedal is shunted onto a bypass, so that the “dry” or unaffected signal can go on to other effects down the chain, and thus any combination of effects on a chain can be created without having to reconnect boxes during a performance. “True Bypass” means the presence of an isolated wire passing straight through the effects pedal, as opposed to “buffered bypass,” which uses active circuit elements to connect the input to the output. While these are 2 popular configurations, there are other bypass methods, such as input-only bypass which is semi-passive.

The instrument signal can be routed through the stomp boxes in any combination, but to shape and preserve the clarity of the basic distortion tone, it is most common to put wah and overdrive pedals at the start of the chain; pedals which alter the pitch or color of the tone in the middle; and boxes which modify the resonance, such as flanging, delay (echo) and reverb units at the end.

EQ, auto-wah, phaser, and vibe effects fit naturally at any position without introducing intermodulation distortion, while the emphatically time-based effects can sound unnatural and chaotic if placed early in the chain. Effects pedals can be used together with other effects units and a guitar amplifier’s built-in effects. However, when too many effect pedals are used, unwanted noise and hum can be introduced into the sound. Some performers use a noise gate pedal to reduce the unwanted noise and hum.

Tags: Guitar Amplifiers, Guitar Effects Pedals, Guitar wireless systems

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Effects pedals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.