Many other musical instruments, among them the piano, pipe organ, drums, and harp, also make use of pedals to achieve tonal, dynamic, or other effects. The piano’s mechanical sustain pedal is one well-known example. Pipe organs and electromechanical Hammond organs have one or more expression pedals and sometimes a crescendo pedal, which the organist can use to achieve dynamic (or “expressive”) changes. Some large church and theater organs also have push-buttons for the feet, so that the player can activate different stops. These are neither considered nor called effects pedals. Pipe organs and Hammond organs also use another type of pedals on their bass pedal keyboard, which is a 20- to 32-note keyboard operated with the feet.

One major exception appears on modern electronic organs and synthesizers, which usually include a volume pedal similar to that of a guitar. The electronic organ pioneered this kind of pedal, not the guitar. Some advanced models also include an additional effects pedal that may be programmed to serve several of the functions described in the preceding section. The operation of each is similar to those on guitars; the organist places an entire foot on the pedal and, while playing, gently pumps up and down with heel and toe pressure to achieve the desired effects. Because the organist is usually seated and thus has better balance than the guitarist, the pedals are designed to have a wider range of motion. The organist can thus bring about more pronounced changes than the guitarist with only slight changes in foot pressure.

Some pedals, in fact also have switches on the end that enable still other effects by “scrunching” the toes to the left or right on the pedal, either in isolation or while pumping the pedal up and down, leading to far more flexibility than most guitar pedals.

Another stompbox found in solo music is the foot drum-style stompbox. The unit will commonly connect to a PA via an XLR or guitar jack and provide the Front of House speakers with a kick drum sound which can add rhythm to solo acoustic music. Some musicians use homemade stomp boxes which consist of a wooden box and a microphone.

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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Effects pedals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.