I thought I would give a quick lesson on how guitarists make the different sounds you hear in songs. This is specific to the electric guitar. I have been studying and learning a lot about guitar “pedals” and effect units lately. There is a definite art to creating your sound. I will try to talk in layman’s terms for any novices reading.
The electric guitar basically has one sound to start with. We musicians refer to it as the “clean” sound. Just the notes you play getting amplified by the “pickups” of the guitar. The pickups are essentially microphones in layman’s terms. Without any effects added, the clean sound is just the pure sound created by the vibrating string of the guitar. Many things can affect the clean sound. The quality of the guitar is the main thing. A high end guitar is better built. It has better wood, better pickups, and a better neck. All of these things affect the clean sound.
Where it gets even more interesting is when you start adding effects to the sound your guitar is producing. There are many types of effects available to guitarists these days. They can be broken down into basically 4 catagories: Overdrive/Distortion, Delays, Modulation, and signal boosters.
Overdrive/Distortion is the basis for rock music. When you add an overdrive effect to the clean guitar sound, it jumbles up the signal coming from the guitar basically. It jumbles it up so much that the clean sound becomes anything but clean. It basically “distorts” the signal into a big mess. When you hear rock music, the “loud” parts are usually created by using some type of overdrive unit. Now there are of course hundreds of types of overdrives. They have varying levels of distortion. When playing some light rock, you would use a lighter overdrive effect. When playing hard rock or metal, you would need something with a high level of distortion.
Delays are my favorite types of pedals. Delay is in layman’s terms echo. So you can play a note and it will echo back at any rate in which you want it to. You can make it echo fast or slow, and echo more or less times. What this allows you to do is play something simple, but the echo’s fill up the dead space in between the notes you are playing, thus making it sound more full. Nobody is better at using delay than the Edge of U2. Delay is the staple of every U2 song. If you want to get creative, you can combine several delay pedals and have differing types of echo’s coming in. The Edge normally uses two to three delays at a time. That’s why U2 songs sound so full, even though he is the only guitarist. The delay can allow you to sound like you are playing 2 guitars.
Modulation is something I am just starting to use more. These include effects like: Tremelo, Phasers, Flangers, Reverb, and Chorus. The most commonly used of these are tremelo and chorus. Tremelo is similar to delay, but slightly different. It has a choppy sound. The sound isn’t REALLY echoing at all. It is basically cutting the note in and out at a fast rate. A good example of tremelo would be “Money” by Pink Floyd. The main guitar part is tremelo all the way. Chorus is the next most commonly used modulation pedal. It adds a almost keyboard kind of sound to the guitar. My favorite chorus song is Prince’s “Purple Rain.” That guitar has a lot of chorus going. Van Halen was also famous for utilizing chorus in their songs.
The other category is signal boosters. The most common is a simple clean boost. All this does is “boost” the signal coming out of the guitar. So it doesn’t actually affect the sound at all, it just makes is louder. This is utilized mainly during live performances when the guitarists needs to stand out for a solo. Wah pedals don’t really fall into this category per se, but they basically make a sound like their name. When you push up and down on the pedal, it makes the signal sound like you are saying the word “Wah, Wah.” This is utilized a lot in modern rock for guitar solos. It can really give that extra edge you need to stand out. The most famous Wah song of all time has got to be “Voodoo Chile” by Jimi Hendrix.
There are many more types of effects available to guitarists today, but these are the basics. Not only does each effect pedal have it’s own “affect” on the sound, but many other factors can affect it. The order in which you put your pedals can have a tremendous impact on how they behave. Say for instance I have only an overdrive pedal and a clean boost. Let’s say I put the overdrive first (so the signal is coming from my guitar into my overdrive, and then on to the boost, then to the amp). So when I play my notes, and then overdrive them, they become jumbled and “rocking.” If I then hit the boost, that boost pedal is gonna simply increase the volume of what I’m playing. It won’t change the actual sound at all, just make it louder. Now, let’s reverse that scenario. Let’s say I come from guitar into the boost, and then on to the overdrive. So, I’m playing an essentially clean sound, and then I “boost” the signal (making it not only louder but “stronger”). Then I send that boosted signal to the overdrive. Well now the overdrive pedal is receiving a stronger signal than it was before. So it has more signal to “jumble.” That is going to make my sound more jumbled and more heavy.
I know I probably bored/confused most of you, but the point is that modern music is laced with these types of effects. They make the guitarists job easier to some degree, but they also open up a whole new world of possiblilities to create unique sounds.
Here is a video of Dallas Schoo (the guitar tech for the Edge) explaining some of the effects and how they affect the sound.
