Talk:Effects pedal

Whammy Pedal
whats a whammy pedal, anyone?


 * Dunno. Please sign your posts. Andrewa 21:14, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

As you probably know, a whammy bar is a thing you can use to continuously (ie smoothly) change the pitch of your guitar by stretching or relaxing the tension in the strings. A whammy pedal creates a similar effect electronically and enables you to do it with your foot instead of your hand. I've never tried one. I imagine that's quite cool as you could vary your pitch as you play (I like weird stuff like that, tho). I've heard they can be glitchy, but then all digital effects get that rap. Ornette 17:25, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

It works more like a pitch-shift wheel on a synth, you can shift the pitch as little as one semi-tone or as much as 3 octaves. That specific pedal (Digitech Whammy) also has a harmonizer function and a detuner (creates a chorus effect but uses pitch modulation instead of time modulation) Alexk001 20:15, 23 December 2005 (UTC)


 * The Boss PS-5 Super Shifter does this as well, and rivals the DigiTech Whammy if you grab the optional Boss expression pedal for the PS-5. I don't think there are any other units out there which feature this effect.  --Dulcimerist 18:12, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Merge
This should merge with Stomp box, no? Friday 21:36, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

I'm attemping the merge. I'm putting the old content from Stomp box here, in case anyone wants to salvage more of it than I did in the merge.


 * Please sign your posts, Friday. I don't think it's necessary to preserve the entire pre-merge content in the talk page, it just clutters it. The previous versions are readily available in the article histories. Links to the exact versions that were merged might be helpful. Andrewa 21:14, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

question about distortion
On the distortion section -- I get the difference between overdriven and fuzz, but I don't get what "regular distortion" means. How is that different from overdriven? Thanks! --Allen 08:05, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm unsure. I know I've read people on various online forums discussing that certain pedals labeled as a product name to be "overdrive" were infact just "regular distortion", which seems to be referenced differently than fuzz. It must be the specific properties used to distort the signal. The way in which they approxamate a square wave from a sine wave. Nagelfar 16:13, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Ah, here. It seems to just say; overdrive (light), distortion (medium), fuzz (heavy). I suppose this probably translates into the amount of times the wave of a signal rises to being clipped & lowers to being fully conveyed in a specific span of time. Nagelfar 16:26, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Perhaps it has something to do with the different types of diode clipping, ie asymmetrical and symmetrical. In fact, now that I think of it, aren't fuzzes just misbiased transistors? I don't recall seeing a diode in a fuzz pedal. I think those are the differentiating factors: symmetrical clipping = distortion, asymmetrical = overdrive, transistor-based distortion = fuzz. Am I right, EEs? Of course, I could be way off base.--Hector 19:56, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Distortion, overdrive and fuzz are the same thing at an electronics level. Yes, there are tonal differences between symmetrical and asymmetrical clipping, and whether the clipping device is a tube or a transistor, and how it is biases, but these terms are not applied consistently by manufacturers and musicians, so the distinction doesn't really actually mean much.  Check out Distortion (music) for detailed information. Steve CarlsonTalk 01:14, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Proposal: Break out gear-articles with Guitar in title
PLEASE SEE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Distortion#Proposed_Article_Titles_and_Changes MichaelSHoffman 17:18, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

The refactoring is in-progress. MichaelSHoffman 03:33, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

The refactoring is done. MichaelSHoffman 08:47, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

History of the Distortion Pedal.
Who or what company invented the first distoriton pedal? Please help. I need to write a paper on this for school.


 * How about signing your post? This is a good question, and would be sweet to address in this article.  --Dulcimerist 18:10, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

yeah a history of the distortion pedal definitely needs to be added. i think it was some dude from new zealand? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eastjame (talk • contribs) 07:42, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

George Harrison
I don't think the George Harrison 'Wah Wah' entry really belongs in the section 'tributes'. My understanding is that the song was a snipe at Paul McCartney, not a hymn of praise to his wah wah pedal. Doozy88 21:21, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Wiki Projects
Added this to guitar and musical instrument Wiki projects, as this article is relevant to those projects. I also added a discussion page header to help remind people to please sign their posts, etc. Thanks! --Dulcimerist 19:53, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

three-way merger
We have 3 articles about the same thing just written in a different way- these being effects unit, guitar effects and effects pedal, I can see no logical reason to keep these 3 seperate and therefore I propose that we merge them all together, now the effects unit has a strong introduction we can use that. Otherwise that and the guitar effects are basically just lists (good lists I might add) however that'll be in the proposed article along side all the stuff in this one of which I believe is quite strong, you're opinions please.--Mikeoman 18:45, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Is there a sound files database somwhere?
where can I find sound files of these effects? Is there a place in wiki where I can find it?(Joelsims80 09:15, 11 October 2007 (UTC))

Germanium diode
The geremanium artikle states :Vintage effects pedals known to contain germanium transistors have shown marked increases in collector value for this reason alone. But I cna finde no reliable source for this fact. Has anybody a source for this?--Stone (talk) 14:05, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

stomp box
Technically, the term "stomp box" refers to a percussion instrument played with the foot. It is not actually an "electronic effects unit" that this article describes.

I suggest that to avoid confusion we don't refer to "effects pedals" in this article as "stomp boxes". Additionally, we should make it clear in the article that the term "stomp box" actually refers to a percussion instrument and that "effects pedals" are just sometimes called "stomp boxes" as a slang term.

Thoughts?? Crk112 (talk) 09:15, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Effects pedals have been called stompboxes for longer than the percussion boxes have been widely known, and the use of stompbox for effects is the far more ubiquitous use of the term. Conical Johnson (talk) 04:00, 14 September 2009 (UTC)