Pedal Archives - Metro Sound & Music

Posted on September 25, 2022May 10, 2022 by Jasbir Kumar

Best Guitar Effects For Blues

In recent years, blues players have turned to guitar effects pedals for tone-crafting capabilities. Although you don’t need a whole range of guitar pedals to achieve your sound, there are a few types of effects that will go a long way in shaping your tone. So let’s go over the best guitar effects for blues to help you achieve your desired sound.

Best Guitar Effects for Blues

The most popular guitar effects for blues used by modern players are as follow:

Boost
Overdrive
Wah-wah

Boost

Of all of the guitar effects for blues, the boost people is one of the most important. Essentially, a boost pedal intensifies the signal from your guitar before it reaches your amp. Even if these pedals may seem simple, they are incredibly versatile. For example, using a boost pedal, you can:

Increase your volume, letting your solos and riffs shine through.
Push your amp into overdrive to create a beautiful blues tone.
Increase your overdrive pedal’s volume without altering your tone.

Best Boost Pedals for Blues

TC Electronic Spark Booster
Electro-Harmonix Nano LPB-1

Overdrive

Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808 Guitar Pedal — Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808

A slightly overdriven tone is an essential component of blues sounds. While this effect used to be produced by the amp itself, nowadays, buying a dedicated overdrive pedal is the optimal choice. Some of the benefits of overdrive pedals include:

The ability to switch between distorted and clean tones.
The capability to play overdriven tones at lower volumes.
Endless tone-crafting potentials.

Best Overdrive Pedals for Blues

Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff π

Wah-Wah

Dunlop GCB-95F Cry Baby Classic Fasel Inductor Wah Guitar Effects Pedal — Dunlop GCB-95F Cry Baby

Unlike the other effects in this list, which will likely play a key role in your sound, you will use the wah-wah pedal more sparingly. This pedal produces the onomatopoeic “wah-wah” sound, adding an interesting effect to your sound. Although this pedal may not be essential for your blues sound, it adds an interesting effect you should consider.

Best Wah-Wah Pedals For Blues

Vox V845 Wah
Dunlop GCB-95F Cry Baby Classic

Create Beautiful Blues Sounds

This list is by no means exhaustive and just gives you an idea of some of the best pedals for the blues. Using your creative liberty, you could add other effects such as reverb, delay, or chorus. Experiment with your sound and develop your own blues tones!

If you would like to browse more guitar effects pedals, check out our extensive range of pedals.

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Posted on September 1, 2022May 10, 2022 by Jasbir Kumar

Best Guitar Effects Pedals For Rock

The world of rock music is vast and exciting. As you explore your sound, you may wonder what the best guitar effects pedals for rock music are. You’ve come to the right place! Let’s go over our picks of some of the best guitar pedals for rock music so you can get rockin’!

Best Guitar Effects For Rock Music

First, let’s discuss what the best guitar effects for rock music are. There are many different guitar effects available. However, some come out ahead of others when it comes to rock music. Some of the most popular guitar effects are as follows:

Compression
Distortion
Overdrive
Reverb
Wah

Compression

Keeley KCOMPPLUS Compressor Plus Pedal — Keeley Compressor Plus

Compression is an often underrated effect that makes a big difference. These pedals are responsible for smoothing out the sound of your guitar, so if you strum too aggressively, you don’t get unwanted spikes in your volume. Not only that, but compression pedals also increase your tone’s sustain. Overall, this effect is crucial if you want a professional rock sound.

Best Compression Pedals

The Keeley Compressor Plus Pedal is one of the best compression pedals out there. With tone and blend controls, you have enormous sound-shaping potential. And this pedal adds a smooth, subtle effect to your playing for a truly polished and professional sound.

Distortion

Beloved by rock enthusiasts everywhere, distortion is one of the most guitar effects out there. This effect adds huge gain and sustains to your sound, which is especially important for heavier rock. Distortion dials in the perfect amount of gain – from mild overdrive to full-out fuzzy assault. No matter your play style, you’ll appreciate the effect distortion adds to your sound.

Best Distortion Pedals

There are many distortion pedals on the market today. Some of the best distortion pedals we love are as follows:

ProCo Rat 2 Overdrive Pedal
Boss OS-2 Overdrive Pedal

Overdrive

Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Guitar Effects Pedal — Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer

Overdrive pedals imitate the sound of cranking your amp up and achieving a crackling effect. As you can imagine, this effect is beloved amongst rock enthusiasts for its unique and crunchy tone. Though this effect doesn’t massively alter your sound, it adds a delicious and distinctive flavour to your sound. For a truly classic rock ‘n’ roll tone, consider adding an overdrive pedal to your arsenal.

Best Overdrive Pedals

The Ibanez Tube Screamer is one of the most popular overdrive pedals used by guitarists worldwide. This line of pedals comes in several varieties, including:

Reverb

Reverb pedals add an echo effect to your sound that gives it tremendous depth. Think of it as though you’re playing in a large, empty room. If you think your music is lacking something, chances are it doesn’t have reverb. Most guitarists rely on reverb nearly all of the time since it gives you more presence.

Best Reverb Pedals

The Electro-Harmonix Oceans 12 Reverb Pedal is one of the best reverb pedals out there today. With twelve different reverb effects, ranging from vanilla reverbs to more spunky effects, you have access to every type of reverb you could want. And with different controls for each effect, you have vast tone-crafting capabilities.

Wah-Wah

To achieve a classic rock sound, many guitarists turn to the wah effect. Famous users of this effect include Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Slash, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. This effect alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to achieve the onomatopoeic “wah-wah” sound. Many consider this effect to be a staple for rock music and you can find this pedal on stages and in studios worldwide.

Best Wah-Wah Pedals

The Dunlop Crybaby is by far the most popular wah-wah pedal out there. The Crybaby comes in several flavours, but the original Dunlop GCB-95F Cry Baby Classic is your best bet for classic wah sound.

Get Ready To Rock

Hopefully, now, you have a better idea of what the best guitar pedals for rock music are. So pick a few up, plug into them, and get rockin’!

If you want to browse more guitar effects pedals, check out our entire range of pedals and find your sound.

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Posted on August 9, 2022May 10, 2022 by Jasbir Kumar

Best Guitar Effects For Country Music

While country music may seem straightforward at first glance, if you’re a country guitarist, you know how complex it can be. With lightning-fast lead playing and complex instrumentation, there’s a lot more than meets the eye. Country guitarists use guitar pedals to complement their playing and achieve different sounds. Let’s go over some of the best guitar effects for country so you can achieve that country tone!

Best Guitar Effects for Country

Compression
Overdrive
Reverb
Delay

Compression

Country music depends on clean tones, so a compression pedal can help you achieve your desired sounds. An in-your-face compressor can give you twangy tones that most country guitarists prefer.

Best Compression Pedals for Country

Keeley Compressor Plus
Boss CS-3

Overdrive

Although country music is generally clean, slight distortion can add an interesting effect to your sound. This is especially true if you want a more modern sound. If you want to dirty your sound a bit, consider adding an overdrive stompbox to your arsenal.

Best Overdrive Pedals for Country

Reverb

A healthy dose of reverb adds a lot to country playin’ as it offsets the single-coil clean sounds. This effect is a great way to expand your tonal capabilities with an echo effect. If you think your sound is lacking something, it is probably the lack of reverb.

Best Reverb Pedals for Country

Delay

Every country guitarist has a preference for a different delay pedal. However, it seems like there’s at least one analog delay in every country player’s chain. Whether you want a short slapback for chicken pickin’ or longer tails for leads, there’s an analog delay pedal out there for you.

Best Delay Pedals for Country

Get Your Country On

Although this list is by no means extensive, you now should have knowledge of the essential guitar effects for playing country. No matter your style, there are guitar pedals out there suited for you. Want to browse more options? Check out our extensive range of guitar pedals.

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Posted on June 30, 2022May 10, 2022 by Jasbir Kumar

How To Get Acoustic Sounds From Your Electric Guitar

We all have those songs that just need an acoustic touch. However, if you’re an electric guitar player, buying an acoustic axe just to achieve this tone is probably not a feasible option. Luckily, there are ways you can achieve an acoustic effect from your current guitar. Let’s go over how you can get acoustic sounds from your electric guitar using pedals.

Guitar Pedals That Will Give You An Acoustic Sound

1. Boss AC-3 Acoustic Simulator Guitar Effects Pedal

The BOSS AC-3 is a fan favourite for its immaculate acoustic emulation. With five controls, including Level, Reverb, Body, Top, and Mode, you can fine-tune your acoustic sound to fit your guitar and pickups. You also get four onboard modes, including Standard, Jumbo, Enhance, and Piezo. Many masters of this pedal use it in conjunction with other EQs and tone components like Treble Boosters or Fuzz Faces. To bring your electric guitar tone into the woody acoustic territory, plug into the Boss AC-3!

2. Boss GP-10GK Guitar Effects Processor Multi-Effects Pedal

The BOSS GP10-GK lets your axe harness the power of various guitar, bass, and synth tones, including acoustic guitar effects! You can also easily edit the MIDI guitar on your computer to remove any imperfections to a greater degree than recorded sounds. Get creative with the exciting potential of the BOSS GP-10GK multi-effects processor!

3. HOTONE OMP-5 OMNI Acoustic Simulator Guitar Effects Pedal

The HOTONE OMP-5 Omni acoustic simulator pedal looks simple but is incredibly versatile. The device itself has three controls – Master Volume, Function, and Ground Lift – and comes loaded with fifteen presets. You can further fine-tune your sound with the Omni Edit app, which includes a 4-band EQ and gain. Craft your acoustic tone with the HOTONE OMP-5!

As you can see, there are several ways you can get an acoustic tone from your electric guitar. Although it may take some crafting and experimentation, you’ll be able to dive into acoustic territory without buying another guitar!

If you would like to look at more guitar effects pedals, check out our extensive range:

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Posted on June 16, 2022May 10, 2022 by Jasbir Kumar

How To Get A Great Guitar Amp Sound

As a guitarist, nothing is more frustrating than trying to nail a specific tone, but your amp won’t deliver the sound you need. Someone may have told you that your existing amp isn’t suitable for your playing style. However, before you run out and buy a new amp, you should make some adjustments to your current one to see if it helps. Let’s go over how to get a great guitar amp sound.

How To Make Your Guitar Amp Sound Great

1. Decrease your gain

One of the most common reasons your amp tone may sound poor is because you have the gain cranked way too high. Even if your playing style fancies high gain distortion, dialling the gain back will improve your overall tone. Too much gain oversaturates your sound and damages its clarity. Try backing your gain off and see how it impacts your amp tone.

2. Boost your mids

You may be familiar with the term “scooped sound.” This refers to a low mid setting and a high treble and bass setting and was popular with metal and rock players in the ’80s. However, while it may sound fine on its own, you’ll immediately notice that your tone gets drowned out when you play along with a band or backing track. To remedy this, try increasing your mids and find the sweet spot where your playing stands out without getting muddled.

3. Adjustment the placement

Where you put your guitar amps matters and impacts your sound drastically. Generally, you’ll want to put it on a stand or at least a few inches off the ground. You’ll also want to keep it away from other sound equipment like microphones since they can increase the amount of feedback you receive.

4. Select the right pickup

If you’re a beginner electric guitarist, you may not be completely familiar with your pickups. However, knowing which pickup to use in different situations can make or break your tone. Most guitars have three settings: one for using bridge pickup in isolation, one for using neck pickup in isolation, and one that uses both neck and bridge pickups together. Generally, you’ll want to use bridge pickup for lead guitar and neck pickup for rhythm guitar.

There are also different types of pickups. Single-coil and humbucker are the main two, and both produce pretty different tones. Single-coil can be found on Fender Stratocasters, while humbuckers are found on Gibson Les Paul. Experiment with the different pickup selectors to find the style you want.

5. Use pedals

No matter your amp, it has its limitations. One of the biggest limitations that come with guitar amps is the number of built-in controls. Thankfully, you can add guitar effects pedals to give you more customization options over your tone. There are many guitar effects out there, so it’s just a matter of researching pedals for your desired tone.

We have written a guide on the types of guitar pedals you may be interested in checking out here: What are the different types of guitar pedals?

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Achieve Great Guitar Amp Sound

As you can see, you have a lot of options to try before you go out and buy a new guitar amp. However, if you’re set on buying a new amp, we have a large variety of guitar amps and guitar combo amps for you to check out.

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Posted on May 24, 2022May 10, 2022 by Jasbir Kumar

TC Electronic’s Flashback Delay Pedals Compared

TC Electronic produces numerous pedals beloved by guitarists, one notable series being the Flashback delay pedals. If you’d like to get your hands on one of the Flashback pedals but don’t know which one suits your needs, this guide is for you. Let’s go over each and discuss the differences between TC Electronic’s Flashback delay pedals.

Flashback Mini Delay

The smallest and simplest delay pedal in this series is the TC Electronic Flashback Mini. It features a simple three-knob layout with Delay, Feedback, and FX Level controls. However, where this pedal really shines compared to other delay pedals is the TonePrint feature. With TonePrint, you can upload different delay pedals directly to the Flashback Mini.

Does the Flashback Mini Delay suit me?

If you want a simple, compact, yet powerful delay pedal, you may want to consider the Flashback Mini. It packs a lot of punch into a tiny package, making it perfect for those who occasionally use delay. Even then, you’re not limited to one type of delay, thanks to TonePrint, which gives you access to a range of delay effects.

However, if you like switching between different delays, you’ll probably want to pick up a different pedal. The Flashback Mini doesn’t offer as great flexibility as the others in this lineup do.

Flashback Delay

The Flashback Delay is the most popular in its family thanks to its size and capabilities. It features four control knobs, including Delay, Feedback, FX Level, and various preloaded delay types. And, of course, it comes with TonePrint installed so that you can import other delay effects.

Does the Flashback Delay suit me?

If you just wanted a bit more flexibility than the Flashback Mini offered, the Flashback Delay might be for you. This pedal is perfect for guitarists who switch between delay types on occasion, but if you want to change through presets quickly, you may want to consider one of the larger delay pedals.

Flashback X4 Delay

At a glance, you know that the Flashback X4 delay pedal is quite different from the previous pedals. It features four footswitches instead of one and knobs for Delay Type, Delay Time, Feedback, Delay Level, and Looper Level.

Does the Flashback X4 Delay suit me?

The Flashback X4 Delay is suitable for live performers who need to switch between different delay times quickly. You can instantly change between other delay presets using a looper or the tap tempo feature with your feet. However, if you already have a looper or your delay needs are simple, the Flashback X4 may be excessive.

Flashback Triple Delay

The Flashback Triple Delay allows you to play up to three different delays at the same time. So, unlike the previous pedals, the Triple Delay’s main appeal is the ability to layer delays on top of each other. You have the option to store the presets independently and turn them off and on while keeping them in sync with the tap tempo footswitch.

Does the Flashback Triple Delay suit me?

If you like the idea of stacking layers of delays and experimenting with the effects, the Flashback Triple Delay could be for you. However, if layering delays isn’t appealing to you, you have little reason to choose the Flashback Triple Delay over any previous pedals. It’s also worth noting that this pedal does not have a looper function, unlike the X4, so you would need a separate pedal if you wanted it.

The Delay Pedal For Your Needs

By now, hopefully, you have a better understanding of the differences between the pedals in the TC Electronic Flashback series. If you would like to browse more guitar effects pedals, check out our extensive line of effects.

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