Guitar Effects

New York's Electro Harmonix (EHX) has taken three of its most popular stomps and merged them into one compact Epitome unit. A player can choose to operate the Micro POG, Stereo Electric Mistress and Holy Grail Plus independently, or blend them all together for some seriously powerful sonic madness. In addition to catering for even more tonal experimentation by mixing up the signal chain, the intriguing Shimmer button can also turn one of the four reverbs into a delay, generate an infinite drone or a wild swirling leslie-type sound.  Read More

There are an awful lot of guitar effects pedals that massage, tweak, clean, or otherwise enhance the signal from a guitar's pickups before it reaches the amplifier. The Anti-Effect from Poland's Chaosound turns its back on all that goodness and tries its best to destroy the sound instead.  Read More

Most guitarists will have tweaked each stompbox in a pedal board chain well before the gig starts, and will probably stick to the same bank of available tones for the whole performance. Those in the mood for sonic experimentation, however, might feel tempted to dive down mid-song for a remix using the control knobs on the front of the effects pedal. If you're smart (or quick), no-one will notice. If you had a FLEXeFX pedal or two, though, you wouldn't even have to take your gifted hands away from the guitar at all. You could change your sound on the fly using your foot.  Read More

Gizmag has been following the development of the Antares Auto-Tune for Guitar technology with great interest since it was first teased back in May 2011. In January 2012, it was launched in two guitars at the Winter NAMM show, but only one of those has actually made the leap into production. Peavey released its AT-200 as last year came to a close, and I've spent the last few weeks in the company of this game-changing guitar while also chatting with some of the folks involved in its development.  Read More

The company that's said to have put the "stomp" in stompbox has detailed three new guitar effects pedals, featuring a new technology called Multi-Dimensional Processing (MDP) developed by its parent company Roland. The TE-2 Tera Echo is a landmark pedal not only because of the new signal processing technology, but also by virtue of it being the one-hundredth BOSS Compact Series model to be released. The MO-2 Multi Overtone uses a guitar's harmonic characteristics to build unique rich sounds that enhance the normal tone. Roland says that the DA-2 Adaptive Distortion unit makes use of the MDP technology to deliver perfect distortion wherever you play on the neck.  Read More

IK Multimedia has revealed a successor to its undeniably popular iRig digital guitar/bass/instrument interface for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac. New to the iRig HD is a built-in high quality analog-to-digital converter that's promised to eliminate noise and crosstalk, while preserving all the subtle tonal flavors of your instrument.  Read More

While wireless technology has liberated many guitarists from the restrictions of a cord running to the amp, stomp box effects can still threaten to sully the stage with spaghetti madness. Ahead of the 2013 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, Diablo FX has launched what's claimed to be the first high fidelity wireless all-in-one effects pedal management system. In addition to making the working area a safer and tidier place for players to strut their axe-wielding stuff, the Sound Control 6 system allows players to turn multiple analog or digital effects on/off in one stomp.  Read More

Peavey's AT-200 electric guitar featuring Antares Auto-Tune pitch correction technology, which was launched in January 2012, has now been released.  Read More

Although I grew up surrounded by the big hair rock of Bon Jovi and the like, my first introduction to the Talk Box guitar effect was not Living on a Prayer but Joe Walsh's Rocky Mountain Way over a decade earlier, followed a little later by Peter Frampton's epic Do You Feel Like We Do. Although it continues to be used by a good many guitar gods to this day, the long tube that invariably runs up a microphone stand to the player's mouth does make it something of a special addition to a guitarist's effects arsenal rather than a regular feature. The Talking Pedal from Electro-Harmonix does away with the tube altogether in a rocking chassis expression pedal with no moving parts.  Read More