So, what does True Bypass mean?

True bypass is a feature of effects pedals that allows the signal passing through them to completely avoid, or bypass their circuity when not engaged.  This will make the pedal appear completely transparent when not in use.

The main thing that true bypass addresses is signal loss, which can affect your overall tone. You’re tone would sound different passing through a pedal’s circuitry than it would going straight to the amp.

Some guitarists actually appreciate the effects of a pedal that is not true bypass because it allows for some reduction in gain, additional noise and a minor tone modification.

There are three types of bypass in guitar pedals:

• Non-Bypass – This will result in the pedal sucking out a substantial bit of your tone and brightness.
• True Bypass – This will result in no tone loss because the design allows for the signal to avoid the pedal’s circuitry when not in use.
• Buffered Bypass – This bypass design closely follows that of a non-bypass, but solves the problems associated with it by placing a high output impedance buffer at the start and end of the pedal. This usually solves the problem because guitars commonly have a low impedance.

There are always debates about any kind of addition to your setup that affects your guitar’s tone, and true bypass is no different. Some will appreciate the tones that a non-bypass pedal produces over a true bypass, but in the end, its all dependent on your own musical preferences.

I hope that this has cleared up any confusion you may have concerning true bypass, and if you have any further questions, please leave them in the comment section below.

Browse for True Bypass pedals on EBay here:

If you are still powering your distortion pedals with an endless amount of 9 volt batteries, I think it is time you looked into using an AC Adapter instead. Using an AC Adapter has a number of advantages over using your basic battery.

• A battery will begin draining as soon as you start using it, and this can affect your pedal’s sound. An AC Adapter always functions at the same level and will improve the performance of your effects pedals by providing them with more operating power.
• Most distortion pedals will drain your battery if you leave your guitar cables plugged in. This means that you need to unplug your entire setup every time you are done playing. An AC Adapter allows you to leave your cables plugged in all the time, keeping your setup always ready to go.
• An AC Adapter will save you a ton of money in the long run. Most adapters run between $10-20 and this is a steal when you factor in the amount of money you drop on new batteries once or twice a month.

So if you aren’t convinced yet about the benefits of using an AC Adapter over batteries, imagine this scenario; Your band just scored its first big gig, and after hours of practice you’re finally on the stage with your trusty guitar slung around your neck. You go to hit that first room shaking power chord, and nothing comes out of your amp, your batteries in your distortion pedal have died! This could have all been avoided though by using an AC Adapter instead. Scary thought I know, but I can bet it happens all too often.

Shopping Tip: Nearly all distortion pedals use a 9 volt power supply, but if you are unsure, check the label on your pedal and it will have the voltage listed.

To help you in your search, we’ve listed some great AC Adapters on sale below that you can pick up for a great price.

Although we can’t all afford to buy the expensive cables a true audiophile might, that doesn’t mean we can’t get great tones out of a reasonably priced guitar cable.

A guitar cable, just like any piece of musical equipment, comes in a wide range of qualities spanning from superlative, to just plain awful. Even if your budget is a little bit tight, you definitely want to stay away from the low end cables as they won’t even be worth the little you pay for them. Here some things to look out for when determining the quality of a guitar cable.

• Low Microphonic Characteristics – This means that the cable should not easily produce audible noises from your amplifier when hit on the ground, or moved during playing. (A low quality cable will often times make a “thud” noise when hit off of the ground)
• Sturdy Plugs – I recommend purchasing a cable with coated ends, so that the persistent bending of the cable at the ends that occurs during playing does not affect your sound.
• Sturdy Look – This is one of those cases where you can judge a book by its cover. If it looks cheap, then it probably is cheap and you want to avoid it. Look for a quality coating on the wires, and sturdy end plugs.
• Quality Brand Name – A brand can only become well known for quality products in one way; Making quality products.
• Lack of Tone Loss – There should not be a noticeable loss in tone when using a cable that is a reasonable length of 20ft or less.

For most guitarists, I recommend avoiding the $100 dollar 12-foot guitar cables, and focusing your search in the $30-50 dollar range. This range has some great cables that will definitely do the job. The thing about the high end cables is that they can really affect your tone, and not in a positive way. These guitar cables do allow a lot more tone to come through, but there is such a thing as too much tone.

Often times guitarists are not used to hearing the highest of highs and the lowest of lows when playing, which can result in a sound that appears to be more harsh than one is used to. Purchasing such a cable could also result in having to re-adjust all of your amp settings and effects pedals to account for the additional tone. A small amount of signal loss that comes with a good quality guitar cable can actually be a good thing. This loss, or depletion of signal often adds a warmth to your sound.

In conclusion, it is important to get the cable that best suits your playing needs. Experiment with a few, and don’t stop until you find the perfect one.

Player Tip: If your high quality guitar cable is starting to lose some its sound, try cleaning the end plugs. Over time the plugs can develop a layer of tarnish that depletes your tone. I recommend using any standard contact cleaner for this.

Find guitar cables for sale in our online store

Nearly every distortion you hear today is an adaptation of a classic vintage distortion pedal.

Below is a list of a few pedals that have withstood the test of time, and have grown to be some of the most popular distortion stomp boxes in history.

Arbiter Fuzz Face Pedal

The Fuzz Face was designed in London by Arbiter Music, and utilized two transistors, four resistors and three capacitors. The design created a dynamically distorted “fuzz” guitar tone that can be heard in many recordings of late 1960′s and early 70s.

This pedal was initially debuted in 1966, and was made famous by a guitarist by the name of Jimi Hendrix.

Guitarists originally had to tear, or poke holes in their amplifiers to achieve the type of fuzz tones the Fuzz Face could produce.

The fuzz tone has become a staple in many rock bands today like The White Stripes and The Black Keys.

Here is a 1970s Vintage Fuzz Face Pedal

Check out this Vintage 1971 Arbiter Fuzz Face Pedal

Buy Fuzz Face Pedals here: Dunlop Distortion Pedal store pages

Colorsound Overdriver

This distortion pedal debuted in 1972, and really left its mark on the sound of rock music at the time. Jeff Beck used this pedal to achieve his class guitar tones and nuances. This pedal can also create some great Fuzz tones that are reminiscent of the playing styles of Hendrix.

Check out some cool pics of this true vintage distortion pedal:

Here is a  Vintage Colorsound Overdriver Pedal available for sale.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff

Although this pedal debuted in 1971, it can still be found on many stages today because of its impressive Fuzz tone, sustain and singing tube like sounds. It has truly withstood the test of time, and has become very popular among rock musicians looking for a heavy Fuzz tone from their guitars.

This pedal is currently in Jack White’s setup, and can be heard on many of their recent albums. It provides the thick, heavy guitar sound that defines the White Stripes.

Find the Big Muff for sale in our Electro-Harmonix Distortion Pedal Store.

Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer

This Overdrive pedal for the guitar was made famous in 1980 by by Eric Johnson. This is the definitive Overdrive pedal that many others simply cannot compete with. The Ibanez TS-808 delivers awesome warm sounding distortion that really helps to color your guitar’s sound nicely. It also has plenty of output power and adds a considerably strong upper-mid range boost.

There really is no better Overdrive pedal to use if you are looking to play classic rock, or blues.

1. Determine the type of Distortion Sound you are looking for

The first thing to decide upon is what type of distortion sound you would like to achieve. For example, if you plan on playing the Blues, you’d want to avoid a high gain, heavy metal pedal because it would not compliment the style well at all.

If you are new to whole concept of Distortion Pedal stylings, a great way to figure out what kind would suit you best is to listen to some of your favorite bands and pay close attention to their guitar sounds.

Distortion Pedals are broken down into 3 main flavors; Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz.

• Overdrive - An Overdrive pedal’s main purpose is to make it sound like you are playing through a quality, vintage tube amp. These pedals are a great fit for class rock tunes, and add a sense of warmth to your playing. This type of Distortion is not ideal for heavy rock, or metal playing though. Here is a review for the Boss SD-1 Overdrive pedal that contains additional information and a video demonstration.
• Distortion - These pedals make up the bulk of available distortion effects pedals, and can help you achieve blues, hard rock or heavy metal tones. This category, unlike Overdrive, is hard to define because there are so many different types of sounds that these pedals can create. They can range from a low gain, soft distortion to a high gain, screamer like the Boss MT-2 Metal Zone. Your best bet is to check around on YouTube.com and watch some demo videos to get an idea of what type of distortion you are going for.
• Fuzz - I decided to make Fuzz its own category because I think the sounds the pedals who fit this description make are so unique. Jimi Hendrix made the Fuzz tone legendary with the use of his Fuzz Face Distortion Pedal, and his influence is still being heard today. Fuzz tone is best described as a gritty, high gain distortion with a heavy low end.

3. Decide on a Quality Brand & Price Range

Once you have decided what kind of Distortion Pedal you are looking for, the fun part begins. Now you get to research and experiment with the possible selections that will become a part of your playing.

• Brand - I definitly reccomend not cutting corners and going with a cheap brand. You want to get the best distortion pedal possible for your money while not sacrificing quality. If you are unsure what the best brands are, read reviews and watch videos and you’ll soon figure it out. I personally really like BOSS and Electro-Harmonix Pedals.
• Price - Once you’ve selected the brand of pedal you would like purchase, check out the models they make that are in your price range and meet your sound requirements. Read reviews, watch videos and participate in forums to know exactly what to look for if you are feeling lost.

3. Purchase Your Distortion Pedal

There are a ton of great places to find great deals on distortion pedals, and below I’ve listed some of the best.

• Purchasing through Rock Distortion Pedals.com. Our store pages are teamed up with Ebay to provide you with some of the best deals on the Internet. We have a huge selection, and are always updating our pages with the latest sales.
• Musician’s Friend – Quality source for Pro Musicians Gear. Click on the link below to take advantage of a limited time coupon code for Musician’s Friend being offered through this site.

4. Start Rocking

Hopefully these tips will help you find an awesome distortion pedal.

Thanks for reading!

Remember, these pedals are actually altering the signal of your guitar, so when placed in a chain, an effects pedal could be processing a signal that has already been altered many times. This is what makes the order of them so vital to your sound.

1st Positions – Chromatic Tuner / EQ

I always recommend placing a chromatic tuner (if you have one) , first in your chain. This ensures that the pedal is getting the strongest signal possible, which will make accurate tuning much easier.

Now is a good time to also add your EQ pedal to your chain. This allows you to shape your sound before it starts to have effects applied.

2nd Position – Distortion/Overdrive/Fuzz

It is important to have your distortion pedals as the leaders of your chain because they are what your guitar tone is based on.

Placing these pedals first in your chain ensures that you are only distorting your true guitar sound.

When you start playing with multiple effects, this keeps the integrity of the more complex effects pedals like chorus and flange in tact. These pedals carefully alter your guitar’s signal, and distorting them could taken away from their tone.

3rd Position – Wah Pedal

There are some guitar players who prefer having their Wah Pedal in front of their distortion pedals (Jimi Hendrix), but I have found that I get the best results by placing it after them in the chain.

A Wah Pedal is basically an EQ that sweeps the high ends, and low ends of your sound, which will cause the signal going to the distortion pedal to be altered if it is placed before it.

Placing your Wah pedal after your distortion pedals will provide a nice linear sweep because you’ll have one steady signal coming into it.

4th Position – Delay

At this point in your effects pedal chain we have shaped the tone of your guitar, and added the foundations of distortion.

Placing a Delay pedal in this position will result in only the signal coming into it to be repeated, thus preserving the sound of the modulation effects that will come after it.

You do not want to add delay to effects like flange, and chorus.  If you were to place these before your Delay pedal, the effects they create would also be delayed. You want these to be consistent while the core sound of your guitar is being delayed.

Position 4 – Modulation

Modulation effects consist of flange, chorus, phase, envelope filters, etc. All of these add color, and depth to your sound.

As we noted earlier, it is important to keep these signals as true as possible on their way to your amplifier. Running a flanger effect before a distortion, or overdrive pedal would distort the flanger’s sound, and would harm the subtlety of the effect.

Position 5 – Volume Pedal

This position should be reserved for any pedal that is going to take away from the sound of your guitar, primarily a volume pedal.

You want to place your volume pedal in this position so that you can accurately decrease the effect volume for ALL your pedals.

If you were to place it in the middle of your chain, you would only lower the effect volume for all of the pedals that come before  it.

This is also an acceptable position for a Tremolo pedal.

Position 6 – Reverb

Reverb is an effect that usually occurs naturally. For this reason, you want to place this effect after all of your modulations, distortions and EQs have been applied so that the Reverb can shape your sound as realistically as possible.

So that is all there is to it. Those are the basics to effects pedal ordering and I hope they can help you organize your chain or pedal board so you can get the best sounds possible.

I do want to note though that the great thing about creating music is experimentation, and that there is no “set in stone” way to order your pedals.

The ordering I have provided for you is what I use, and it is what creates the best tones out of all the combinations I have tried.

If you have any questions, or would like to add your own opinions on effect pedal ordering, please leave a comment.

We recorded this video with a Logitech Quick Cam Pro Web Cam.

• Distortion/Overdrive

1. Boss MT-2 Metal Zone – Provides heavy distortion with high gain, and has extensive EQ controls that allow for advanced sound shaping.
2. Boss SD-1 Super Over Drive - This pedal produces a warm sounding tone similar to an over driven, vintage tube amp. It is great because it retains the nuances of your picking style even when playing on a high drive setting.
3. Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff – I use this effects pedal to achieve some great sounding vintage Fuzz tones. It offers great sustain, and a really powerful sound.

• Chorus

1. Boss CH-1 Super Chorus – This is a great chorus pedal. It has responsive controls that allow you to create a near limitless amount of chorus tones.

• Delay

1. Boss DD-3 Digital Delay – I love this pedal and use it quite often. It produces some awesome guitar delay and has several delay modes to select from.

• Flanger

1. Boss BF-2 Flanger – This purple colored pedal is great for getting some real intense flange effects.

Over the course of time, I’ve played and owned many different effects pedals, but these are the ones that have stood the test of time.

So, What are YOU using?!

The defining feature of the White Stripe’s is the member line up, consisting only of Jack White on guitar and Meg White providing the rhythm section on drums. This arrangement though comes with challenges when playing live, and that is why Jack White uses such a variety of pedals to reinforce the sonic presence of their live shows. Below I have highlighted some of the most important effects pedals that Jack White uses to achieve his signature sound.

The DigiTech Whammy IV – Jack uses this pedal to achieve rapid  pitch modulations during his solo playing.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Distortion – This pedals provides a very fuzz like distortion with almost endless sustain. This is Jack White’s primary distortion pedal, and I can speak from experience that this pedal is awesome. It is the one that I use and could not imagine playing without it.

MXR Micro-Amp – This effects pedal is used to boost your signal when playing. It is primarily used for Jack’s solo work, and can add a considerable amount of gain. It is great when some signal loss occurs because of long effects pedal chains.

Polyphonic Octave Generator (POG) – This pedal creates a polyphonic octave effect that Jack uses to thicken his sound. It’s effect is ultimately making a 6 string guitar, sound like a 12 string. The most noticeable use of this pedal is heard in the White Stripe’s song, “Blue Orchid”.

These pedals aren’t guaranteed to make you sound just like Jack White, but they are definitely enough to inspire your playing. Take the sounds they create and make them your own. After all, defining your own guitar playing style is what being a true musician is all about. Plug in and have fun!

The video below shows Jack White’s effects pedals in action. It is a great performance of the song, Blue Orchid.

A guitar effects pedal board is really an awesome piece of gear to add to your setup. It allows you to chain all of your effects pedals together so they can be easily transported, properly organized and always powered up. Before I had purchased mine, I was always in a battle to get my pedal chain set up when I played gigs, and had practices. It was a hassle, and I knew a pedal board was the perfect solution to my problem.

Effects Pedals are attached to the pedal board via a Velcro backing. This allows for quick addition/removal of pedals if servicing needs to happen, and it holds them firmly in place while playing. Pedals boards also come with a case that allows for easy transportation. The cases allow you to pick up your pedals and go, no wires to mess with, or tons of AC adapters to unplug. This brings me to my next point, and what I think is the best feature of an effects pedal board; They power your pedals so no extra batters or adapters are needed.

Effects Pedals usually have a built in power source that can power a various amount of 9 volt and 12 volt pedals. The pedals are connected to the power source via wire connections which keeps things organized and clutter free. This feature has practically payed for pedal board itself with the amount of money I have been saving on batteries. I was one of those guitarists who ALWAYS forgot to unplug the cables from his effect pedals after playing, which resulted in the battery being drained completely in a few hours.

Effects Pedal Ordering Tip: One thing I have noticed is that the order of the pedals in your effects chain does make a difference. Make sure that if you have a Tuner pedal you place it first in your chain. This will ensure that the pedal is getting the strongest signal for the most accurate tuning results.

If you’ve never considered using an effects pedal board before, now is the time to re-think your decision. They will make transporting and setting up your pedals a breeze, allowing you to get set up and rocking in no time at all. They can be found in a range of different prices, and model options,  so you’ll be sure to find the perfect addition to your effects pedal setup.

Shop for Effects Pedal Boards Here