Guitar Effects is anything that effects the tone of your guitar. An Amplifier is really a guitar effect because it effects the tone of your guitar, it gets louder. Effects are not only used with guitars but can be used with keyboards, violins, bass, etc.

While effects pedals are most frequently used with electric or electronic instruments, effects can also be used with acoustic instruments and drums. Some effects that are common include wah-wah pedals, distortion pedals, tremolo pedals, delay pedals, re-verb, fuzz, flanger, and chorus pedals. Effects come in several formats, the most common of which are the "stompbox". You may see this word all over the effects pedals sites. "Stompbox" simply means pedal. It is placed on the floor in front of the musician and connected to the instrument. It is controlled by one or more foot-pedal on-off switches and contains only one or two effects.

An "Effects Chain" can be formed by connecting two or more stomp boxes. "Effect chains are usually created between a preamplifier (preamp) and the guitar amplifier."(1) Effects chains are extremely beneficial during a performance to keep your music flowing. Effects within a chain can be combined in a variety of ways without having to redirect boxes during a performance.

Accessories that you may need with effects pedals are a universal power supply, AC adapters, pedal effects coupler, foot switch, volume pedal, pedal board, and cases.

Guitar Effects have been present for many years and have been the sound that we have all grown up to love over the years. Amplifier builder, Ray Butts, created a loop-based echo system using recording wire and tape. By the 1950's, his EchoSonic amp was very popular for the slapback echo sound it produced. It was the choice of many of the Rock' n' Roll pioneers such as Elvis and his main guitarist Scotty Moore. Also, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash and his guitarist Luther Perkins, and Roy Orbison. Decades later, Many other popular guitarists became known to use guitar pedals to create their signature sound. Some include Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Buddy Guy, Jerry Cantrell, Kirk Hammett, all used the wah effects pedals. Jimi Hendrix made history with the Octavio effect pedal. Eddie Van Halen used phase pedal effects and flanger effects.

The music we listen to has been drastically changed over the past few decades by guitar effects pedals. All for the better! No matter which effect you may want to use, you can be sure that guitar effects pedals will take your music to another level.

1). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_unit