Guitar Tricks presents Top Ten Iconic Guitar Pedal Effects Moments

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Top Ten Iconic Guitar Pedal Effects Moments

By Shawn Leonhardt for Guitar Tricks and 30 Day Singer, the original platform for online guitar lessons.

There are so many guitar pedal moments to choose in songs, especially in hits starting in the 1980’s. Once pedals increased in popularity they became mixed in ways that were hard to discern chain order and exact effects used! However there are a few songs that are obvious, even if they aren’t easy guitar songs to play. Here are 10 iconic guitar pedal moments that show off a specific effect!

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction
Keith Richards is normally not a big pedal and effects user; from his own mouth he prefers the tone straight from the amp. But luckily he had no problem with using an early fuzz box called the Maestro in 1965. This is one of the first prominent uses of a new distortion guitarists were calling fuzz, a fitting name. This is one of the songs that helped boost The Rolling Stones to greater fame , and that gritty tone is partially why!

You can achieve the sound now with most any fuzz pedal, it is usually best to use it at the start of the chain, so other pedals like reverb do not change the grit. You will want your loudness turned up, but keep any crunch and sustain down lower. This is mid 60’s distortion so we want more overdrive than depth. This is also a perfect song when learning how to play guitar.

Eruption
This Van Halen classic is a standard for most guitar players, especially those who want to learn tapping! It is also a great example of a phaser pedal, particularly the MXR Phase 90, which became a cornerstone of their sound. Here the rate was kept low so the actual phasing effect isn’t overpowering, but enough to make the solo really stand out. Any modern phaser pedal can be used, just keep the settings of the signal differences lower while the overall effects can be turned up.

Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Jimi Hendrix introduced many pedals to the public and was a prominent fuzz box and Uni-Vibe user which helped give a chorus and vibrato aspect to his sound. But his hit “Voodoo Child” starts out with a wah pedal and that provides that dirt and grit as it waves back and forth. There are no settings for wah pedals, it is all about playing with the groove, here Jimi mostly presses his foot down to accentuate the backbeat.

If you want a song that has more wah pedal use you need to get a little funkier with later hits, like the theme to Shaft. This and other l1970’s funk songs make heavier use of the wah by pressing on it a lot more with the beat of the music. A wah pedal is a great way to practice your syncopation and rhythm skills!

Wish You Were Here
This song has great examples of phaser effects, boost, and of course the fuzz box the Big Muff. We could mention Pink Floyd songs for a variety of reasons here, but in this case it is for the compressor. David Gilmour used various compressors, in this era a MXR Dyna Comp with low output and high sensitivity. The compressor is what takes all the other grit of the song and cleans it up in the final memorable tone. If you want a rock song to have a heavy but refined tone, the compressor is essential!

Pride (In the Name of Love)
You could pick almost any U2 song as a delay pedal example, as that is what their tone is mostly built around. Many bands use the delay for effects, but U2 uses it to create their shimmering and rhythmic pop vibe. U2’s guitarist The Edge often keeps his delay pedals on dotted 1/8th notes and a higher time delay, but there is more to achieving the sound besides the settings of your delay.

The Edge plays in simple power chord intervals and melodic riffs made up of the 1st, 5th, and octave intervals. This simpler playing style is essential with longer delays, otherwise the sound will get muddy and lose that clean pop feel. His delay pedal is more an extension of the guitar rather than an effect.

Come As You Are
While the chorus pedal had been around for a while this Nirvana song is one that stands out as iconic because the effect is so pronounced. The popular music video starts with watery imagery as that is the vibe brought on by such a heavy chorus effect. To get a similar effect, the chorus speed or rate usually needs to be turned up at least halfway or more. In most songs it may often be used in a lighter way but here we want it to have a more obvious signal change.

Killing in the Name
This Rage Against the Machine song is a great example of whammy pedal use by Tom Morello. He has his pedal set to cover two octaves when pressing up and down when his solo time hits around the 4-minute mark. The whammy pedal is like the wah in that it also isn’t just about the settings, you must play it at the right time of the beat. Besides providing major tone shifts, it also contributes to the rhythm!

Crazy Train
Guitar distortion began in the early days of blues rock and surf guitarists poking holes and damaging their amps! Eventually pedals began to copy this in various ways, one with dirty fuzz and the other way a cleaner distortion. Early hard rock and heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath and Randy Rhoads would use an MXR distortion pedal to achieve a loud and heavy tone.

For this song the distortion was set about mid-way but the output all the way up, and remember the heavy sound also comes from simpler guitar chords and bass riffs, like delay if we play too much into a lot of distortion the overall sounds will not be pleasant.

Barracuda
This hard rocking riff by Heart is a great example of the flanger pedal effect. This effect used to be created by pressing down on reel-to-reel tapes to force the signal to warp, giving it a spaced-out vibe. In this case we don’t want too much flange, just enough to give the guitar some drive. To recreate the sound it is best to set your dials at noon and start adjusting so the effect is not overly warping but enough to be noticed.

Seven Nation Army
There are many examples of pitch shifting pedals in music, but this one was great at tricking the listener. The guitar to this song sounds so thick and bass like but it’s really an archtop guitar from the 1960’s! Jack White used a Digitech Whammy pitch shifter set an octave down to give the guitar its unique deep tone and provide such a massive sound with only a guitar and drums!

Of course there are many more great examples of iconic guitar pedal moments, these days effects are ever present in live shows and recorded songs. The more you listen to electric guitar centered music the more you will start to hear these effects on your own. Mess around with a pedal and play through a guitar chord chart, you’ll see different chords and intervals will sound different through an effect. And the best way to approximate any settings is play the song and listen while you dial in the right tone, always use your ears!

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