2/28/2012

Guitar Pedals Strengthen The Rock And Roll Sound

By Russell Strider


Rock and roll owes its soul to the electric guitar. Certainly, there are various other instruments that define the rock and roll sound however the basic foundation lies in the sound of the guitar. Movies such as "Wayne's World" and the popular film "Bill and Ted's Adventures" paid a rather irreverent homage to this music genre and lifestyle. Each of those films placed the guitar in the center of the movies. The unmistakable hot licks of Chuck Berry's Gibson 335 right up to Metallica's shredding wall of sound, the electric guitar has characterized them both.

The unsung heroes of the rock and roll community that provide every single band and guitarist a unique but unmistakable rock sound are definitely the guitar pedals. These particular devices generate the sounds that clearly define rock and roll. These technical wonders haven't just defined the guitar sound that is rock and roll but the musicians themselves. Pedals have also developed subcategories of rock and roll. These sonic wonder devices have often gone undetected even while at the same time defining the electric guitar.

The rockabilly sound was defined by overdriven amplifiers and heavy echo machines which brought Scotty Moore and Luther Perkins the revolutionary sound of the rock guitar. At present the songs and the sound endures through far more mobile devices of delay and echo found in stomp boxes small enough to put in your pocket. The earlier versions of echo machines were so big that a lot were kept outside the studio. Today the same sound put together in the genesis of rock music may be put inside of the compartment of a guitar case together with others as well as the guitar.

That specific overdriven sound was found in the earlier rockabilly manifestations of rock music. Tube screamer and overdrive pedals give modern solid state amps that exact same sound. That broken up sound grew into the archetype sound of rock music. The sixties and seventies experienced the morphing of this particular sound from fuzz to full blown distortion. Amazing Rock anthems of all sorts ended up being defined by these types of sounds and guitar pedals. "Smoke on the Water," Canned Heat's "Voodoo Child" and "Spirit in the Sky' all insert the crunch in rock music.

Jimi Herndrix helped turn the sonic world of rock music upside down. His use of these kinds of sonic manipulators located at his heel and toe redefined the electric guitar, the music, and the boundaries which were permissible to explore as a guitar player. The "wah" and fuzz took the rock guitar into brand new areas of expression and opened up the door to additional sonic possibilities.

Guitar players such as Jeff Beck, David Gilmour and Zack Wilde have brought the rock guitar to different places, yet all are thought of as rock. They've additionally created and employed guitar pedals that permitted them to create these exciting locales within the sanctum of rock music. The guitar is the lord of rock and its foot soldiers are the pedals making for a conquering ruler.




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