Back in the ’60s, it was so simple—guitar-cable-amp. If you were an electric guitarist, you plugged your axe of choice into your amp, and that was usually all you needed to achieve tonal nirvana. Then along comes Hendrix with his newfangled wah-wah pedal and a fuzz unit, and all of a sudden, guitarists everywhere needed those sounds!  Not only did they need those sounds, but they could not duplicate what this man did.  Along came the engineers and the brainiacs who created an artificial way to do what he did naturally.  Effects and effect pedals are a mainstay for guitar players.

Flangers, echo units, treble boosters, phases, effect loops  – and the pedal board craze continues.  Each of these approaches to adding effects to your tone has advantages and disadvantages. Are you a no-effects type of player, or a pedalboard kind of player? Maybe you like some pedals for your dirt, but would like your delay and reverb in the effects loop of your amp. Or maybe you would like to go the full on w/d/w route, for the ultimate in power and programmability.  A new breed on the block is the hiwatt from musicians friend. However you like your guitar to sound and behave is possible.  You can make it sound like rain, thunder and ice cream!