Effect Pedal

Hello Effect Pedal listener, this is your host Wright Seneres. Thanks so much for your kind words and support for this podcast. If you’re an Apple Podcasts user and enjoy the show, please leave a 5-star rating, or even a review. Ratings and reviews go a long way in helping new people find and enjoy Effect Pedal too. You hear this from a lot of podcasts, but it’s really true. And if you’re not an Apple Podcasts user, you’re still just as awesome. You can tell your friends about Effect Pedal with the share button in your podcast app. So thanks again. And now, on with the show.

“Black guys playing heavy metal” was how Living Colour was first described to me in 1988. Until that point, I had only seen white people playing heavy metal. “Black guys playing heavy metal? Really?” I had to find out what this was all about. So I turned on MTV, and there they were. The video to their big single “Cult of Personality” got a lot of airplay around then. If you’ve ever seen the cover to their debut album Vivid, which leads off with “Cult of Personality”, then you’ve seen the image of bright red beams of light exploding out of a person’s head.   

("Cult of Personality" intro riff)

Videos of young people reacting to old people’s music were all the rage in 2020. If there was a reaction video of me in 1988, a 13-year old kid that loved music but had a lot to learn, listening to that Vivid album for the first time, you would have seen red beams of light exploding out of my head. That was by design. That description of Living Colour – Black guys playing heavy metal – is not really accurate, and missing the point. What I heard that exploded my head was their singular combination of metal, rock, soul, R&B, jazz, punk, and hip hop. And it was heavy, courtesy of a classic distortion pedal, the ProCo RAT.    

My name is Wright Seneres and this is Effect Pedal. This is a podcast and art project dedicated to guitar effect pedals. In the universe, there are countless numbers of these pedals, creating an infinite number of sounds, and opening up worlds of possibilities for guitar players.  

Of all of the guitarists I’ve talked about during this podcast, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid is the one who really showed me what those worlds of possibilities were for guitar players. A mad scientist’s mad scientist, constantly experimenting with guitar tones, textures, gadgets, and pedals. A never-ending quest for new sounds, new colors to use on his palette. Premier Guitar has two Rig Rundown videos on YouTube of the extensive gear of Vernon Reid. These videos, they’re like textbooks for me. I learned from him that the envelope exists to be pushed, in guitar playing, in guitar sounds, in music, and in life.  

Part of what also exploded my head with that first album was their socially conscious lyrics. I had heard some of this from white punk bands, but Living Colour was on another level. Subject matter ranging from cults of personality, urban gentrification, inequality in America, superficiality, materialism, racism and more – this was heady stuff for a 13-year old with a lot to learn, but I got an education with that Vivid album. 

The education has continued for nearly 30-plus years, as Living Colour is still as powerful, socially-conscious and sonically interesting as ever. It’s some of the best kind of lifelong learning. Unfortunately, their music is still relevant because social conditions have not changed enough for the better for Black people and other people of color. Pardon my French, but plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same. So the work continues.   

After the break, from a basement in Kalamazoo to all around the world. 

For t-shirts or art prints featuring the pedals of Season 1, visit the Effect Pedal website:

Hello Effect Pedal listener, this is Wright. Thanks so much for the kind words and support for this podcast. If you’re an Apple Podcasts user and enjoy the show, please leave a 5-star rating, or even a review. Ratings and reviews go a long way in helping new people find and enjoy Effect Pedal too. You hear this from a lot of podcasts, but it’s really true. And if you’re not an Apple Podcasts user, you’re just as awesome. You can still tell a friend about Effect Pedal with your podcast app’s share button. So thanks again. And now, on with the show.

(Transition sound)

Most guitar players will tell you, if you want to get better, then you have to get with other musicians and play. Often, that turns into starting a band, or at least joining one. As the 2000s were getting underway, in the basement of my good friend Tony’s condominium, he and I started a band. We had jammed together once in his college apartment a few years prior, during our senior year, and we always talked about doing more of it. Perhaps we were having a quarter-life crisis, but we finally decided to get serious and play. (Well, somewhat serious, as we were always a couple of goofs.) Tony on drums, me on guitar, our friends Diego on lead guitar and Okem on bass, and we were officially a band.  

While we were deciding on a name, I decided that I wanted to upgrade my guitar rig. At the time, I owned a wah pedal (see Episode 3 for more on that), a Boss distortion pedal (Episode 1), and a Korg ToneWorks AX100G multi-effect pedal. The ToneWorks is a fun little unit but I wanted something more. Then I got an idea - what if I combined all three of those? Like Voltron! Enter the Boss GT-3 Guitar Effects Processor.

(Theme song sound)

My name is Wright Seneres and this is Effect Pedal. This is a podcast and art project dedicated to guitar effect pedals. In the universe, there are countless numbers of these pedals, creating an infinite number of sounds, and opening up worlds of possibilities for guitar players.  

The GT-3 combines 32 Boss effects, including 12 distortions and overdrives, as well as choruses and flangers, into one unit with dozens and dozens of presets. Notably, it includes something Boss’s parent company Roland calls a “Composite Object Sound Modeling” preamp, which emulates a number of famous guitar amplifiers in history. It also has a great variety of simulations of different pickups, speaker cabinets and guitar synthesizers. It was first released in 1998 as a low-cost alternative to the GT-5, and has since been discontinued and replaced by the GT-6 and other GT models. Like other Boss stompboxes, it’s constructed with a rugged metal case that would do well at a monster truck rally if it had wheels.

(Monster truck sounds)

It could win a demolition derby if you could drive it.

(Demolition derby sounds)

It’s as solid now as the day I got it.   

I got my GT-3 one evening after a tuna fishing trip Tony and his wife Laura took me on. I didn’t catch anything on the tuna boat, but I reeled in this beast of a multi-effect pedal on eBay. It’s a pleasing deep blue color with yellow Cheez Whiz color letters. It has seven foot switches, an expression pedal, a scroll wheel, an LED display, and twenty buttons. Twenty buttons! The seller lived a few miles from me, so I picked it up in person and raced home to plug it in. It was like that movie Pleasantville, when the picture goes from black and white to color. 

(Harp sound)

The ever-large palette of sounds that the GT-3 provided was just what I needed as our little band was beginning, which we called the Modes. I could do more things at once with the GT-3, customizing the footswitches for individual parts of songs. One of the songs we covered in that band was “Lucky” by Radiohead, and with the GT-3, I could get a nice delay effect for the intro, which is actually played where the strings...

Hello Effect Pedal listener, this is Wright. Thank you to all you awesome listeners and subscribers. If you enjoy the show, please leave a 5-star rating, or even a review, in your favorite podcast app. Ratings and reviews go a long way in helping new people find and enjoy Effect Pedal too. I’m sure you hear that from all the podcasts, but it’s really true. So thanks again for your support. And now, on with the show.

(Harp sound)

Many people have a band that they got into “before everyone else” did. But does it count if you first heard about them on MTV? Does being on a national, even international, platform like MTV disqualify them from being undiscovered? Probably. But in this case it was the so-called alternative rock show 120 Minutes, which was on relatively late at night in the 90s, so besides me, not that many people were watching. But those that were watching in the spring of 1991, like me, saw a really trippy video by a band called The Smashing Pumpkins. 

("Siva" guitar intro sound)

That video was for a song called “Siva” from their first full-length album Gish. It was a gritty, noisy-in-a-good-way, and in my opinion, underappreciated record. Besides the “psychedelic bordering on creepy” imagery in the video, what really grabbed my attention was the distortion-heavy twin guitar attack. It checked a lot of boxes for me: the riffs and solos were interesting, there were dynamic shifts from loud to quiet and back again, and the distortion itself had a really great fuzz sound.  

("Siva" guitar solo sound)

Fast forward to the summer of 1993, right after I had graduated from high school. The Pumpkins had moved on to a major label and put out their second album, a virtually flawless one called Siamese Dream. There was more polish to this album. The grit of Gish was left behind. Siamese Dream exploded. Everyone knew The Smashing Pumpkins then. Now everyone heard what I heard, that killer twin guitar attack, but still with that great fuzz distortion. That fuzz was courtesy of an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi effect pedal.  

(Sound of theme song)

My name is Wright Seneres and this is Effect Pedal. This is a podcast and art project dedicated to guitar effect pedals. In the universe, there are countless numbers of these pedals, creating an infinite number of sounds, and opening up worlds of possibilities for guitar players.  

In the early days of rock and roll, using cheap or damaged amplifiers and speakers with the volume cranked up created this noisy, distorted sound, with the peaks and valleys of the signal waves getting clipped off. Link Wray is famous for punching holes in his amplifier speakers with a pencil to get that sound. With an effect pedal, we can achieve that sound with electronics, and without resorting to damaged equipment. With a Big Muff, you can get that fuzz distortion sound without damaging your equipment. 

The Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi guitar pedal that I own is from around 2008, known as the Re-Issue New York City version even though it’s not actually a reissued product. And not to be confused with actual reissues from 2019, the Op-Amp Reissue or the Nano Big Muff Pi. The Big Muff dates back to the late 60’s, when legend says Jimi Hendrix bought one of the first ones at the famous Manny’s Music Store in New York City. It was in the arsenals of a lot of your favorite guitarists from the 70’s and mine, like David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Carlos Santana, and Ace Frehley from KISS. John Lennon too. And more than just the Smashing Pumpkins in the 90s and beyond, like Dinosaur Jr., the Black Keys, and the White Stripes.  But my favorite Big Muff story is that Tony Peluso, the lead guitarist in the Carpenters, used a Big Muff for the absolutely fuzzed-out solos in “Goodbye to Love”. When you absolutely, positively need to fuzz out, don’t take it from me, take...

Hello Effect Pedal listener, this is Wright. I am truly grateful for all the love that you awesome listeners have shown this podcast so far. If you enjoy the show, please leave a 5-star rating, or even a review, in your favorite podcast app. Ratings and reviews go a long way in helping new people find and enjoy Effect Pedal too. You hear this from a lot of podcasts, but it’s really true. So thanks again. Now on with the show.

(Harp sound)

Senior year of high school, I bought a Jimi Hendrix greatest hits CD, and like probably everyone after their first time listening to Jimi Hendrix, my little mind was blown. Around the same time, I got my first guitar – in my case, a Starfield Altair SJ Classic II – and like probably everyone after getting their first guitar, I started trying to learn Hendrix songs. And like probably everyone after getting their first guitar, I started buying effect pedals. My first one was inspired by Jimi Hendrix and that CD: I bought a wah-wah pedal. 

(Wah pedal sound)

(Start theme music)

My name is Wright Seneres and this is Effect Pedal. (Switch sound) This is a podcast and art project dedicated to guitar effect pedals. In the universe, (space sounds) there are countless numbers of these pedals, creating an infinite number of sounds. I’m going to focus on some historically important ones for this project.

For the uninitiated, an effect pedal is usually a small box, with some electronics that modify the sound of a musical instrument like an electric guitar. But beyond all that, effect pedals open up worlds of possibilities for guitar players. 

(End theme music)

The first modern wah pedal was built in 1966, but the idea surfaced years earlier. Country music legend Chet Atkins was said to have used a similar device in the 1950s that he designed himself. The concept itself was not new even then. Brass players moving a mute in and out of the bell of a trumpet or trombone to create a crying wah sound is known back to the 1920s at least. 

(Sad trombone sound)

Most accounts credit the Thomas Organ Company with building the first wah pedal as we know it, and it was an accident. Electronics engineers there trying to build a cheaper version of the Vox Super Beatle amplifier ("A Hard Day's Night chord sound) stumbled on the wah sounds during testing. Soon the effect was combined with an organ’s expression pedal, and guitarists like Eric Clapton and Frank Zappa added them to their arsenal. It was Zappa that turned Jimi Hendrix on to the wah pedal. 

(Wah pedal sounds)

The wah pedal also found its way into funk music, creating the wacka-wacka sound heard all over the 1970s, in numerous funk records and film soundtracks. That bow chicka wow wow thing? 

(Funk wah sounds)

You know what it is. See, what it is...is the sound of a wah pedal.

The physics of guitar tone are the same no matter what equipment you have. Take an electric guitar. You make metal strings vibrate (plucked strings sound), these vibrations are transformed into electrical signals (electric sounds), and these signals are turned into sound vibrations by an amplifier (plucked strings amplified sound). That’s a one-sentence summary of the physics of it. But the great guitar players? What they do is less a process of physics, and more a process of alchemy. Jimi Hendrix was the greatest of alchemists: he made the greatest gold from metal and wood.

(Bubbling, explosion, crackling sounds)

A critical part of his alchemy was the wah-wah pedal. He used a number of Vox wah pedals, which you can hear in action on many of his classic songs. Listen to the intro to “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” and you will really notice the effect. 

(Voodoo Child intro)

Think of a wah pedal like a gas pedal: Step down on it all the way, it becomes a high-pass filter, which allows treble or high frequencies to pass through and filters...

My name is Wright Seneres and this is Effect Pedal, a podcast that is part memoir and completely a celebration of guitar effect pedals. 

Trusty stompboxes that adorn the floor, in front of millions of guitar players, whether in a bedroom full of big dreams, or on a stage in front of big crowds, and everywhere in between. In the universe, there are countless numbers of these pedals, creating an infinite number of sounds. I’m going to focus on a number of historically important ones for this project. 

Effect pedals open up worlds of possibilities for guitar players. Join me on this journey through space and time, starting with the first episode on December 15th. Take the next step, and subscribe with your favorite podcast player. 

This is also an art project. Each episode will be accompanied by an illustration of the episode’s featured pedal by me, available on a t-shirt and on an art print. The first one is already for sale at EffectPedalProject.com. 

Check us out on social media @EffectPedal - where we ask: “What’s your effect?” 

This podcast and art project is a MeteorWright production. Thank you for listening.