For quite some time, among a certain crowd at least, the current thang has been playing straight in: going from guitar straight to tube amp, with nothing more than a good cable in between. Everything else you add to the chain, apparently, just further emasculates you. Pedals? That’s cheating—especially when they’re of the overdrive variety and used to achieve your lead sound. The real man (or manly-toned woman) cranks up the amp and uses the guitar’s volume to achieve clean to crunch to all-out lead, and that’s that. Anything more is just, well, less; it’s a crutch, and you’re not a “real player” if you indulge it.

The music your electric guitar makes has as much to do with the equipment you use as the way you play. Oftentimes, rock 'n' roll is musically simplistic but technologically complex. By combining multiple effects pedals, a rock guitarist can make even simple, conventional songs sound powerful and unique.