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Let's Get Weird: Your Guide to Crazy Effects Pedals

Let's make some noise.

Effects pedals can be a lot of fun to play with, especially if you're trying to get outside of your comfort zone as a player—and while some people like to add a subtle dash of chorus to their sound, others like to use them to get dizzying sonic flavors that are literally impossible to create any other way. In that spirit we've profiled a handful of pedals that will allow you to get ultra weird regardless of your skill level. Just don't tell your bandmates you heard about these stompboxes from us.

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The DigiTech Whammy Pedal

If you've been struggling to figure out how Tom Morello makes his guitar sound like a possessed robot during songs like "Killing In The Name," his not-so-secret weapon has always been the DigiTech Whammy Pedal. There have been many incantations of this pedal over the past two decades but essentially it's an octave pedal mixed with a pitch bender that's allowed everyone from Dimebag Darrell to Kevin Shields to coax inhuman sounds out of their axe. That said, use this thing sparingly as subtlety is one thing it isn't known for.

Z.VEX Machine

Zachary Vex is responsible for some of the craziest looking and sounding pedals on the market and Machine isn't one to mess around with. The summary on the company's official site explains, "One thing to keep in mind, however, is that this pedal basically sounds horrible. Its primary purpose is to cut through. But like a wild man with a machete, it is not nice." We can't argue with this statement but we will say it's an incredibly fun to mess around with, especially in conjunction with other effects. It will also likely terrify anyone around you, so we recommend waiting until you're home alone to start experimenting with it.

Electro-Harmonix Bassballs

The Electro-Harmonix Bassballs features two narrow filters and while it's traditionally made for bass, you can get some incredibly unique sounding tones out of it on a six-string guitar as well. Specifically, you can control the amount of frequency sweep via the response knob and it also features a distortion switch in order to make things a little more dirtier and off the wall. The harder you attack the strings the more of a dramatic effect you'll see from this thing, so feel free to go nuts and channel your own inner Zappa. Plus like all EH pedals it's solidly constructed so it's not going to fall apart under the pressure of your Doc Martens.

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Death By Audio Octave Clang

Death By Audio make some of the coolest pedals around right out of Brooklyn and while you can't go wrong with any of their creations, we love the Octave Clang which combines octave, fuzz, ring modulation and drone sounds to take the traditional octave pedal to dizzyingly destroying levels. Play single notes and you'll be able to juxtapose them up the neck—but when you hit a full chord that's when you'll hear all of the various ringing strings co-mingle in an mind-blowing way that you can control via the shape knobs. Give us one of these, a bag of pot brownies, and a Les Paul and we'll be entertained until the apocalypse hits.

Xotic Efects Robotalk 2 Envelope Filter

This is essentially two envelope filters in one unit that you can switch between to create some insanely trippy tones. The cool part is that you can use each channel on its own or together—and the latter is where you can create some incredible sounds that transcend the typical wah effect that envelope filters can tend to have. As you may have guessed by the name, this thing can actually transform your guitar to sound like a talking robot and, seriously, doesn't everyone want to do that? Affirmative.

Pigtronix Mothership Analog Guitar Synthesizer

Sure, $500 is a lot to spent on an effects pedal but this analog synthesizer is so much more than the distortion pedal you're used to. As you can see there are a ton of options to manipulate your tone over eight full octaves meaning that you'll be able to hit multiple spectrums of human hearing over various levels. You can also control the shape and rate of the sound waves meaning that the only limitations of what you can achieve with this pedal exist in your own mind.

Jonah Bayer would like to turn you up to 11. Follow him on Twitter - @mynameisjonah